40 THENEWYORKER,FEBRUARY3, 2020
the stone. A stone that large needed to
be split several times—a single polished
diamond made from the Cullinan would
have been unwearable. Splitting the
Cullinan, however, was dangerous: a
saw might bend halfway through a cut.
Cleaving seemed to be the only option.
According to Ian Balfour’s description
of the event, in his 1968 book, “Famous
Diamonds,” the Asschers practiced, with
oversized tools, on models of the Culli-
nan made from glass and wax. Then a
groove was cut into the top of the di-
amond. On February 10, 1908, Joseph
Asscher placed a cleavage knife in the
groove and struck the knife with a ham-
mer. The knife broke, but the diamond
did not.
Asscher made a second attempt, ac-
cording to Balfour, “with beads of sweat
on his face, in tense silence, stretched
almost to breaking point.” The diamond
split cleanly into two pieces. Eventu-
ally, the Cullinan was cleaved into nine
stones. The Asschers’ favored diamond
polisher, Henri Koe, and two of his col-
leagues worked fourteen-hour days for
eight months to finish the stones, using
fifteenth-century technology—princi-
pally, a scaife, or polishing wheel. The
Cullinan collection is considered nearly
perfect. On completing the job, Koe
had a nervous breakdown. He was sent
to South Africa to recuperate.
The technology of diamond cutting
has since improved. Lasers now make
incisions—although polishers still use
scaifes. There are thousands of cutting
houses, not only in the traditional Eu-
ropean centers of the trade but also in
India, the Middle East, and China. Yet
significant financial risks remain, and
few diamantaires have sufficient expe-
rience to consider buying and polish-
ing a big stone. Some of these experts
work directly for the most prestigious
retailers: Graff, Chopard, Tiffany, and
so on. Other buyers act as intermedi-
aries with small rare-diamond firms.
Rough diamonds are normally bought
at tenders—invitation-only auctions,
where clients are invited to view the
stone for a few hours and then decide
how much to bid. Within half a day, a
prospective purchaser is asked to imag-
ine the potential outcome of cutting a
stone across various planes, in order to
maximize its value. Once a stone has
been bought, software can help with
such geometric considerations. But the
calculations made at a tender must be
made by eye alone.T
his fall, I met Oded Mansori, a
manufacturer and distributor of
rare diamonds. Mansori has worked in
Antwerp for more than two decades;
before that, he was based in Tel Aviv.
He is as thin as a blade, with wide-set
hazel eyes and flecks of gray in his hair
and beard, and he moves with the me-
ticulousness of someone who spendshis days around tiny objects of enor-
mous value. The first time I met him,
it was Rosh Hashanah, and the syna-
gogue near the Antwerp diamond
bourse was thronged. Very few busi-
nesses in the diamond quarter were
open. But Mansori invited me into
his office, which was off an austere
whitewashed corridor, in a heavily se-
cured building.
He was in an expansive mood. Over
coffee, I asked him what, precisely, he
did for a living. “We are dream-mak-VERDICTS
Advisory Note
Since the Middle Ages, animals have been put on trial for violating the supreme, metaphorical,
social, and human order (themselves, incidentally, understood and consciously laid out, if not
as a pure reproduction of metaphysical order then as its purest possible reflection). They
recognized the conscious (what, you think dogs are stupid? they’re smarter than some of us)
or half-conscious (given each and every animal species belonging to an empowered communal
soul) assumption of responsibility for the representation of, at the very least, the forces of
light or darkness.
As a reflection of the fundamental world-organizing foundations of not only human existence
but all of existence, these judicial proceedings were and, at times, served as the only guarantee
of a person’s belonging not only to his earthly but also his world-building, world-founding
energy and activity. Sometimes these were the only defense against the invasion of the
destructive forces of entropy.* * *The Bear, for negligent performance of duty, shall be sentenced to two
years probation with deduction of fifty per cent of salary at his place of
permanent employment; who objects to what? No one and to nothing.The Hare, for petty theft, shall be sentenced to administrative discipline
at his place of permanent residence; who objects to what? No one and to
nothing.The Dog, for hooliganism, shall be sentenced to one year of imprisonment,
but, since he has been given a good reference from his place of work, this
shall be changed to fifteen days and public service, get it! You don’t get it?
You get it, all right!The Cat, for the systematic violation of public order and antisocial behavior,
shall be sentenced to exile at a distance of a hundred kilometres—and no
objections! What do you have to object to?The Wolf, for large-scale embezzlement, shall be sentenced to twenty-five
years, or no, to be shot would be better, no, it’s still more fair to say twenty-
five years with confiscation of property—you think that’s harsh? No, not
really! It can’t be done any other way.The Rat, for antisocial behavior and insulting accepted norms and the
political system, shall be sentenced to five years of hard labor, followed by
a ten-year suspension of civil rights! Too little? But our judicial system is
not punitive! It is humanist and instructional! We aren’t fascists, after all.