1600s

17th century French jeweler, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605 -1689), was one of the early pioneer's of Europe's diamond trade with India. Although he was born in Paris, his ancestors were from Antwerp, Belgium. In his book "The Six Voyages of Jean-Baptist Tavernier" he documented many historically significant diamond cuts from India's past (top and below).

The Florentine Diamond (above, right) was originally owned by the Duke of Burgundy (mid 1400s) of the Medici Family. Jean Baptiste Tavernier (above, left) documented the stone's cut with his drawing (above, center) from 1657 when it was in the collection of the Grand Duke of Tuscany. The last known photo of the Florentine Diamond was from the late 1800s, when it was set in a hat ornament from the Hapsburg Crown Jewels.

The first "Brilliant" cut was introduced in the 17th century and is largely credited to Italian ambassador, Jules Cardinal Mazarin. Born Giulio Raimondo Mazzarino, Cardinal Mazarin had a long-standing fascination for gemstones. The first Brilliants were known as "Mazarins" and were called "Double-Cut Brilliants." These Double-Cut Brilliants had 17 facets on the crown. A 17th century Venetian polisher named Vincent Peruzzi introduced the "Triple-Cut Brilliant" or "Peruzzi Cut" by doubling the number of crown facets from 17 to 33.

Ownership of the famed Koh-i-Noor diamond (below, center) transfered from the Sultan of Golconda (early 1600s), to Prince Aurangzeb of Persia in the mid 1600s, as documented by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in his "The Six Voyages" (above). Prince Aurangzeb is credited for the stone's accidental reduction in size from the original 793 carats to a modest 186 carats, due to a gem-cutter's mistake.

During the mid 1500s, a French ambassador to Turkey, Nicholas Harlai, Seigneur de Sancy purchased a 55 carat pear shaped diamond (The "Sancy Diamond", below left) that was sold to Cardinal Mazarin in the mid 1600s, Russian Prince Anatole Demidoff in the mid 1800s, and to William Waldorf Astor in the early 1900s.