For writers of
romance, diamonds, or at least a diamond engagement ring, tend to have a place
in their stories and in His Unexpected Muse my heroine inherits a whole cache of them. Carol Channing first sang the song ‘Diamonds Are a Girl’s
Best Friend,’ in the 1949 show ‘Gentlemen Prefer Blondes’ by Jule Styne and Leo
Robyn, but it was the iconic Marilyn Monroe who made the song so famous. So
what is the fascination with diamonds?
As with so many roots, we can go back to the Greeks and Romans for the early mention of diamonds. Greeks thought they were the tears of the gods or splintered stars, and the philosopher Plato considered they contained celestial spirits. As early as the first century AD, Roman literature mentions that diamonds tipped Cupid’s arrows. Romans believed them to be pieces of their gods, valuing them more than gold to protect them from any harm. It became common practice for soldiers to wear them in battle. Diamonds then were of the rough, uncut variety, and it was bad luck to cut one as that would counteract its protective qualities. With the decline of the Roman Empire, the magic and mythology of diamonds faded. Other cultures mention diamonds, but never to the extent of the Romans.
There is a common conception
that diamonds are formed from coal because they are both sourced from carbon. Intense
heat and immense pressure deep in the earth’s mantle about 1 billion to 3.5
billion years ago caused the formation of diamonds. The movement of tectonic
plates compressed buried organic material found in swamps and peat bogs, into coal. At 360 million to 290 million years old, a piece of coal is a
mere child compared to a diamond.
Cullinan Diamond, Wikipedia.com
While India was
the ancient source of diamonds, deposits today are located around the world in
North and South America, Australia and especially South Africa, home of the massive
Cullinan diamond found there in 1905, all 3,106 carats of it. When cut, parts
of it were incorporated into the British Crown Jewels, which are housed in the
Tower of London.
There are many
famous diamonds, including the Kohinoor or Mountain of Light, the largest
diamond ever found in India. The Orloff, the Hope Diamond, the Taylor-Burton, the
Esperanza Diamond are just a few of the world’s famous diamonds. They come in a
range of colours from green, blue, yellow and pink, with red being the rarest
and most expensive and still found only in India.
Diamonds did not
regain their popularity until the Renaissance when Ludwig von Berquen, a Dutch
lapidary, invented the art of faceting on diamonds in 1475 to enhance their
glitter and beauty. The first known diamond engagement ring was given to Mary
of Burgundy by Archduke Maximilian of Austria in 1477. Through the 17th
and 18th centuries, the wearing of diamonds as solitary stones in
rings, pins, and pendants became popular. Fashions changed how diamonds were
worn. Large diamond brooches were popular on tight bodices, and long drop
earrings complemented a low neckline. During the Victorian era, etiquette
demanded that young, unmarried women did not wear diamonds, and married women
only showed them off at balls or court appearances.
image from Bluenile.com
The tradition of
wearing a diamond engagement ring on the fourth finger of the left-hand stems
from
the belief that for a diamond to release its full power, it must be worn
on the heart, or left, side of the body. Diamonds now come in various cuts from
bezel to princess, cushion to emerald, rose, radiant, pear, marquise. They are
said to protect the wearer, are reputed to detect guilt or innocence, indicate
good luck, and increase fertility. Whatever the cut, whatever the reason for
wearing them, diamonds really can be a girl’s best friend.
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