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Koh-i-Nor Diamond
The Koh-i-Noor ( ; from ), also spelled Kohinoor and Koh-i-Nur, is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, weighing . It is part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. The diamond is currently set in the Crown of Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother. There are multiple conflicting legends on the origin of the diamond. However, in the words of Theo Metcalfe there is 'very meager and imperfect' evidence of the early history of the Koh-i-Noor before the 1740s, that can directly tie it to any ancient diamond. There is no record of its original weight, but the earliest attested weight is 186 old carats (191 metric carats or 38.2 g). The first verifiable record of the diamond comes from a history by Muhammad Kazim Marvi of the 1740s Invasion of Northern India. Marvi notes that the Koh-i-Noor as being one of many stones on the Mughal Peacock Throne that Nader Shah looted from Delhi. The diamond then changed hands between various empires in south and west Asia, until bei ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Guntur
Guntur () is a city and the administrative headquarters of Guntur district in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. Guntur is spread across 168.49 km square and is the third-largest city in the state. It is situated to the west of the Bay of Bengal, on the Eastern Coastal Plains. The city is the heartland of the state, located in the centre of Andhra Pradesh and making it a central part connecting different regions. It serves as a major hub for exports chilli, cotton and tobacco and has the largest chili market yard in Asia. It is a major transportation, education and commercial hub for the state. Guntur city is a municipal corporation and also the headquarters of Guntur East and Guntur West mandals in Guntur revenue division. The city region is a major part of Amaravati Metropolitan Region. census of India the city is the third most populous in the state with a population of 743,354. It is classified as a ''Y-grade'' city as per the Seventh Central Pay Commission. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Second Anglo-Sikh War
The Second Anglo-Sikh War was a military conflict between the Sikh Empire and the East India Company, British East India Company that took place in 1848 and 1849. It resulted in the fall of the Sikh Empire, and the annexation of the Punjab region, Punjab and what subsequently became the North-West Frontier Province, by the East India Company. On 19 April 1848 Patrick Alexander Vans Agnew, Patrick Vans Agnew of the civil service and Lieutenant William Anderson of the Bombay European regiment, having been sent to take charge of Multan from Diwan Mulraj Chopra, were murdered there, and within a short time the Sikh troops joined in open rebellion. Governor-General of India James Broun-Ramsay, 1st Marquess of Dalhousie, Lord Dalhousie agreed with Hugh Gough, 1st Viscount Gough, Sir Hugh Gough, the commander-in-chief, that the British East India Company's military forces were neither adequately equipped with transport and supplies, nor otherwise prepared to take the field immediate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Crown Of Queen Alexandra
The Crown of Queen Alexandra was the consort crown of the British queen Alexandra of Denmark. It was manufactured for the 1902 coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra. Background Queen Victoria's death in January 1901 ended 64 years of the United Kingdom lacking a crowned queen consort, and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha had not been crowned as a consort. Traditionally, queens consort had been crowned with the 17th century Crown of Mary of Modena. However, in 1831, Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen was crowned with a 4 half-arched new small crown, the Crown of Queen Adelaide, because the Modena crown was judged unsuitable for use. In 1902 it was decided to use neither the Modena nor Adelaide crowns for the first coronation of a queen consort in seven decades. Instead it was decided to create a brand new consort crown, to be named after Queen Alexandra. Style The crown departed from the standard style of British crowns, and was more akin to European royal crowns. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Coster Diamonds
Royal Coster Diamonds is the oldest, still operating, diamond polishing factory in the world, located in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Founded in 1840, they have handled a few historical masterpieces. For example, they re-polished the Koh i Noor, which is mounted in the Crown of Queen Mary, and the Dresden Green Diamond, held in the Grünes Gewölbe#New Green Vault, New Green Vault at Dresden Castle. History *1840: Moses Elias Coster, diamond cutter in Amsterdam, founds Coster Diamonds in a factory building at the Waterlooplein in Amsterdam. *1848: Son Meijer Moses Coster (Martin) succeeds his father. He leaves for Paris for new business. *1910: Felix Theodoor Manus purchases Coster Diamonds from one of Coster’s inheritors. It becomes a company and remains so until the German occupation in 1940. *1945: After World War II, Wim Biallosterski, owner of a diamond sawing company, purchases the company Coster Diamonds. *1962: Ben Meier purchases the Coster premises together with partner ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albert, Prince Consort
Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (Franz August Karl Albert Emanuel; 26 August 1819 – 14 December 1861) was the consort of Queen Victoria from their marriage on 10 February 1840 until his death in 1861. Albert was born in the Saxon duchy of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld to a family connected to many of Europe's ruling monarchs. At the age of twenty, he married his first cousin Victoria; they had nine children. Initially he felt constrained by his role as consort, which did not afford him power or responsibilities. He gradually developed a reputation for supporting public causes, such as educational reform and the abolition of slavery worldwide, and was entrusted with running the Queen's household, office, and estates. He was heavily involved with the organisation of the Great Exhibition of 1851, which was a resounding success. Victoria came to depend more and more on Albert's support and guidance. He aided the development of Britain's constitutional monarchy by persuading his w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Great Exhibition
The Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations, also known as the Great Exhibition or the Crystal Palace Exhibition (in reference to the temporary The Crystal Palace, structure in which it was held), was an International Exhibition, international exhibition which took place in Hyde Park, London, Hyde Park, London, from 1 May to 15 October, 1851. It was the first in a series of World's fair, World's Fairs, exhibitions of culture and Manufacturing, industry that became popular in the 19th century. The event was organised by Henry Cole and Albert, Prince Consort, Prince Albert, husband of Victoria, Queen of the United Kingdom. Famous people of the time attended the Great Exhibition, including Charles Darwin, Karl Marx, Michael Faraday (who assisted with the planning and judging of exhibits), Samuel Colt, members of the Orléanist, Orléanist Royal Family and the writers Charlotte Brontë, Charles Dickens, Lewis Carroll, George Eliot, Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Alfre ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Iranian Crown Jewels
The Iranian National Jewels ( fa, جواهرات ملی ایران, ''Javāherāt-e Melli-ye Irān''), originally the Iranian Crown Jewels ( fa, جواهرات سلطنتی ایران, ''Javāherāt-e Saltanati-ye Irān''), include elaborate crowns, thirty tiaras, and numerous aigrettes, a dozen bejeweled swords and shields, a number of unset precious gems, numerous plates and other dining services cast in precious metals and encrusted with gems, and several other more unusual items (such as a large golden globe with the oceans made of emeralds) collected or worn by the Persian monarchs from the 16th century ( Safavid Persia) and on. The collection is housed at the Treasury of National Jewels, situated inside the Central Bank of Iran on Tehran's Ferdowsi Avenue. Safavid and Afsharid conquests The majority of the items now in the collection were acquired by the Safavid dynasty, which ruled Iran from 1502 to 1736 AD. Afghans invaded Iran in 1719 and sacked the then capital o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Darya-i-Noor
The Daria-i-Noor ( fa, , lit=Sea of light), also spelled ''Darya-ye Noor'', is one of the largest cut diamonds in the world, weighing an estimated 182 carats (36 g). Its colour, pale pink, is one of the rarest to be found in diamonds. The diamond is currently in the Iranian Crown Jewels collection of the Central Bank of Iran in Tehran. Dimensions It is and weighs around 182 metric carats. It is the world's largest known pink diamond. History This diamond, as it is also presumed for the Koh-i-Noor, was mined in Kollur mine in Andhra Pradesh, India. It was originally owned by the Kakatiya dynasty, later it was possessed by the Khalji dynasty of the Delhi Sultanate and to Mughal emperors. It was part of Shah Jahan's Peacock Throne. In 1739, Nader Shah of Iran invaded Northern India, occupied Delhi. As payment for returning the crown of India to the Mughal emperor, Muhammad Shah, he took possession of the entire fabled treasury of the Mughals, including the ''Daria-i-Noor'', ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mughal Empire
The Mughal Empire was an early-modern empire that controlled much of South Asia between the 16th and 19th centuries. Quote: "Although the first two Timurid emperors and many of their noblemen were recent migrants to the subcontinent, the dynasty and the empire itself became indisputably Indian. The interests and futures of all concerned were in India, not in ancestral homelands in the Middle East or Central Asia. Furthermore, the Mughal empire emerged from the Indian historical experience. It was the end product of a millennium of Muslim conquest, colonization, and state-building in the Indian subcontinent." For some two hundred years, the empire stretched from the outer fringes of the Indus river basin in the west, northern Afghanistan in the northwest, and Kashmir in the north, to the highlands of present-day Assam and Bangladesh in the east, and the uplands of the Deccan Plateau in South India. Quote: "The realm so defined and governed was a vast territory of some , rang ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cut (gems)
When a gemstone is desired to be used in jewelry, it is cut depending on the size and shape of the rough stone, as well as the desired piece of jewelry to be made. As a general rule, a cut gemstone will reduce the mass (described in the carat) by about 50 percent. There are several techniques available to work with gemstones; among them are sawing, grinding, sanding, lapping, polishing, grilling, and tumbling. The diamond cut planning stage is a complex process that requires the cutter to work with unique rough stones. Very often, the location of the inclusions in a rough stone will determine the type of shape to which a diamond may be cut. For economic reasons, most diamonds are cut to retain weight instead of maximizing brilliance. Types A list of cuts: * Antwerp rose cut *Asscher cut *Baguette cut * Barion cut * Brilliant cut *Briolette *Cabochon * Calla Cut * Ceylon cut *Cushion or old mine cut * Double Dutch rose cut *Emerald cut * Flanders cut *French cut * Heart brill ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Maharaja Of Jammu And Kashmir
The Dogra dynasty of Dogra Rajputs from the Shiwalik Himalayas created Jammu and Kashmir when all dynastic kingdoms in India were being absorbed by the East India Company. Events led the Sikh Empire to recognise Jammu as a vassal state in 1820, and later the British added Kashmir to Jammu by the Treaty of Amritsar in 1846. The founder of the dynasty, Gulab Singh, was an influential noble in the court of the Sikh emperor Maharaja Ranjit Singh, while his brother Dhian Singh served as the prime minister of the Sikh Empire. Appointed by Ranjit Singh as the hereditary Raja of the Jammu principality, Gulab Singh established his supremacy over all the hill states surrounding the Kashmir Valley. After the First Anglo-Sikh War in 1846, under the terms of the Treaty of Lahore, 1846, the British Indian government acquired Kashmir from the Sikh Empire and transferred it to Gulab Singh, recognising him as an independent Maharaja. Thus, Jammu and Kashmir was established as one of the larges ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gulab Singh
Gulab Singh Jamwal (1792–1857) was the founder of Dogra dynasty and the first Maharaja of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir, the largest princely state under the British Raj, which was created after the defeat of the Sikh Empire in the First Anglo-Sikh War. During the war, Gulab Singh stayed aloof which helped the British victory, and even became prime minister of the Sikh Empire for the final 38 days of conflict. The Treaty of Amritsar (1846) formalised the sale by the British to Gulab Singh for 7,500,000 Nanakshahee Rupees of all the lands in Kashmir that were ceded to them by the Sikhs by the Treaty of Lahore. Early life Gulab Singh was born on 17 October 1792 in a Hindu Dogra Rajput family. His father was Kishore Singh Jamwal. He joined the army of Ranjit Singh in 1809 and was sufficiently successful to earn a jagir worth 12,000 rupees and also 90 horses. In 1808, following the Battle of Jammu, the kingdom was annexed by Ranjit Singh. Ranjit Singh appointed a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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