Famed Diamond Displayed at Smithsonian Museum

By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID

WASHINGTON – Light flashes across the 82 facets of the Tiffany Diamond, highlighting the brilliance of the giant gem at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.

the news

One of the world’s largest yellow diamonds, the stone is on loan from Tiffany & Co. through Sept. 23. It joins such famed jewels as the Hope Diamond, Hooker Emerald and Oppenheimer Diamond.

how big is it?

The Tiffany Diamond weighs 128.54 carats and is in a cushion cut. Perched on it is a gem-encrusted bird known as the "Bird on a Rock," designed in the early 1960s by Jean Schlumberger. The bird is gold and platinum with white and yellow diamonds accented by a ruby eye. The diamond is more than 2 1/2 times the size of the famed Hope Diamond, which weighs in at 45.5 carats.

has it been worn?

It has been worn twice, once by a Rhode Island socialite and once by actress Audrey Hepburn in a promotion for the film "Breakfast at Tiffany’s," Linda Buckley, a Tiffany vice president, said.

the history

Discovered in South Africa in 1877, the stone was purchased by New York jeweler Charles Tiffany.

His gemologist studied it for a year before beginning to cut it – reducing it from 287 carats to its current size.