When Caroline Scheufele – Co-President of luxury jewelry Maison Chopard – first saw the 342-carat Queen of Kalahari rough diamond, it was love at first sight. “I immediately sensed that this was an incredibly rare gem of exceptional beauty and purity,” says Caroline Scheufele.
Of course, Caroline Scheufele is no stranger to rare and beautiful gemstones. Chopard has been one of the world’s premier jewelers for decades, providing stunning diamonds to celebrities and discerning luxury consumers around the world. Chopard watches and jewelry have been sought-after and photographed at red carpet events for years, and the Cannes Film Festival officially partnered with Chopard in 2007 for the Red Carpet Collection.
But this diamond was special. The diamond was first discovered in the Karowe Mine in Botswana, an open-pit mine owned by Lucara Diamond Corp. When the company took over the mine in 2010, they installed technologically advanced diamond-recovery systems, helping miners to consistently source some of the highest-quality stones ever found. Famous stones uncovered at the Karowe Mine include the 813-carat Constellation diamond, and the 1,109-carat Lesedi La Rona.
Whilst these impressive diamonds were an incredible find, Caroline Scheufele believes that the Queen of Kalahari is the purest, saying: “I was really lucky to put my hand on this one. It’s not the biggest but the others don’t have the same purity.”
The diamond was exceptionally large, D colour and Type IIA. D represents the ideal of achromaticity, completely colourless and beautifully clear. Type IIA is a certification given only to a tiny fraction of diamonds – those that are in the top 2% of chemically pure gemstones. On purchasing the stone, Chopard christened it the ‘Queen of Kalahari’ as a tribute to the female miner who discovered it, and the desert that houses the Karowe Mine.
Perfecting The Stone
Whilst Caroline Scheufele always knew she was going to buy the stone, the next thing to consider was how to include it in Chopard’s jewelry lines whilst still honoring the beauty of the original diamond.
“We could have cut two big 80-carat stones from it and maybe made a pair of drop earrings,” Caroline Scheufele said. “Somebody else would have done that, but Chopard is all about creativity. I didn’t just want one piece, I wanted a whole set.”
The first job for Chopard was to work out how to break down the stone into different cuts, allowing enough to make a great set of jewelry, whilst still maintaining the breathtaking purity and clarity that made the diamond so impressive. After a lot of thought, it was decided that 23 individual stones could be cut from the diamond, all of different shapes and sizes so that they could be expertly arranged into creative and stunning pieces. The final collection was to consist of six pieces – two rings, a necklace, a bracelet, a pair of earrings, and a watch – and be called the Gardens of Kalahari.
Of the 23 stones cut, five are more than 20 carats: a 50-carat round brilliant, a 26-carat heart shape, a 25-carat pear-shaped diamond, a 21-carat emerald, and a 20-carat cushion. These shapes represent different flowers, to tie in with the theme of nature, which Caroline Scheufele is passionate about. The brilliant-cut gem is a sunflower, the heart a pansy. The 25-carat pear represents a banana tree flower, whilst the cushion cut is designed in the image of a poppy. Finally, the emerald cut diamond is meant to bring to mind the soft beauty of a water lily.
Collection Unveiled
Once the work was done and the collection was ready, the Garden of Kalahari jewels were finally unveiled in January 2017 at a celebrity-studded unveiling.
Dame Shirley Bassey was the guest of honor, singing ‘Diamonds Are Forever’ and wearing the star of the collection – the Garden of Kalahari necklace. This piece features no less than three of the biggest stones – the 50 carat brilliant cut diamond, and two 25 and 26-carat heart and pear-shaped diamond pendants. Undoubtedly the most precious jewellery set ever created by Chopard, the necklace is rumoured to be worth more than $50 million.
Sustainable Luxury
But Caroline Scheufele wasn’t done with this journey. More important to the values of Chopard than the beauty of the Queen of Kalahari diamond, or the creativity and effort that went into designing the collection, there was one last mission to complete.
Chopard is known as a pioneer in the world of sustainable luxury, launching The Journey To Sustainable Luxury in 2013, and continuing to work with mines and suppliers to ensure a completely transparent and ethical supply chain and production process in the development of their jewellery collections. Caroline Scheufele worked with the Karowe mine to help the company to rise to the Green Carpet Challenge, an initiative set up by Chopard alongside Eco-Age, to provide a strict set of validation criteria of best practices in environmental and social justice. With new, fairer business practices in place, the mine is also working toward getting its Responsible Jewellery Council certification. This means that Chopard has helped make another step towards total fairness and sustainability in all of its business practices, whilst simultaneously offering another exceptional jewellery collection to the luxury industry.
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