The Spoonmaker’s Diamond, called Kaşıkçı Elması in Turkish, is a pear-shaped, 86-carat diamond in the treasury of Topkapı Palace Museum in Istanbul. This article covers what the stone looks like, where it sits, how its name is explained, and what is known and not known about its past.
What is the Spoonmaker’s Diamond?
The Spoonmaker’s Diamond is a historic diamond kept in the treasury collection of Topkapı Palace Museum. Its commonly cited weight is 86 carats, which corresponds to 17.2 grams.
The central stone is not alone. Two rows hold 49 smaller diamonds around it. In English the stone is known as the Spoonmaker’s Diamond, and its outline is a pear.
Two basic facts about its past are unknown. Nobody knows which mine it came from. Nobody knows who cut it.
Spoonmaker’s Diamond size and weight
Hatipoğlu’s 2019 study gives the approximate dimensions as 3.2 × 1.9 × 0.8 centimetres. That makes the main stone a little over three centimetres long.
The weight needs a caution. The stone has not been taken out of its mount. So the 86-carat figure cannot be confirmed by weighing it directly, and Hatipoğlu says it has to be treated as approximate.
How the stone is cut
According to Hatipoğlu’s examination, the pear-shaped diamond has a single-faceted rose cut. A thin foil with a bright surface sits underneath the stone, and he reports that it increases the jewel’s play of light.
This is easy to miss from the other side of the glass. The stone does not rely only on its own surface. The foil beneath it is part of the effect.
Spoonmaker’s Diamond value, price and worth
People often ask what the diamond is worth in dollars or lira. No verified valuation in either currency has been published. In his academic study, Hatipoğlu describes the piece as priceless.
That is not a dodge. The stone belongs to the state collection.
The Spoonmaker’s Diamond story: the Eğrikapı tale
The best-known story is also the one that explains the name. It is a tale of origin, not a proven chain of ownership.
According to the account Anadolu Agency reports, a stone was found in a rubbish heap in Eğrikapı, a district of Istanbul. It changed hands for three spoons. The account sits among the events of Hijri 1090, May 1679, in Zübde-i Vekaiyat by Defterdar Sarı Mehmed Pasha.
The story continues. A jeweller bought the stone for 10 akçe. He and a colleague then fell into a dispute. The chief jeweller (kuyumcubaşı) settled it by giving each of them a purse of akçe, and he took the diamond.
Then the grand vizier, Mustafa Pasha, wanted to buy the stone. By the sultan’s order it was taken to the palace and worked there.
Think of the spoon in your kitchen drawer. In this tale, three of them were the price of a stone that later sat in a sultan’s treasury. That contrast is why people repeat it.
But the tale is not proven to describe today’s diamond. The link between the 1679 account and the stone on display is not certain.
Other versions of the origin
The Eğrikapı story has rivals.
- English Wikipedia also records a different version. A fisherman found the stone near Yenikapı, and it was given away for three spoons.
- Another account takes a very different route. It says the diamond was taken from India to France in 1774, and that Napoleon’s mother sold it to a man of Ali Pasha of Tepelena.
- Millî Saraylar’s statement, as relayed by Anadolu Agency, says the stone was bought and entered the palace treasury in the early 1680s.
The last point contradicts the Napoleon route. A stone bought in the 1680s cannot have been sold by Napoleon’s mother in the nineteenth century. None of these versions forms a confirmed chain of ownership.
Why is it called the Spoonmaker’s Diamond?
The name has two explanations.
The first is the three-spoon exchange. The Turkish name, Kaşıkçı, means spoonmaker, or someone who deals in spoons.
The second is physical. It has been suggested that the name comes from the stone’s shape, which resembles the bowl of a spoon.
Neither explanation has been settled.
Is it the lost Pigot Diamond?
Some claim that the Spoonmaker’s Diamond is actually the lost Pigot Diamond. There is a numerical objection. The recorded weight of the Pigot is only 47.38 carats. Against an 86-carat stone, that is a large gap, and it is the objection raised against treating the two as the same.
Timeline
- May 1679: The Eğrikapı finding story, from Zübde-i Vekaiyat, is told among the events of this date. Its link to today’s stone is not certain.
- Early 1680s: Millî Saraylar’s statement, as reported by Anadolu Agency, dates the stone’s purchase and entry into the palace treasury to this period.
- 1923: According to Hatipoğlu, the diamond and its jewel pass from the Ottoman inheritance to the treasury of the Republic of Türkiye.
- 2014: The Fatih Pavilion goes into restoration. The diamond is put into storage.
- 4 October 2019: The diamond goes on display again in the Outer Treasury section, where the palace’s weapons collection is kept.
- 12 May 2022: Topkapı Palace management rejects a theft claim in the hall where the diamond is shown.
- 20 April 2023: The Fatih Pavilion and its renewed Treasury exhibition reopen to visitors.
Spoonmaker’s Diamond at Topkapı: where to see it in Istanbul
The diamond is part of the Treasury Collection on show in the Fatih Pavilion at Topkapı Palace. Millî Saraylar lists it among the works there in a 2023 statement.
Anadolu Agency’s 2023 report places it in the first hall of the pavilion, which has four. If you enter the pavilion, you do not have to search far.
The path to this room was not straight. After the 2014 restoration began, the stone spent years in storage. In 2019 it came back on display in the Outer Treasury. Since the pavilion reopened on 20 April 2023, the Treasury Collection, including the diamond, has been shown there.
Details you won’t find in guidebooks
- The small stones are counted. İlhan Kocaman said in 2022 that the small stones around the diamond are counted one by one during security checks. Think of counting the cutlery after a big dinner. Here the count is 49, and each one is accounted for.
- The weight is an estimate. Because the diamond has not been removed from its mount, the 86-carat figure cannot be fixed by weighing it directly.
- There is a foil under it. The thin, shiny foil beneath the stone adds to the jewel’s light effect, according to Hatipoğlu.
- It is flat, not deep. The rose cut has a single facet layer, and the stone measures about 0.8 centimetres in its smallest dimension.
- The theft claim was answered in the room. The 2022 denial was made in the exhibition hall where the diamond is shown.
FAQ
How many carats is the Spoonmaker’s Diamond?
It is commonly given as 86 carats, which equals 17.2 grams. The stone has never been taken out of its mount, so that figure cannot be confirmed by direct weighing and should be read as approximate.
How much is the Spoonmaker’s Diamond worth?
No verified price in lira or dollars exists. Murat Hatipoğlu’s 2019 academic study calls the stone priceless.
Where can you see the Spoonmaker’s Diamond in Istanbul?
It is in the Treasury Collection inside the Fatih Pavilion at Topkapı Palace Museum. According to Anadolu Agency’s 2023 report, it sits in the first of the pavilion’s four halls.
Why is it called the Spoonmaker’s Diamond?
One story says a finder swapped the stone for three spoons. Another suggests the name comes from the stone’s shape, which resembles the bowl of a spoon. Which one is right is still debated.
Was the Spoonmaker’s Diamond ever stolen?
A theft claim circulated, and on 12 May 2022 Topkapı Palace Department Head İlhan Kocaman rejected it in a press statement made in the hall where the diamond is displayed.
Sources
- Vikipedi — Kaşıkçı Elması tr.wikipedia.org
- Wikipedia — Spoonmaker’s Diamond en.wikipedia.org
- Murat Hatipoğlu — Finding Story and Gemological Features of the Spoonmaker’s (Kasikci) Diamond iiste.org
- Anadolu Ajansı — Kaşıkçı Elması yeniden ziyarete açıldı aa.com.tr
- Anadolu Ajansı — Kaşıkçı Elması 32 aydır Topkapı Sarayı’nda sergileniyor aa.com.tr
- Anadolu Ajansı — Restorasyonların ardından bayramda Topkapı Sarayı’na yoğun ilgi gösterildi aa.com.tr
- Millî Saraylar — Topkapı Sarayı’nda İlk Kez Sergilenen Eserlere Ziyaretçilerden Yoğun İlgi millisaraylar.gov.tr
Image: Spoonmaker’s Diamond5, Topkapi Palace, Istanbul 2023.jpg — Karakalem, CC BY 4.0
