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Diamonds : an early history of the king of gems
A lavishly illustrated, in-depth early history covering two thousand years of diamond jewelry and commerce, from the Indian mines to European merchants, courts, and workshops This richly illustrated history of diamonds illuminates myriad facets of the \"king of gems,\" including a cast of larger-than-life characters such as Alexander the Great, the Mughal emperor Jahangir, and East India Company adventurers. It's an in-depth study tracing the story of diamonds from their early mining and trade more than two thousand years ago to the 1700s, when Brazil displaced India as the world's primary diamond supplier. Jack Ogden, a historian and gemologist specializing in ancient gems and jewelry, describes the early history of diamond jewelry, the development of diamond cutting, and how diamonds were assessed and valued. The book includes more than one hundred captivating images, from close-up full-color photographs of historic diamond-set jewelry (some previously unpublished), to photomicrographs of individual gems and illustrations of medieval manuscripts, as well as diagrams depicting historical methods of cutting and polishing diamonds.
eBook
Diamonds : an early history of the king of gems
\"A lavishly illustrated, in-depth early history covering two thousand years of diamond jewelry and commerce, from the Indian mines to European merchants, courts, and workshops This richly illustrated history of diamonds illuminates myriad facets of the \"king of gems,\" including a cast of larger-than-life characters such as Alexander the Great, the Mughal Emperor Jahangir, and East India Company adventurers. It's an in-depth study tracing the story of diamonds from their early mining and trade more than two thousand years ago to the 1700s, when Brazil displaced India as the world's primary diamond supplier. Jack Ogden, a historian and gemologist specializing in ancient gems and jewelry, describes the early history of diamond jewelry, the development of diamond cutting, and how diamonds were assessed and valued. The book includes more than one hundred captivating illustrations, from historic diamond-set jewelry, some previously unpublished, to photomicrographs of individual gems, medieval manuscript illustrations, and Indian miniatures, as well as diagrams depicting historical methods of cutting and polishing diamonds.\"--Jacket flap.
Book
(Un)healthy Relationships: African Labourers, Profits and Health Services in Angola’s Colonial-Era Diamond Mines, 1917–75
The Companhia de Diamantes de Angola, or Diamang, mined for diamonds in colonial Angola from 1917 until independence in 1975. The enterprise’s Health Services Division (SSD) was responsible for supplying mine managers with an African labour force comprised of healthy, and therefore productive, employees. In practice, though, this otherwise ‘healthy’ system did not always work. While SSD personnel attempted to fulfil their charge by implementing a series of screening measures, production targets and a scarcely-populated regional labour pool regularly prompted senior officials to compel the SSD to clear recruits who were otherwise unfit for mine service. Drawing upon interviews with former SSD staff and African labourers, as well as company and colonial archival sources, this article focuses on the interplay over time between the SSD, the company’s production demands and these labourers.
Journal Article
Blood, Sweat and Earth
A sweeping history of our enduring passion for diamonds—and the exploitative industry that fuels it. Blood, Sweat and Earth is a hard-hitting historical exposé of the diamond industry, focusing on the exploitation of workers and the environment, the monopolization of uncut diamonds, and how little this has changed over time. It describes the use of forced labor and political oppression by Indian sultans, Portuguese colonizers in Brazil, and Western industrialists in many parts of Africa—as well as the hoarding of diamonds to maintain high prices, from the English East India Company to De Beers. While recent discoveries of diamond deposits in Siberia, Canada, and Australia have brought an end to monopolization, the book shows that advances in the production of synthetic diamonds have not yet been able to eradicate the exploitation caused by the world's unquenchable thirst for sparkle.
eBook
Unpaid Diamonds: Trust, Reputation, and the Merchants' Style in Eighteenth-Century Europe
In 1727, Christian merchant Edward Fenwick sold two small bags of uncut diamonds to the Ashkenazi Jewish trader, Andrew Levy. Having failed to pay his debt, Levy fled to the United Provinces. In Amsterdam, a correspondent of Fenwick received permission to take necessary legal steps to arrest the thief. In London, Fenwick sought the aid of his business partner, Francis Salvador, one of the world's foremost Sephardic diamond traders. The interaction between these three men, traced through the story of unpaid gems, confirms that early modern diamond trade occurred through cross-cultural networks, despite differences in ethnicity and religion. Rather than basing one's trust on shared kinship or religion, international merchants in the early modern period combined informal customs and formal institutions, developing the so-called merchants' style. This commercial practice required careful assessments of reputation and record, obtained through shared information. The merchants' style, used to nurture trust in cross-cultural trade, proved crucial in cases of cheating. Attempting to reclaim his money from Andrew Levy and to protect his reputation, Edward Fenwick resorted to this practice.
Journal Article
The Impact of the Diamond Industry and the Diamond Workers' Union on Jewish Life in Amsterdam, 1894–1920
By the late nineteenth century, Amsterdam had the largest diamond industry in the world, employing some 29 percent of all Jewish working men and 10 percent of all Jewish working women. Their economic activities in this field were closely connected to the social, cultural, familial, and political sphere. In many ways the Algemene Nederlandse Diamantbewerkersbond (the General Dutch Diamond Workers' Union, or ANDB) formed the direct link between these different spheres. The union brought together men and women (including married women), Jews and non-Jews, working in various professions, under different payment systems and working conditions, developing standard wages equal for all. While the primary goal was economic, the outcome had at least as many social and cultural consequences, including a change in social relationships between Jewish and non-Jewish workers as well as a growing number of women, who continued working after marriage. The case study of the ANDB in Amsterdam allows for a broad interpretation of ‘economy’ in Jewish history.
Journal Article