The Spoonmaker's Diamond () is an 86 carat (17.2g) pear-shaped diamond in the Imperial Treasury exhibitions at the Topkapi Palace Museum in Istanbul, Turkey, and its most valuable single exhibit. It is considered the fourth largest diamond of its kind in the world.
Set in silver, surrounded by a double row of 49 Old-mine cut diamonds (brilliants), it hangs in a glass case on the wall of the third room in Imperial Treasury section of Topkapı's "Conqueror’s Pavilion".
These surrounding separate brilliants give it "the appearance of a full moon lighting a bright and shining sky amidst the stars" and are considered to have been commissioned either by Ali Pasha or by Sultan Mahmud II – though this, as all other details of the diamond's origins, is doubtful and disputed.
History
It is not known with any certainty how this diamond came to the Topkapı Palace. The museum's records do list a ring stone called the Spoonmaker's Diamond, which is noted as having already belonged to the 17th century Sultan Mehmet IV. However, this stone, along with its gold, is only , which is much smaller than the present Spoonmaker's Diamond. Several mutually exclusive accounts exist regarding the origin of the Spoonmaker's Diamond. They continue to circulate, having become part of the Turkish popular culture and being repeated by tourist guides, and in printed guide books.
The Naive Fisherman
According to one tale, a poor fisherman in Istanbul near Yenikapi was wandering idly, empty-handed, along the shore when he found a shiny stone among the litter, which he turned over and over, not knowing what it was. After carrying it about in his pocket for a few days, he stopped by the jewelers' market, showing it to the first jeweler he encountered. The jeweler took a casual glance at the stone and appeared uninterested, saying "It's a piece of glass, take it away if you like, or if you like I'll give you three spoons. You brought it all the way here, at least let it be worth your trouble." What was the poor fisherman to do with this piece of glass? What's more, the jeweler had felt sorry for him and was giving three spoons. He said okay and took the spoons, leaving in their place an enormous treasure. It is said that for this reason the diamond came to be named "The Spoonmaker's Diamond". Later, the diamond was bought by a vizier on behalf of the Sultan (or, by a less likely version, it was the vizier who dealt directly with the fisherman).
Variant versions, published in some Istanbul Travel guides, describe the original finder as "a farmer who found it on the ground, and who sold it to a dealer" from whom it eventually "came to a Sultan in the 17th century".
According to still other tales, the name is derived from the finder having actually been a spoonmaker, or that the diamond was given this name because it resembled the bowl of a spoon.
Ali Pasha of Tepelena
A persistent element in several accounts of the diamond's origin links it with the well-known Ali Pasha of Tepelena, who in the late 18th and early 19th Centuries was the Ottoman governor of much of present-day Albania and Greece, and who set himself up as a virtually independent ruler.
The Spoonmaker's Diamond is asserted to have been in Ali Pasha's possession for a short or long time before arriving at the Ottoman capital. By some versions, it had been at one time worn by Kira Vassiliki, Ali Pasha's favorite wife (or mistress). Its eventual passing into the Sultan's hands might have taken place either during Ali Pasha's lifetime, as part of his complicated dealings with the central Ottoman government, or after his execution, when his possessions were confiscated by the Sultan.
The following versions, through mutually contradictory, are all compatible with Ali Pasha having had a part in the diamond's history.