A memoir by jAcob Asscher
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A Memoir by Jacob Asscher The Cullinan diamond 1905-1908
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his book is designed to inform you about the world of diamonds, and to give you a personal insight, into some of the history and mysteries of how diamonds become the sparkling gems that symbolise forever… The Asscher family have been ‘diamond people’ since the 19th century, and hold a very special position in the history of the important gems of the world and it is this story that will be told within these pages. A few years ago I found, amongst my late grandfathers papers, a personal memoir about the role he played in the cutting of the ‘Cullinan’ diamond, which was at the time the finest and largest in the world. It will be my grandfathers words that will tell most of the story.
Jan Maarten Asscher
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Asscher about the making of the Cullinan Diamond. This brought
This is me at about the age of eight, sitting at my fathers cleaving bench, starting out on my journey into the diamond industry.
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The JACob AssCher sTory undreds of stories have been written about the Cullinan Diamond but there Asscher about the making of the Cullinan Diamond. This brought are many more, as yet, untold. “I was present at the Asscher Diamond Polishing Works in Amsterdam on the occasion of the visit of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth ll when a presentation was made by Mr Loedwijik Asscher about the making of the Cullinan Diamond. This brought back old memories to me and is why I thought it would be nice to write this down - because I was there.�
Jacob Asscher, 1892 -1977
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Jan Maarten’s grandfather, Jacob Asscher marking a rough diamond circa 1950.
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The CullinAn diAMond ow was it possible that a diamond weighing just over 3025 carats, a gift from South Africa to the English polished?
Crown, should be in the Netherlands to be cut and
At this time there was no real diamond manufacturing
industry in England, or none with the level of competent cleavers and polishers who could undertake such a giant task.
I J Asscher were asked if they were prepared to manufacture
the stone in England. That would have meant that several members of the company would have had to stay in London for a year or maybe longer, apart from that it would have been very
difficult to set up a well equipped workshop there. So this offer was declined by the Asschers.
This didn’t leave the English much choice other than having
the stone manufactured in Amsterdam.
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The rough Cullinan diamond found by Captain Frederick Wells, superintendent of Premier Mine in 1905.
“There was no real diamond manufacturing industry in England� 7
i.J.AssCher J Asscher was named after the father and founder of the company, which had a good reputation for the manufacture of diamonds. In this story there were four
principal Asschers and me, namely.
JoSEPH, the cleaver who started his apprenticeship at the age
of 12.
LoEDEWIJIk, who was still alive and present at the visit of
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth, and was a phenomenal hand cutter, and one of the very first machine cutters.
ELIE, was probably unsurpassed by any of his brothers as a
polishing expert.
AbrAHAM, from the age of twelve to seventeen, learned and
worked under the supervision of Elie and Henri koe. Henri was later to be the polisher of the Cullinan Diamond. After this five
years of polishing, experience and in those days it was a twelve hour working day, it had made the man an artist.
JACob, the youngest of the brothers. I had only been cleaving
for about, three years, but in those days there was such an
abundance of rough diamonds that I had seen and handled more rough in that short period than the average diamond dealer will
see in twenty years nowadays. I learned the trade from my uncle, A Asscher, and of course my brother Joseph. The skill of ‘marking’ for swing and cleaving I taught myself.
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Jacob Asscher standing on the left with all the brothers.
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The negoTiATions J Levy & Nephews, the well known London brokers, were the representatives for the English Crown and
were going to supervise the manufacturing process in
Amsterdam.
At first the negotiations in London were not easy. The stone
was very impure and under any circumstances the finished stone needed to become the largest polished diamond in the world.
At Court some interesting questions were asked, a Lord, I
remember his name vividly, but I shall rather not name him,
asked my brother Joseph. “once you have cleaved such a stone, can you repair it and stick it back together afterwards?”
My brother Abraham chuckled and replied in Dutch “Give the
man a hammer and a nail”
The stone had to be transported (by Joseph) via the shortest
sea route (maybe they were afraid of seasickness) to Amsterdam. The gentlemen, Asscher from our Paris office (Not sure who this is? - Joseph Lodewijik and Elie were all resident in Paris at
the time) Accompanied by two Scotland Yard officers wrapped the stone in chamois leather (put it into his trouser pocket) and travelled to Calais where they were met by Mr Abraham from
Amsterdam who was protected by officers Pateer and Marcussen of the Amsterdam police.
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(on the 6th of February 1908 the ‘Cullinan’ was in Amsterdam.
It was weighed in the presence of Mr Alexander brothers and witnessed by a Hendrik Wertheim, Notary)
k place.
o ations to
d negoti Protracte
“Give the man a hammer and a nail” 11
The prepArATions n preparation for cleaving, the stone is set on top of a
tapered wooden stick with a cement head. The cement used in diamond cleaving is composed of the following
ingredients: shellac, and resin, and some other secret ingredients. When the cement head is gently heated it becomes soft and sticky but then becomes rock hard when cool.
Another diamond with a sharp edge (also set in a stick) is then
used to make a V shaped groove in the stone that’s going to be cleaved.
The groove has to be made exact on the growth plane or in
the direction of the octahedron. It is basically the she principle as
splitting wood for your fireplace, only a little costlier if you get it wrong!
once the groove is deep and sharp a blunt metal blade is inserted
into the groove, it should fit about halfway in. A short sharp hit with a metal hammer or stick will then split the stone. Today a
lot of cleavers use wooden hammers for cleaving but neither my
brother nor I ever used one, and touch wood, have never had any accidents.
Some weeks before, my brother Joseph sought advice from the
old cleaver A Asscher and...the rascal (that was me). Is it actually
possible to cleave a stone that weighs over three thousand carats? Are human hands actually capable of such a feat?
Some five or six years before they had some experience in
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“Are human hands actually capable of such a feat?�
Table and to
ols that wer e made spec
ially for the
job.
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cleaving the ‘Excelsior’, a rough diamond weighing more than
nine nine hundred carat. This stone belonged for the biggest part to the London rough Syndicate, today known as the Diamond
Trading Company (part of Debeers) The Asschers also had a substantial interest in the stone.
They sought comparisons with the large stones. ‘The Jonker’ a
stone belonging to H WInston in the United States weighed over seven hundred carats, the “Woyie’ belonged to Chester beaty.
manufactured by briefel and Lemur in London also weighed in at seven hundred carats.
Well, the Excelsior had kept the old man Asscher and Joseph
busy for weeks, it was murder! The first groove took nearly two days to cut. on a Wednesday afternoon, I was from the school, I witnessed the first attempt to cleave the stone . It split beautifully
into, both surfaces as smooth as a mirror, the pieces were then sent to London, there to be processed further. Curiosity:
All the polished stones (from the Excelsior) became blue and
white, as beautiful as can be, but two pear shapes, each weighing
twenty-five carats, turned brown, in my fifty year career I have rarely witnessed such a thing.
back to business, Joseph gave me the following tasks.
1) Create and manufacture an extra sturdy cleaving table.
2) Construct a cleavers box with a sliding side wall, which
would drop this large stone to the require level so the sharp pieces of rough used to make the groove, would be at the right height.
3) Fabricate cleaving sticks to hold this massive stone in
different sizes.
of course at the same time, all of the other polishing tools
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The factory when it first opened in 1907 and again when it reopened in 1945 after the war.
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had to be manufactured and given the unusual size
of the stone it gave the polishing expert A Asscher the necessary headaches.
Firstly the polishing disc had to be four times the normal size
and four times as heavy, discs usually run with a spindle under and above and are kept in place with two blocks of hardwood. In those days nobody had found a way to make the axle run smooth
in anything else but hardwood, but with such a large heavy disk,
imagine if the wood were to split. It would send the disk flying across the workshop, tools, diamonds and all!
In the machine room was an old-fashioned fitter, Master
Chardon. To him go all the honours for creating a construction in phosphorus bronze with at its centre, a spindle on which the disk ran as smoothly as in the hardwood. And then there were the polishing clamps and the large cups to hold the stones etc.
A rough diamond of a hundred carats was not a rarity, and
set in a cup made of copper filled with solder, that was quite
a task to handle because of the weight. After cleaving (the Cullinan), a piece of diamond weighing more than a thousand
carats would have to be fitted into such a cup filled with lead. This
would then have to be fitted and lowered onto the polishing disk countless times. A rough estimate put the total weight at about
fifteen pounds. Under no circumstances could one drop the
clamp with the stone onto the polishing disk, this would have meant disaster! A lifting construction was made with a counterbalance weight, but, in the end not used. Henri koe ably
assisted by his brother Salomon, handled the clamps as if they were of feathers. WIthin six weeks all preparations were finished.
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The studio specially installed for the polishing of the Cullinan.
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The big Job sTArTs was a very young diamond marker (designing the best use of the rough). I was sixteen years old. (after
countless discussions of where to cleave this piece of
rough to best effect)
I was given the Cullinan to mark - there was no one else.
Exactly according to the grain or growth lines I drew a line.
once the line was on the stone we concluded that the black
imperfection, in the diamond jargon called ‘a fly’, was just under
the first line. There are two ways to correct this; wipe the stone clean and do it all over again or more practically, draw a second
line about one millimetre apart. Now the impurity was exactly in the middle of the two lines and that’s were the first groove would be made.
My brother gave the marked stone to the older cleavers to set
the stone in the cleaving stick, I have to admit that I was a little
disappointed because I sort of counted on the honour of doing that job myself.
But youth is indifferent and in the workshop I worked on the
cleaving blades and also had a beautiful Flobet .22 rifle and I really enjoyed shooting with her.
It must have been a good hour or so later when someone came
to see where I was hanging out. “Has the stone been set yet” I asked. “No they haven’t managed it yet”.
I reloaded my rifle and pulled the trigger, bulls eye! “Nice shot
don’t you think”
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Jacob ca
refully gro
oving the
Cullinan.
“Has the stone been set yet?� 19
“Shouldn’t you go and have a look in the cleaving workshop?” “Nah” I said, “If they need me They know where to find me”
“Don’t be so bloody stubborn and go and have a look” was
the reply.
And so I did...
When I arrived at the workshop I found some of my beautiful
rolled cleaving cement heads were burnt to a cinder. Everybody
in the room knew that in order for the diamond to settle into the cement not only did the cement have to have the right tempera-
ture, but also the diamond. Well how could they heat both the
stick and the stone to just the right temperature? They did have a clamp to hold the stone but God forbid if someone dropped it? My brother said “Jaap, (Jacob) you do it” I replied “ok”
Several weeks before I had already thought about how to do
this job. Even when I made all the cement heads for the job I concluded that to set the stone would not be easy. Normally one would build a cement head for a cleaving stick by heating small
pieces of hardened cement and slowly build it up to the required size, in this case I had poured them into shape.
one of my sticks had not been used, it had a head the size of a
champagne glass. I made a hole in the centre. I took some strips of leather from my pocket and wound them three times around
all my fingers, on both hands, then took an old fashioned spirit burner and a gas burner.
by gently heating both stone and cement I managed the job
within ten minutes.
Amongst many tests we had done beforehand was an
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lac tops s with shel
Stick
experiment with a grooving machine. It made an amazing
screeching noise and to make a groove in a stone weighing one carat, took one hour!
To make a groove in the Cullinan an enormous amount of
scherp (sharp edged pieces of rough diamond to scrape away the
groove) were prepared. This was a very expensive exercise, but given the task ahead, that didn’t seem to matter.
Joseph Asscher was a strong man, somewhat thickset, like
Tommy burns the then middleweight boxing champion. An hour after commencing the cleaving process both his hands were
swollen. rest? No that was not an option. A day and a half
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ready for
.
e Cullinan
holding th
later the groove was ready. My brother Joseph thought that the
special knives made by Herder were a little too long for this job, so he asked me to shorten one of them. but how on earth do you
quickly shorten an hardened steel blade. Use a grinder? Heat
it and saw through it and then harden it again, much too complicated.
I knew exactly what I had to do. I went to the workshop and
placed the blade in a heavy vice, and with all my strength gave an
almighty hit with a sledge hammer! It broke in exactly the perfect place.
(on the 10th February 1908 in the presence of both John &
Alexander Levy, all of the Asscher brothers, and witnessed by
Hendrik Wertheim, Notary, the Cullinan was ready to be cleaved) Two minutes later the blade was placed in the groove, Joseph
hit it with power! The stone didn’t split. The blade flew through the room. blade broken! Was shouted. “No not at all!’ I said “that’s
just where I shortened it”. I gave him another blade slightly thicker this time and said, “Give it a good old whack!” Again he
hit it with enormous explosive power. “Crick” was the sound the
stone made, it split into two, and both faces were as smooth as a mirror. The black inclusion was now in both pieces as intended.
Joseph drank two or three brandy and soda and grinned with
satisfaction. Up to the present he is the ‘Undisputed World Champion’ in the cleaving of large rough diamonds!
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“Give
it a good old whack!�
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an.
e Cullin
leaves th
Jacob c
The resT of The sTones n weighing the resulting two pieces of rough they were
found to be - 977.5 carats and 1038.25 carats respectively plus 6 carats of splinters
The place to make the second groove was not as convenient
as the first. It took two and a half days. The pieces of sharp
suitable for making the groove for cleaving, were dwindling quickly. I handed the used pieces to ten or twelve polishers to repolish into useable sharps.
The second cleaving blow was like the first, almost a mirror.
The main stone was now ready for polishing. This task was
performed by Henri koe, assisted by his brother Salomon. Within
nine months, three months earlier than foreseen, the brothers finished their Herculean task and the finished principal stone
weighed approximately 530 carats and is now in the royal Sceptre. (This is Cullinan 1 - ‘The Star of Africa’, Cullinan 2 is in
the Imperial Crown an weighs 317.4 carats) The other pieces of rough were cleaved a month later.
In all there were nine principal pieces of rough which were
polished, plus 96 small brilliants, weighing 8 carats and 9 carats of rough ends.
To keep the return of the stones to London a secret, polishing
(other rough) continued in the specially erected workshop for a few more days. If I remember correctly Henri koe then took a
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al Crown
ri The Impe
featuring
Culinan ll.
The nin e
princip
al piece
s of rou
gh whic
h were
part of
the orig
inal Cull
inan.
“Cullinan 2 weighs 317.4 carats� 25
well deserved break in the South of France. (All the work was signed off as finished on the 13th October 1908)
Travelling via Calais and Dover the stones were presented to
HM king Edward by my brother. I, aged only 17, was too young
to accompany them and enjoyed passing some of the time they were away with my favourite rifle!
In recognition of polishing The Cullinan Diamond the Asscher
brothers were presented with a silver bowl by king Edward.
Jacob Asscher, Diamond Cleaver
“The ‘Star of Africa’ weighs 530 carats” 2
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The Roya l
Sceptre
Asscher about the making of the Cullinan Diamond. This brought
530.2 94.4 317.4 63.6
4.4
8.8 11.5
6.8
18.8
iam
olished d
p The nine
ge from onds ran
ts to 4.4 530 cara
carats.
3
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featuring
Culinan l.
posTsCripT y grandfather was a remarkable man. Not just a diamond Cleaver, who at the tender age of sixteen
played an integral part in the cutting of the Cullinan
Diamond but he was also a Photographer, boxer, Marksman,
Fiddle Player and bon Viveur. A true eccentric and a man of many facets.
As a child I saw him every week but it was not until I found
the text , on which this memoir is based, that I realised the extent of his talents and what it was to be a real Diamond Man.
The ‘Star of Africa’ centrepiece in the Royal Sceptre, part of the British Royal Crown jewels.
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Asscher about the making of the Cullinan Diamond. This brought
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