The Treasure of the Queen of England documentary of Patrick Voillot

[Music] the Tower of London is not only the emblem of a capital city it's a gigantic jewel which contains one of the most fabulous treasure inside these glass cases are the crown jewels of the sovereign Jelena preserved here for the last seven centuries crowns scepters diadem's or retrieved or with stones of inestimable and full of history some of the Google misadventures today these crowds supreme symbols of the long team first often rain behind their footage roof glass cases of readers college only a few of these English crown great seasons as for example the coronation of Queen my name is Estelle Thomas I cry Angela here at Garrett and I joined the company in 1986 Gerald was first created in or established I should say in 1735 but it wasn't until 1843 that that garage became then crown jewel as to Queen Victoria the title comes from the sovereign and it is an act of Parliament that the there has to be an individual crown jeweler to have responsibility of the care and maintenance of the crown jewels in the tower London the sovereign is the only one that's allowed to touch the Crown's but there is a rule set down again at the opening of parliament the crown jeweler being the only one that's allowed that sum has to be there when the showcases are open is the only one that's really allowed to touch the Crown's the first time when I took over the job in 1990 I was on my own and yes I was terrified absolutely terrified holding these these pieces these great history this great diamond the finest two diamonds in the world Cullinan wanted to I have a workshop within the general house of the tower London it's it's right underground and so for all the repairs well I want to say repairs but they don't really need repairing but conservation cleaning dusting will take place within within the jeweler house they're not allowed to leave obviously for security reasons we can't do that I mean even they're way behind bars were locked into the jeweler house I still have four armed guards and with me all the time - we'll look look at the the get the doors outside make sure nobody comes in to our inside with me and they'll follow me everywhere they have to be with me all the time I'm the chief exhibitor which I mainly means that I'm primarily responsible for the crown jewels for their safety and also the presentation so I manage the staff that formed jingle house staff they are absolutely the real thing we have for many years being happy with our and I'm confident that we can show the real jewels at times when people come there will see a little sign in the cases saying in use but at best describe what happens but item for the regale you do go in at various state occasions throughout the year we've moved them jewels around in various buildings over the years and each of the times we've enhanced the security comic so fortunately nobody's been anywhere near us or we'd like to think they hadn't there has been no attempt on the con jewels in 1671 [Music] Carol blood was a character well known in our history but what was particularly poignant to us here that in 1671 he carried out a very daring theft of the crown jewels the only time they've ever been stolen the story is incredible thomas block began by making friends with the man who done Tolbert Fitness little by little winning his trust one day he arrived was for men and asked Edwards permission to admire at our jewels once in the jewel room blood knocked out the guard and then stabbed him one of his companions crushed the crown of the Dafydd in the sack the second man stuffed the globe into the topic a scepter too long to the end of the fattest but just as the thieves were ready to flee Edwards son surprised them and raised their laugh cloud and his companion forest but his result Colonel blood was taken into custody whilst in custody here at the tower he wrote to the king and he asked permission to have an audience with the king and surprisingly this was granted to him and so he was taken away down to Westminster where the king awaited the audience he had was on one-to-one basis and that he went in to see the king on comb out he held with him a letter of authorization signed with the Kings own fair hand it stated that blood was to be promoted to be captain of the guard the tower of lump is a concise reflection of English history over the centuries this fortress built by William the Conqueror in 1066 has been put to many uses royal residence Arsenal menagerie and prison it was also the place of execution many crowned heads notably Anne Boleyn [Music] the Royal insignia have been moved many times within the Tower of London finally finding an ideal home in 1971 in the old water this is where one admires them today inaccessible Marvel's encased in their browser [Music] my name is darkness gasps brick and for the last 30 years I have been writing and lecturing on the very specialized subject of jewelry there in the Tower of London because they're the great treasures of the English monarchy and the Tower of London is the safest place for them to be they can be seen by millions of people every year and the millions of people who want to see them are fascinated by what they represent they represent the continuous history of the British monarchy since anglo-saxon times that's the eighth ninth centuries up to the present crown of course is the ultimate symbol then you have the other symbols the scepter which again shows authority the bracelets the virtues of sincerity and wisdom the swords representing justice spiritual justice and temporal justice and the idea of mercy it's not for Republicans it's for people who believe in the idea of a king or a queen who is inherited this particular position to govern and these objects represent that idea and because they are so old they represent the continuous history of the monarchy in England there are nine crumbs so Edward's crown named after Edward the Confessor the last of the Saxon Kings which is used for the coronation ceremony the Imperial state crown all great state occasions with the famous historic stones the imperial crown of India made in 1911 for the Delhi Durbar then there are the two crowns of Mary of Modena from 1685 then there are there is the crown of Queen Mary at 1911 the crown of the Queen Mother 1937 coronation when Queen Victoria became Emperor India 1870 a very charming Imperial small diamond crown was made for her that's the eighth and the ninth is the crown of the Prince of Wales which is I think all gold so those are the nine Crown's all of you in a Tower of London it's real of the grounds reef essentially this doesn't happen except on great ceremonial occasions historic occasions such as the crown [Music] at a time like this one does not skimp the magnificence it's necessary to impress the people who are additionally invited to serve it must be an extraordinary once-in-a-lifetime television had just arrived on the scene Elizabeth and aware of the political and social value [Music] and she became many years the most recognized media harmonica needs decorum to a certain Authority in the choice of royal splendor she was always out Duke of British accent Oh bleep [Music] from the scepter or the emblems and therefore they must be [Music] in 18-49 is part of the Treaty of Lahore an annotation that Punjab Queen Victoria came into the possession of the direct Kohinoor diamond now title diamond it came with it a special curse but it was said that anyone who owned it will die a horrible death this diamond that kills originally came from India where according to a legend it brings bad luck tremendous possesses but not to the rumours in any case this stone passed through many royal hands included the celebrated movements in 1739 nadir shah of persia invaded india and sank delhi to seize among other things this fabulous diamond the courtesan having revealed to him that the great mobile hit the stone in disturbin nadir Shah invited the moon to a bank with a reconciliation proposed according to oriental ritual the exchange of addresses the great global couldn't forgiveness and thus lost his treasure when he saw this prodigious stone weighing 186 carats nadir Shah was carried away by his own enthusiasm and exclaimed Kohinoor whole mountain of light some years later nadir Shah was assassinated then new worlds shook the Orient on the diamond fell into the hands of the king of the Sikhs in 18-49 the English plaintiff after a revolt that broke out in the puja finally the all-powerful British East India Company appropriated it and offered it to Queen Victoria it already sparked into the thousand points of light but the Queen wanted more she had it recut no matter that it lost 88 carats it had to gain in brilliance and evil powers of the coin rule they never showed themselves again but it's true that up until now it has always been women moving hear it for Queen Victoria courses in erectus before my sister sister she then passed the diamond down to her successor Queen I dunno he too made light beyond 80 AD his her successor Queen Mary he then moved in 1937 and was placed into the new crown who was made for Queen Elizabeth as a wife of killer 6 Queen Elizabeth of course became Queen up in 1953 and lived on to the year 2002 so her whole life's and a hundred years so it seems the battle for men which is historically recorded and the good luck and long life to women is very much a key factor of the diamonds ocean I think if the world had to decide on eighth or ninth wonder of the world we in Pakistan would think that the coin who should be regarded as one of the wonders of the world but as you know many of the things that belong to us we were not able to get after colonialism ended the coin rule ranks amongst the most important of what rightfully belong to us but we did not get back [Music] majority of things in the Tower of London are reserved for the coronation ceremony there is however the Imperial state crown which is kept for state occasions the Cullinan - very magnificent very large that is in the center of the headband of the Imperial state crown the Covenant a saga in itself it's the largest raw diamond ever discovered on our planet and its discovery literally changed the history of South Africa we're in 1866 the tensions between the Boers colonists from the Netherlands and the British government are already on the rise and will eventually lead to the Boer Wars in the independent state of transfer along the banks of the orange river a 15 year old boy picks up a stone that spark he brings it to a mineral collector to identify him participation it's a dime and in Norway the diamond rush is on concessions multiplied rapidly in the states of transparent orange Cecil Rhodes one of the great colonial English Empire builders comes to bring some order to it for the moment it's a stampede madness people are ready to search every square foot with a fine-tooth comb Cecil Rhodes has no desire for modest pickings he wants all the diamonds he can get so he decides to purchase diamond concessions and all the mines in the Kimberley region afterwards in 1888 he founds the famous De Beers company 10 years later this company will control 90% of the world market [Music] when the second world war ends in 1902 all of South Africa has come down with diamond fever diamond mines sprout up everywhere and thousands of people are on the move become part of this new and promising industry starting in 1902 one of the largest deposits is mined in the Praetorian the premier mine recruitment for workers is non-stop that crater is enormous the premier mine alone produces as many diamonds as all the other Devere mines combined so it's time to take a big step forward to mechanize to reorganise weather strip mining under open sky or shaft mining underground or changing the water courses from placer mining whatever the means of production it is always the same people who work and who work part the blacks at the top of the chain the master usually arrives just in time to collect the fruits of their labor [Music] one evening as always Fred wills the director of the premium mine is doing his tour of inspection inside the crater and by chance he notices a surprising glitter coming from a rock face my name is Frank Frank didn't or what I know about the Cullen and island is that it was found in Pretoria in the premier mine and was the biggest ever discovered it weighs 3106 Karan's a carat is the equivalent of naught point 2 grams sir this diamond weighed about six hundred and twenty grams truly worthy of a royal sceptre at the beginning they didn't believe it to be a diamond and it was thrown out through the rocks and it just lay outside the inn somebody walked past the service manager and he thought but maybe this is not a crystal maybe this is a diamond and he took it into the person-in-charge state of the mine and he had one look at it and threw it through the window outside [Music] so how did this bogus still end up on a royal crown he didn't went and picked it up into a state Senate then was confirmed that it was indeed a diamond they named it the Cullinan diamonds and it weighed 3106 cats mr. wills was very proud of his fight but in the end he had to give it back to the owner of the mine who named it after himself Cullinan and after that they had only just begun they hoped of course to discover a new dime and maybe even bigger until the end of the 20th century the premium mine produced an impressive quantity of diamonds some were beautiful specimens today it still belongs to De Beers who renamed it the Cullinan mine my name is I saw my job is on the show she was in the veers Kalin and mine I'm responsible for the maintenance in the shaft operations this is the old volcano that was that time out here and it's measuring one kilometer by 800 meters the mine go down to 830 meters and the shaft is going down to 763 meters the Cullinan diamond was found already in the corner 6 meters from surface sabe very extreme conditions of temperature and pressure necessary to be pressed together to form [Music] service was born to her parameters of the in it's crystallization dates from above [Music] in the old days and I dig it out by hand and they were 12,000 people working here and the operations now is now fully made mechanized will allege this dr. tougher slowly and we use now 1200 people it was due to incredible luck of the Covenant dialog after school nevertheless in the premium mind they continued to hope for more such [Music] another diamond as stable as the Covenant were found today what would memory whose Treasury would have been rich a lot fabulous piece of jewelry would be encrusted go to the Gulf Emirates where they perceived the light of day for a few hours at most before being buried again in the books of the Swiss ball [Music] each day we bring out 5,500 tons we can drive with a vehicle and the ground and you can dry for approximately 300 kilometres and we can take it the whole car down in the shop it's capable of taking our call and I don't carry and is known for his big diamonds we found the centenary dormant here and we found the Moline environment here and a golden jubilee looking bright for the celebrating maybe the same can't be said when one of them finds a diamond on the ground is supposed to cover as our water is honesty he has paid a certain percentage of the same master [Music] but the owners of mr. pines obviously are afraid that too many miners can't resist temptation perhaps this is one reason why they have fortunately their operations [Music] of the 1200 people employed by kullaberg few of them ever seen the precious stones at the end of the production chain there will be handled by the sorters who remain under [Music] 90% of diamonds cannot be used for jeweled and of the remaining 10% the majority way only a few carats [Music] and when one finds a diamond weighing 620 brands like the color what does one do Thomas Cullen ins wife would have willingly kept but she had to convince us after the small pin which her husband made for him from the most beautiful diamond he had in fact decided to sell [Music] meanwhile the largest diamond in the world was kept for many years Cape Town back hidden away [Music] in 1907 general buta a former commander-in-chief of the war our Peter 14 became mayor of the transmog the war was over and it was time for reconstruction and to obtain the support as a pledge of reconciliation of the current environment able to settle for his 66th birthday a gift perhaps not a poisoned gift but certainly a poisonous are given the political context but the King accepted it not long after the British Parliament would grant Botha a substantial budgetary increase this is a replica of the carbon diamond it was found in January 1900 and five 3106 carats that's approximately 600 grams it was the biggest and never found in the world which is really incredible because it was a pure white gemstone it was bought by a TransAm government general water and it was presented to King Edward in 1908 the got the diamond to the UK by an elaborate hoax actually they made a replica just like this in the gardens on the trip to Cape Town and then by steamship steamboat to the UK but it was actually a hoax it was it was a copy the real diamond went by post from this post office in the village to England and that's how they got the dime to England it was a big horse in fact the two diamonds traveled on the same boat the real one among the postal packages and it's copy in a safe guarded by Scotland Yard agents not supported [Music] the wrong - he didn't have a penny okay destroy destroy arrived since nine of X where they found the be the Monday the time we excelsior is wrong needless to say during this operation the Asha brothers diamond cutting workshop was placed under high surveillance and to this most precious object in the world they had an armored safe specially built now came the time for careful consideration what to do with this mythical stone first problem nothing in the workshop was capable of cleaning it would be necessary to have a tool specially made [Music] it is thankfully vade cooling and we decided to proceed for time dashiki acasi second diligently like Steve ale appear to cleave is to put a steel blade on the weakest point of a stone and give it one sharp blow so that it splits apart cleavage masasa to miraculous example aankia done without the problem we will keep it to put it modestly this was the diamond cleavage of the century here is the current transformed into nine large terms and ninety-six small ones the King of England kept the two largest and left the others to the House of Usher has painted these were then resold the state of transfer which again offered them to enter the city after this loss of the Diamonds Englund finally found itself in possession of the two stars the Cullinan - a second star of Africa which weighs 300 17.4 own care was added to the Imperial ground and the number one the great star of Africa the largest white diamond in the world ornaments the Royal scepter of England with its thousand points of light its pear-shaped and weighs more than 530 carats to transform a large stone into an exceptional jewel even if it is our to be pure is more than an art but know how to accomplish this borders on magic and Gabby Tarkovsky remains today the great magician in this world je m'appelle Gabrielle coffee I'm Gabriel Tchaikovsky clearly now it was his majesty encore de la beauté there's an individual an individual and each other economically the time as you do two fractions each time you must ask it and the answer is and then you have to choose a cliche because each time you must say define a promise you will be the most beautiful in fact someone when I first got this diamond in Japan I probably think it's a crisis I don't touch it oh poor poor you it's bigger than ovide alone this never happens is a demo exceptional and whenever Moines if it's so exceptional that you go crazy I gotta be calm this is to muscly cannot be cut into machine I don't use machines to wound this try to use lasers to burn my hands are too weak me they're not safranin for you you can come over diamond with your hands real / Pakistan d'Ivoire affordable yet [Music] [Music] Davi leads the life of the hand if Alex - Alex manufacturers your because there is no source it's difficult to decide which form would be best if Hamas say weeks early to make it as beautiful as possible a baby to be the most impressive multimodal the model that I called remember saying to myself that I would never miss Yulan boy to say oh my dear I can't what do you mean you can't say Papa I mean I can't your money rip up the diamond doesn't want it has fallen in love with us Jimmy Street listen to myself either busy or I'm simply ignorant oconee simply ma vision you are a lot of mysterious identify a test a pull-up from your first time in through I invited all my vanilla latte lip of all of you feel a stone which was in an almost rescue Feeny and I put it down this is our faster children knees bent over it come our starting goalie and started to laugh in what is the way right Ian's got his Redis tonight when children laugh it's because something's funny they go up against it maybe it's funny because it's a bhop maybe it's completely business it Delmarva maybe I'll show it to anyone else this is a fight maybe I failed here Bally's and then I asked the little dog I'll never forgive me laughs Rihanna la la pansy replied we love because the diamond is smiling with your mom and I knew exactly [Music] [Music] if you look at the diamonds I've only seen replicas of of course but the one side looks like into a shape as if it's been cut or broken away from another stub and the belief is that the stone that was attached to it was bigger in the Cullinan that was recovered some people say that Donald was born of a bigger diamond and it was actually broken off and these are true they found the other part now they never found the other part then the experts at that time when the dad was found in 1905 by afraid wills quite a few experts actually looked at this down and said yes it was part of a bigger diamond well that's true or not modern-day experts now seem to think it wasn't part of a bigger diamond but that's been rumors actually that some people actually saw the other half in fact there was a guy who was it he was actually executed and he said that he had the other half there was home before I tell anybody where it was there is nothing like a whiff of mystery to nourish myths and dreams the two Cullen and diamonds couldn't have found a more dignified room to reveal their spender nevertheless even their royal pedigree didn't shelter them with grief I actually went to the Tower of London a couple years ago and I explained our strong colony in South Africa and that we'd like that I am back but they said they didn't think the Queen would actually allow them but there are people in this relative calm and South Africa who really would like to see this time I'm back in this country [Music] in 1649 we had what we call our parliamentary Commonwealth period during that time agents of Oliver Cromwell was sent here to the tower with orders to destroy the balls of majesty that were no longer required so as a result the Crown's of the day were dissemble the gold was melted down and the stones also stored away some 11 years later on the cessation of our Civil War and the end of parliamentarism we had restoration and as a result they then said about remaking the crown jewels but they used the original plans so that what we have today is very much in the same make as what it was many years ago there were costs many ghost stories here in the tower we have seen many times people have recorded seeing all kinds of ghosts the dual house now of course is a fairly modern building so we may have burnt out the previous ones from when we built it in 1845 but of course across the broad wall we have seen Queens of England but we'll have at one time worn crown jewels of the coronation regalia for example Queen Anne Boleyn is often seen here in the tower they say that her head is tucked underneath her arm and as a result of being even songs written about such things a one dark wind is night in 1841 the man in the bowler tower have failed to take his furnace fighter down completely and as a result some couple of hours after he'd left to go home it caught like again and then set fire to the building it subsequently set fire to the grand storehouse now the tools at the time were held in the marking Tower and they were very close to it the fire was so intense in the ground stores that they worry about the calm dual safety they thought they'd going to move them we had a round tower policeman at the time and he was the one who was at the front and he broke into the cases and he was handing the crook jewels out and they were taken to the white tile for safety they say that by the time he got the last of the items the Galea safely out of the cage his clothes were actually on fire and were singeing away one would think that the crown jewels of pink would be protected by some sort of magic spell none of the ghosts who inhabit the Tower of London would ever dare to take the jewels were still intact after the Civil War and they were miraculously spared from the flame that would have serious damage some juice insolence the Crown's are still there as for the little sisters the Tiaras there are many offer but fewer ever displayed [Music] the most famous the portable tiara was made by Garrett in 1870 it was made for Lord Baltimore and Laura Ponce and Laura was a treasurer to Queen Victoria so it was it was a very special is that it is very rare for royalty to the Marvel of the large Africa those to permanently could not be sold they are the word is inalienable they cannot be separated from the institution of the crown and the other seven are in to brooches in a ring a smaller pendant and as a large pendant and they belong to the Queen her personal property and if there was a terrible disaster with the English royal family I do not see any reason why whoever inherited them should not be able to sell them this is precisely the case with the jewels of Princess Margaret betweens younger sister [Music] Princess Margaret had an inordinate love Jules and the Queen mother her grandmother loved to spoil this most unruly child of the royal family nothing was too beautiful or too extravagant for the romantic and capricious young princess but however great the king he is human as ourselves Margaret's children for financial reasons had to put a part of these treasures up for sale including the famous Jumanji pin sold at the sale room yesterday for a vast sum of money I think the reserve on it was something about two hundred thousand I think it went for just under a million all of the Crown's have got a very interesting history but the most important one I think is the Imperial state crown because it's got so many wonderful stones in with so much history the black Prince's Ruby for instance which is not a ruby but has spin out everybody knows it's the finest spinel in the world it's drilled all the way through drilled all the way through cuz it was worn on a leather thong around the neck but it was also worn by Henry the fifth at the Battle of Agincourt 1415 but who was this Black Prince he was the son of Edward the third of people he distinguished himself at the Battle of Mithila 1367 when he fought at the side of pierre the first of Casteel the king of Castile gave him a red ruby to thank him the stone was added to Henry the fifth scrap and some 40 years later during the Battle of Agincourt in England against France the Duke of allasong struck Henry a mighty blow with his axe an incredible stroke of luck the blade of the axe was deflected by the red stone it is said that the Ruby still bears the mark [Music] the ruby of the Black Prince is actually a spinner that is a stone whose chemical composition is close to the Ruby but less valuable an impostor of sorts because in those days it wasn't possible to chemically analyzed the stone emergence did simple tests that often resulted in errors this was mentioned in the writings of Marco Polo and Jean Baptiste Tavernier the great traveller gem budge who was received at the court of the Sultan's and of the great movie he writes that already in the epoch of tamale in the 14th century the kings of the Orient were insatiable collectors of rubies and spinels these red gems on which they engraved their names were resplendent on turbans crowns and Thrones some spinels had many centuries of history behind and these histories were often as turbulent as those of the kings of the Orient themselves the black Prince's Ruby came from Badakhshan in the center of one is not a Jew his town Tamlyn often invited the kingdom paddock shank to his court in Selecao and had the spinnel mines guarded by his own soldiers how did these spins get from the dark cabinets to the farthest reaches of the known world by traveling the Silk Road [Music] this was how the 14th century will Ruby for the Black Prince was sold to the Moorish king of Granada he was assassinated by the king of custody shortly after and who stripped him of his treasure and it was the same king who offered it to the Black Prince all of these events were probably he quickly immune to those who discovered the stone the mine where it was found is called poo in London a mountain of precious stones it Nestle's 2,800 meters in altitude in the Pamir mountains in Tajikistan of course let's say between the voltage to the proof still existing today some group tomorrow we're going to visit the 16th century this Spinelli's of it is very red watching [Music] this is it spinel the imposter the stone that passed for a ruby on many royal crowns it is very hard which makes it useful for all kinds of joy [Music] which explains its popularity among the rich and famous the different minds of Badakhshan exported spinel everywhere as far as Asia and the Far East as well as took West [Music] today against the Queen a line is brought in utter secrecy perhaps an old habit of the Soviet regime in any case the mine is only accessible a few months out of the year because in the winter the Pamir mountains are covered with three meters of snow what is left all the phase is the bottom of the map deposits that were exhausted long ago this is the position of the Kulin this pr2 trust in the air [Music] day and night every day nobody still gives people properly [Music] in the park what is done in the post the Soviet regime modernized production by introducing the pneumatic drill [Music] no follow an approach between the Tajik authority like the spoiled in war the spindles are extracted and transported by special services to the cattle fish on baby the tiny part [Applause] [Applause] most of the old shafts have been closed for security reasons they're in danger of caving in but a new topographical survey is envisioned to see if new ones can be you [Music] the spindles produced from the green outline of the most beautiful in the world naturally this makes one wonder if this mountain isn't hiding one stone that is even more here - on always the exception a spindle as big as an egg it's a positive all the others and that would be worthy of the crown of the food [Music] once a year at least the splendid royal crown of England plays its most noble the ceremony of the opening day of Parliament presided over by the Queen in the fall the game [Music] the Jews appeared the emblems of power for some symbols of you is pretty Caesars but in the air what fascinates us most is that they possess what we left it turned you [Music]

Channel: Voillot Patrick

Views: 248,891

Keywords: documentary, gemmologist, gemstone, precious stones, gemmology, Patrick Voillot, pierre précieuse, jewelry, stone, movie, tv, frenchtv, jeweler, prices, million dollars, expedition, mine, mining, Place Vendôme, The Treasure of the Queen of England, Treasure, Queen, England, history, discover, kingdom, jewels, South Africa, Amsterdam, Asscher, cut, adventure, Tajikistan, the Black Prince's Ruby, Golconda, India, Koh I Noor, diamond, Christie's, London, Princess Margaret, crown, the Tower of London, royal, cullinan

Id: u7OtscoVP2w

Length: 55min 47sec (3347 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 15 2019