The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-03-13
THE FRENCH CROWN JEWELS.
History of the Gems which the Cham
Der wants to Sell.

A commission of jewellers and connois-
seurs of jewels appointed to value the Crown
diamonds, and to say which, if any, should
be retained, recommended that certain
number of jewels or jewelled objects should
not be sold, and their advice is to be COM
piled with, save in regard to the foreign dec
orations and the insignia Of the Legion of
Honor worn by Napoleon Ill 'These," says
the report on the subject, recall no histori-
cal souvenir. The girdle in diamonds which
the Empress Eugene caused to be made on
the model of the one worn by Mile. Derval
in La Biche au Bots" possesses less a his
torical than an anecdotal value. These OBJ
jects, instead of being sold in their present
form, are first to be melted down. Of these
two are swords which belonged, one to the
Dauphin, the other to Louis XVIII. The
third of the objects to be melted is the impe
rial crown made in 1854 for the coronation
which never.took place. 1t is inscribed as
insignificant in workmanship and of doubt
full taste" Its value is more than doubtful,
considered as historical relic Plus *, it
will be remembered, had been counted on to
perform the ceremony for which it was
made. But Napoleon Ill. never found him
self in position to induce the Pope to as
sist in his coronation. The two royal swords
and the imperial crown which was destined
never to be used are, after the stones have
been taken out, to be melted and sold as so
much metal, in order that they may not fall
into the hands of Nine. Tussaud or the pro-
prietors of the Musee Grevin.
The government does not, however, pro-
pose to sell the famous Regent which was
acquired by that Regent Orleans, to whom it
owes its name, for over $675,000. A story was
told of the Regent" that it had been stolen
by French deserter from the eye of the fig
ure of Juggesnaut, though according to
another version it was not stolen from a god,
but from a slave who had found it in mine,
and was in the habit of carrying it about in
wand which he had made expressly for its
reception in one of his legs. This stone has
the reputation of being the purest, if not the
largest of famous diamonds. The kings of
France wore it in their crown. Napoleon,
however, carried it in the hilt of his sword.
Had he not done so, it would not for time
have been lost to France, as it was at Water
loo, when it fdll into the hands of the Prus-
slams. After the Restoration it went back to
France. and that it might not second time
become the property of the Prussians, it was
conveyed in 1870, when the capitai was about
to be invested, from Paris to Tours and
from Tours to Bordeaux. 1t has had strange
adventures, too, in France itself. Thus, un-
der the. Consulate and the Empire, it re-
who held 1t as guarantee for the repay
ment OF State loan, and meanwhile lent it
to his wife to wear at evening parties, re-
placing it in his strong box by an excellent
imitation in crytsal, which is said on more
than one occasion to have been exhibited as
the original to the authorities charged with
the duty of wishing it.
Portions of the crown diamonds of France
have already been twice sold-in 1851 by
Louis XIV, and in 1874 by Louis XVI-and
at the time of the Revolution they were
partly from hatred Of monarchical vanities,
partly from want of money! to have been
disposed of in mass. The sale. however, was
from time to time postponed; and the Con-
yentlon being replaced by the Directory, and
pre- a taste for diamonds gradually came in
| to existence; though Napoleon having once
pledged the crown diamonds, was for a long
time without the necessary funds for taking
them out In republic where court cere-
| monies have no existence, crown diamonds
are for practical purposes yalueless, and the
best thing to do with them, especially if the
State wants money, is doubtless to sell them.