Ring

Diamonds are made of a crystalline form of pure carbon, creating the hardest mineral known. They have a high surface ‘lustre’, meaning that much light is reflected from their surface. This light is combined with light reflected through the stone from the back facets to create ‘brilliance’. Light passing through the stone is also split into a broad spectrum of colours termed ‘fire’. A modern brilliant-cut diamond is faceted so that it combines a high level of brilliance with fire. Diamonds occur naturally in a variety of colours: colourless, yellow, brown, black, blue, green, pink and extremely rarely red.

Today diamonds can be artificially coloured or otherwise enhanced. These techniques were developed in the 20th century. Because the Townshend Collection has been in the care of the Museum since 1869, we can be confident that the colours are natural. As a result, these coloured diamonds are of great interest to specialists in the field of gemmology. This ring is set with a black diamond. The black colour is caused by graphite inclusions in the stone. There are so many black particles that the stone is virtually opaque. Today, black diamonds are normally only used industrially.

Eight diamond rings (Museum nos 1172 to 1179-1869) came to the V&A as part of a bequest of gemstones by the Reverend Chauncy Hare Townshend. The coloured diamonds had previously been in the famous collection of Henry Philip Hope. They entered the Museum in 1869.