[Translate to English:] Der „Dresdner Grüne Diamant“

The "Dresden Green Diamond" entered the Grünes Gewölbe in 1742 as part of the brilliant set. King August III of Poland had purchased the "seladon-green" 41-carat and "extra beautiful" diamond at the Leipzig Fair.

Like almost all famous diamonds, the "Dresden Green" is surrounded by a mystery. Nobody knows by which routes the largest green diamond ever found reached Dresden from India and how much it cost - probably 400,000 thalers, an unimaginably high sum at the time. But the diamond owes its unique colouring to the fact that it had come into contact with natural radioactivity inside the earth - a real miracle of nature.

[Translate to English:] August III.

August III had his newly acquired "house diamond" placed in a decorative order of the Golden Fleece and thus received one of the most magnificent orders that a king possessed in his time. In 1768, his grandson Friedrich August III had the order of the Fleece broken up by the Dresden court jeweller Diespach and the diamond reworked into a hat agraffe. This extremely precious hat jewellery still exists today in this captivatingly beautiful setting formed by two diamonds of 6.3 and 19.3 carats and 411 medium and smaller diamonds.

The hat adornment with the Dresden Green Diamond was on loan as the highlight of the special exhibition "Making Marvels: Science and Splendor at the Courts of Europe" at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (25.11.2019 to 01.03.2020).

With the reopening of the Residenzschloss after the Corona-related closure, the jewellery work can once again be seen in the Watzdorf Cabinet of the Neues Grünes Gewölbe.

[Translate to English:] Neupräsentation

The presentation in the Neues Grünes Gewölbe has been completely revised and redesigned. Integrated into a modern architecture of mirrored walls and a bright green basic atmosphere, the hat jewellery with the famous diamond shines in a new light.

Virtual reconstructions illustrate how the hat ornament was worn in the 18th century and what the piece of jewellery looked like before its redesign in 1769. Findings from scientific investigations, detailed macroscopic photographs, results of a 3D scan and fascinating historical facts round off the new presentation of the "Dresden Green Diamond".