Diamond Eureka

The diamond Eureka

This diamond was cut in shape pillow.

It is not an exceptional diamond, but a historic diamond. It is famous to be the first diamond found in South Africa, near the Orange river, to Hopetown, to 120 km in the South of Kimberley.

It was discovered by a child, Erasmus Jacobs, in 1866, playing on the lands of his father, farmer, Daniel Johannes Jacobus Jacobs.

The child played with this attractive stone, then it was given to a neighbor, Schalk Van Niekerk, a collector of minerals.

Then, the diamond passed in the hands of a commercial traveler, John O' Reilly. It sent this beautiful stone to the geologist G. Athersone who evaluated it as a diamond heavy " brownish yellow " 21.25ct

The diamond Eureka was then sold to Sir Philip Wodehouse.

In 1889, it was exposed to the World Fair in Paris.

It is only after was cut in a diamond of shape 10,73 carat pillow.

In 1946 Times indicated that a lot of diamonds of 20 parts, the Eureka of which in major component, had been sold to the auction of Christie for a 5,700 £ sum.

The Eureka stayed in a collection deprived until 1966.

De Beers bought this diamond and, hundred years after its discovery, made present to the people of South Africa.