Famous Diamonds Taylor-Burton

Taylor-Burton Diamond

Elizabeth Taylor had been tied to many beautiful
diamond jewelry and magnificent gems. Those well-
publicized gifts she received from her fifth husband,
the late Richard Burton, certainly enhance her
appearance. By far the best known of Richard Burton’
s purchases to Elizabeth Taylor was the 69.42 carat
pear shape diamond, today known as the Taylor-
Burton Diamond.

Richard Burton’s first jewelry purchase for Elizabeth
was the 33.19 carat Asscher cut Krupp Diamond in
1968. The next is the La Peregrina Pearl. For
Elizabeth’s 40th birthday in 1972 Richard Burton gave
her a heart-shaped diamond known as the Taj-Mahal.

The pear-shaped Taylor-Burton diamond came from
the Premier Mine in 1966 and was first bought by
Harry Winston. It took Harry and his cleaver six
months to finally decide how the stone should be
cleaved. It was cut from a rough stone weighing
240.80 carats.

In 1967, Mrs Harriet Annenberg Ames, the sister of
Walter Annenberg, the American Ambassador in
London during the Richard Nixon administration,
bought the pear shape diamond from Harry Winston.
The diamond was put up for auction in 1969 with the
understanding that it could be named by the buyer.
Cartier of New York successfully bid for it and called it
the Cartier Diamond. Robert Kenmore, the chairman
of the Board of Kenmore Corporation, the owners of
Cartier Inc, paid the record price of $1,050,000 for
the diamond.

However, the next day, Richard Burton bought the
stone for Elizabeth Taylor for an undisclosed sum,
renaming it the Taylor-Burton. Miss Taylor wore the
Taylor-Burton as a pendent in public for the first time
when she attended Princess Grace’s 40th birthday
party in Monaco. In 1978, Elizabeth, following her
divorce from Richard Burton, announced that she was
putting it up for sale and planned to use part of the
proceeds to build a hospital in Botswana. In 1979, it
was sold for nearly $3 million and was subsequently
purchased by Robert Mouawad.