Provenance

The diamond itself was formerly the property of Countess Eliza Krasinska, née Branicka (1820-1876) and sold in Christie's Geneva, 18 November 1998, lot 780
In its current mounting : Christie's New York 16 April 2014, lot 95

Note: Countess Eliza Branicka was born on the 15th January 1820 on her family' estate in the Ukraine. Her father, Count Wladyslaw Branicki (1783-1843), was the godson of Empress Catherine the Great, and was believed by many to be her grandson. His father had been the swashbuckling Grand Hetman of Poland. His mother was Alexandra Engelhardt, the favourite niece of Prince Grigoriy Potemkin, and possibly the natural daughter of Catherine The Great. Branicka's main residence was the estate of Belaya Tserkov, consisting of half a million hectares of the best Ukranian land. Alexandra Branicka was Potemkin's principal heiress, adding legendary wealth to his, with the result that Countess Eliza's father was among the richest individuals in Europe. He married Countess Roza Potocka, and had three sons and three daughters, one of whom was Eliza. One sister married Count Adam Potocki, and the other Prince Livio Odeschalchi. Eliza herself was married to Count Zygmunt Krasinski (1812-1859), one of Poland's great Romantic poets. Zygmunt's father was the colonel in chief of the famous regiment of Chevaux-Legers Polonais de la Garde, stationer in Chantilly. The engagement took place in Rome on 20th April 1843, when, apart from this green diamond mounted as an engagement ring, Eliza received from her fiancé's father, two parures "one of stones, the other of diamonds", as she noted in a letter to her sister. They married in Dresden on 26th July 1843. Their marriage lasted for sixteen years during which time Eliza and her husband had two sons and two daughters. After the poet's death in 1859, Eliza married her husband's cousin Count Ludwik Krasinkski, a great landowner and brilliant entrepreneur who became one of the richest men in Poland. She died in 1876.