Book cover of Kohinoor: The Story of the World's Most Infamous Diamond
The Great Exhibition would provide Britons with their first chance to see the Koh-i-Noor diamond for themselves. The jewel was to be the star attraction, and its image and name were used liberally in the newspapers to drum up interest. Around six million people, a third of the entire population of Great Britain, were expected to attend the exhibition between 1 May and 11 October 1851.
On the day the exhibition opened its doors,
The Times, usually a sober and weighty newspaper, became positively giddy:
Never before was so vast a multitude gathered together within the memory of man. The struggles of great nations in battle, the levies of whole races, never called forth such an army as thronged the streets of London on the 1st of May...The blazing arch of lucid glass with the hot sun flaming on its polished ribs and sides shone like the Koh-i-noor itself.
The Koh-i-Noor could not have appeared at a more opportune time. Coinciding with the emergence of a popular press in Victorian Britain, hungry to fill its pages with tales of this most famous diamond, it was hardly surprising that the Koh-i-Noor whipped up such enthusiasm and interest among the British public. The gem represented not just the exoticism of the British Empire in the East, it was also a prime trophy of British military prowess as the empire set about expanding its territories in India. To have it displayed in London in a cage was the perfect symbol of British dominance. The growing fashion for diamonds in the West in the mid nineteenth century only fuelled popular interest. Suddenly, society women were putting away their garnets, turquoise and seed pearls, and opting for brooches and earrings and engagement rings of diamonds instead. Driven by fashion and fascination, the crowds for the Koh-i-Noor alone promised to be enormous.
The sun had not even risen when the British public began to converge on the exhibition. By breakfast, there was hardly space to move on the streets surrounding Hyde Park as the multitudes made their way to the great glass building:
If a man ventured into the Strand or Holborn at eight o'clock with the intent to see the show, he felt half inclined to turn back with the idea that it would be useless to go where 'all the world' would be before him.
Visitors from every social class came in their finest clothes. Aristocrats abandoned their carriages in the snarled streets and walked among the crush of commoners. The pilgrimage to the Crystal Palace was made in a relentless drizzle, bedraggling rich and poor in equal measure. When the crowds finally reached the doors of the exhibition, they had hours more to stand in the rain, which got heavier as the minutes ticked by. Undeterred, they waited patiently for the queen to arrive from Buckingham Palace. Just before noon, the sun broke through the clouds 'like a miracle' and 'to the Royal flourish of trumpets and the rolling of drums', the queen in an open carriage, flanked by a 'troop of Life Guards at the trot', arrived at the Crystal Palace to a roar of 'God Save the Queen'. Visibly 'filled with emotion', Victoria declared the Great Exhibition open to the public.
Many in the waiting crowd made straight for the Koh-i-Noor, sitting on a bolt of rich red velvet inside a gilded iron cage. Policemen, charged with keeping the crowds at bay, were almost lifted off their feet by the surge.
At the close of the first day, it became clear that something was very wrong with the Koh-i-Noor. Visitors who had managed to get near the exhibit left grumbling. The
Illustrated London News, which had been one of the more excitable publications in the run-up to the exhibition, expressed the disappointment of many:
A diamond is generally colourless, and the finest are quite free from any speck or flaw of any kind, resembling a drop of the purest water. The Koh-i-noor is not cut in the best form for exhibiting its purity and lustre, and will therefore disappoint many, if not all, of those who so anxiously press forward to see it.
The Koh-i-Noor had appeared dull in its captivity, and the bad publicity it was generating threatened to take the gleam off Prince Albert's finest moment. In a matter of days, he ordered gas lamps to be placed around the gem to help it shine for the visitors but these failed to make much difference. Before long, visitors began turning their backs on the Koh-i-Noor, avoiding the exhibit altogether.
Disappointed, and determined to change their minds, Prince Albert ordered work to begin on a new display setting for the Koh-i-Noor. While visitors squeezed past, men worked behind screens, creating a lattice of gas lamps and angled mirrors around the cage. Though such efforts helped, praise for the Koh-i-Noor remained lukewarm. More tinkering was needed.
On 14 June 1851 a dramatic new display was revealed to the public, one which Prince Albert was sure would save its reputation. To signify the importance of the Koh-i-Noor's re-entry into society, Queen Victoria, Prince Albert and their two eldest sons attended the unveiling of the freshened-up exhibit. A wooden cabin now surrounded the diamond, blocking out all the natural light which streamed through the glass roof and windows of the Crystal Palace. This enabled the gas lamps and mirrors to do their work more efficiently. The original bolt of deep red cloth which had been arranged beneath the diamond was now substituted with more vibrantly coloured velvet. Reporters bickered over its unusual shade, with reports describing it as anything from shocking pink to imperial violet.
No other exhibit had received so much attention from the organizers, and early press coverage suggested their efforts had not been in vain:
One of the most extraordinary metamorphosis is the change that has come over the Koh-i-noor diamond. The doubts that have been thrown upon its value and authenticity and the difficulty of fully appreciating its brilliancy in the broad glare of day, have led to the enveloping of the cage and its contents in massive folds of crimson drapery, and showing its splendour by artificial light. The diamond has stood the test wonderfully, and has fully redeemed its character... The difficulty of obtaining access to the cabin in which it is enshrined is little less than those encountered by Aladdin in his visit to the garden of diamonds, and has all the attraction and fascination of this famous gem.
Excerpted with permission of Juggernaut Books from Kohinoor: The Story of the World's Most Infamous Diamond by William Dalrymple and Anita Anand available in bookstores and on Juggernaut.