Jules Porgès
Jules Porgès | |
---|---|
![]() Jules Porgès in Prague 1875 | |
Born | Yehuda Porges 25 May 1839 |
Died | 20 September 1921 | (aged 82)
Occupation(s) | Financier, diamond and art dealer |
Jules Porgès (25 May 1839 – 20 September 1921) was a Paris-based financier who played a central role in the rise of the Randlords who controlled the diamond and gold mining industries in South Africa.
He was born Yehuda Porges in Vienna and raised in Prague, where his father was a jeweller. He settled in Paris in the early 1860s and established himself as a diamond trader, through his company Jules Porgès & Cie.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a9/Jules_Porg%C3%A8s00.jpg/220px-Jules_Porg%C3%A8s00.jpg)
He recognized early the significance of the diamond finds in South Africa and, in 1873, sent two of his younger staff, Alfred Beit and Julius Wernher, to South Africa as his firm's representatives. He arrived in Kimberley himself in 1876 and continued their work in consolidating claims, financing deals and marketing stones, so that his firm Compagnie Française de Diamant du Cap de Bonne Espérance gained a significant portion of the Kimberley mine.
He saw the benefit of
With the discovery of gold in South Africa, at
In 1890, he largely retired from South African business, and his interests were taken over by the firm of Wernher, Beit & Co.
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/fc/Jules_Porg%C3%A8s_at_Rochefort75.jpg/220px-Jules_Porg%C3%A8s_at_Rochefort75.jpg)
He built a large château at Rochefort-en-Yvelines just outside Paris for his wife known as the Château Porgès de Rochefort-en-Yvelines , and daughter and maintained a 1892 built Paris townhouse on the Avenue Montaigne (14-18 avenue Montaigne), where he housed his important art collection.
He died in Paris in 1921, having outlived many of his protégé Randlords.
Sources
- Dictionary of South African Bibliography. Pretoria. 1983.
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