cellini green diamond and cellini peach diamond

These two diamonds of Frances I were described by Cellini as the most beautiful in the world. The Cellini Green, he said, was green like a pale green emerald but it shone as no emerald has ever shone. The Peach, which Cellini described as the second most beautiful, was flesh colored, tender, most limpid and it scintilated like a star.

—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.

champagne diamond.

A greenish yellow to yellow-green diamond of pronounced color.

—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.

fancy.

Any diamond with strong, attractive and natural body color. Red, blue, and green are the rarest.

—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.

fluorescence.

The property of changing one kind of radiation to another. Under X-ray, ultraviolet or cathode rays, the diamond usually fluoresces blue, although occasional stones may glow red or yellow shades. If the fluorescence is sufficiently strong to change the color of the stone for any length of time, it is called fluorochromatic.

—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.

golconda.

The Indian city that was the center of diamond trading in the seventeenth century, and as such a synonym for riches in the drama and poetry of this period. The term is often generously used to cover the ancient alluvial diamond deposits to the south and east of the city. . . .

—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.

green diamond.

A diamond with a naturally green color, a fancy. A stone turned green artificially should carry that information in its name. No naturally colored diamond of a true emerald green has yet been found, although Cellini claimed to have seen one in the fifteenth century.

—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.

limpid.

A diamond is said to be limpid when it is without body color and very transparent.

—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.

luster.

The appearance of a materials surface in reflected light; if it reflects the reflected light it has luster. The luster of rough diamond is said to be greasy; of fashioned diamonds, adamantine, from the Greek word for inconquerable.

—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.

mauve diamond.

This has enough purple in it to rate as a fancy.

—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.

milky diamond.

A diamond with a hazy interior.

—The Book of Diamonds, by Joan Dickinson, 1965.