Amsterdam was one of Europe's great diamond cutting cities for about three centuries. It rose in the late 1500s and 1600s as merchants and cutters left war-torn Antwerp, grew rich on Indian and then Brazilian rough, boomed again after South African diamonds arrived, and lost most of its industry after the Nazi occupation destroyed its Jewish community. The Asscher firm's cutting of the Cullinan diamond in 1908 is its most famous single job.
How Amsterdam got the diamond trade
In the 16th century the diamond capital of northern Europe was Antwerp. That changed in 1585, when Spanish forces captured Antwerp during the Dutch Revolt and the northern rebels closed the Scheldt river to shipping. Merchants, bankers and skilled workers moved north, and many settled in Amsterdam, which was becoming the commercial center of the new Dutch Republic.
Amsterdam had other advantages. The Dutch East India Company, founded in 1602, gave the city direct sea links to Asia, including the Indian ports that handled diamonds from the Golconda mines. The city also offered more religious tolerance than most of Europe, which drew people who could not work freely elsewhere.
Sephardic cutters and the guild system
Sephardic Jews, families with roots in Spain and Portugal, played a large part in Amsterdam's early diamond trade. Many had fled the Iberian Inquisition and kept trading networks reaching Lisbon, London and the Mediterranean. In Amsterdam they worked as merchants and as cutters and polishers.
Much of the city's commerce was organized through guilds, and many guilds were closed to Jews. The diamond trade was a newer trade with fewer guild barriers, so it became one of the few skilled occupations open to Jewish workers. That history helps explain why Amsterdam's diamond industry stayed closely tied to its Jewish community for centuries. Over time Ashkenazi Jews from Central and Eastern Europe joined the trade in large numbers.
The 17th and 18th centuries
Through the 1600s Amsterdam workshops polished Indian rough into rose cuts, table cuts and early brilliants. The rose cut, with its flat base and domed top of triangular facets, was a standard of the period, and Dutch cutters became closely associated with it. The page on the history of faceted gems traces how those styles developed.
In the 1720s diamonds were found in Brazil, and much of the new rough reached Europe through Lisbon and then the Dutch and English markets. Amsterdam cutters processed a large part of it. Polishing wheels were turned by hand, by horses and later by steam, and work was often done in large shared mills where cutters rented a wheel.
The "Cape era" boom
The next great surge came after diamonds were found near Kimberley in South Africa in the late 1860s and early 1870s. The new mines produced far more rough than Europe had ever handled, and Amsterdam's industry grew rapidly in what local people called the "Cape time." Wages rose, new steam-powered factories opened, and thousands of workers joined the trade.
Booms were followed by slumps, and diamond workers faced hard conditions. In 1894 they founded the General Dutch Diamond Workers' Union (ANDB), led by Henri Polak. It became one of the first modern trade unions in the Netherlands and won gains such as shorter working days.
Asscher and the Cullinan
The best-known Amsterdam firm was I.J. Asscher, run by the Asscher family. In 1902 the firm introduced the Asscher cut, a square step cut with cut corners and a deep pavilion.
In 1905 the largest gem-quality rough diamond ever found, the Cullinan, was recovered at the Premier mine in South Africa. It weighed just over 3,100 carats. The Transvaal government gave it to King Edward VII, and in 1908 the stone was sent to the Asscher firm in Amsterdam to be cut.
Joseph Asscher studied the stone carefully before cleaving it along a planned line. The finished work produced nine major stones and nearly a hundred smaller ones. The two largest, Cullinan I (the Great Star of Africa) and Cullinan II, are set in the British Crown Jewels. For more on how large stones are planned and split, see diamond cutting.
Decline after World War II
The German occupation of the Netherlands from 1940 to 1945 devastated Amsterdam's diamond trade. Most of the city's diamond workers and dealers were Jewish, and the great majority were deported and murdered in the Holocaust. Some firms' stock was seized. The Asscher family was largely lost, though a few members survived and restarted the business after the war.
The industry never recovered its old size. With most of its skilled workforce gone and labor costs rising, Amsterdam could not compete as cutting shifted to Antwerp, Israel and, from the 1960s, India. By the late 20th century only a handful of cutting firms remained, and many of those focused on tourist visits.
Amsterdam's diamond heritage today
The diamond trade left marks on the city. The former ANDB union building, sometimes called "De Burcht," is still a city landmark. Visitors can tour polishing workshops and a diamond museum near the Museumplein. The Asscher name survives as a cutting firm, and the Asscher cut remains a popular shape, especially in a modernized version introduced in the early 2000s.
Some older Amsterdam work survives in antique jewelry set with rose cuts and old European cut diamonds.
Frequently asked questions
Why was Amsterdam important for diamond cutting?
After Antwerp was cut off from the sea in 1585, many merchants and cutters moved to Amsterdam. Its trade links to India and Brazil and its relative religious tolerance helped it lead the European diamond industry for much of the 17th and 18th centuries.
Who cut the Cullinan diamond?
The I.J. Asscher firm in Amsterdam cut the Cullinan in 1908. Joseph Asscher cleaved the rough, and the firm produced nine major stones, including the two largest set in the British Crown Jewels.
Is Amsterdam still a diamond cutting city?
Only on a small scale. The industry lost most of its workers in the Holocaust and could not compete with lower-cost cutting centers after the war. Today a few firms remain, many of them open to visitors.