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I have never read anything about what happened to the rest of the diamond, but reading between the lines, I doubt if there was anything other than diamond dust.

Hugh Roberts names the firm which cut the diamond as Briefel and Lemer of Clerkenwell, a district known for diamond cutting in London. According to Ian Balfour, Famous Diamonds page 292 Sidney Briefel, after having studied the diamond, decided not to use the usual cutting methods (sawing and cleaving) but to polish the diamond into its final shape.

Balfour writes "It was cut and polished entirely on the scaife and the future shape of the gem was achieved by the polisher grinding away the circumference in a series of small straight facets"

The process which Balfour describes was designed to eliminate a flaw created by the under side of the rough diamond while preserving the maximum diameter of the stone.

The stone, which had been found by a child in the dust at the base of a baobab tree in October 1947, was originally 54.5 carats; the final polished gem was 23.60 carats (Balfour, p 292).

The cutting was done between February and March 1948.

On 10 March 1948 QEII and Queen Mary visited Briefel and Lemer's premises to inspect the stone.



Later, photos were published of the stone in its various stages from rough to final gem as we know it today.



According to the press QEII was going to allow the gemstone to be exhibited later in 1948, and according to the press it was exhibited at the British Industries Fair in May 1948. It was also exhibited at the "Ageless Diamonds" exhibition in 1959.

re 1948


I think that the first portrait of QEII wearing the finished brooch was taken in 1954



The brooch, which was made by Cartier, London, was among the exhibits at the Cartier Exhibition in Canberra last year.