Essex County herald. [volume] (Guildhall, Vt.) 1873-1964, 1889-08-23
MILLIONS In DIAMONDS.
WONDERFUL JEWELS THAT DE-
LIGHT THE PERSIAN MONARCH.
A Throne Blazing With Gems-The
Dar-e-NOor Diamond, the Rival
of the Kohinoor.

S. G. W. Benjamin writes as follows
to the New York Herald describing a
visit made by him TO the store house con-
tanning the vast accumulation of jewels
possessed by Nasr-ed-Deen, the Shah of
Persia:
When after months of patient effort the
writer finally succeeded in receiving an
invitation to inspect the royal treasury
he was Immediately besieged by requests
of Europeans to permit them to accom-
pany himself and family, request which
could only be granted sparingly. Twelve
royal feranches or attendants in scarlet
livery, preceded us as we went to the
palace and one of the high ministers of
the realm was present to receive us and
exhibit the wealth of Persia.
The Hall of Audience or Treasury is a
superb apartment some $50 feet long and
sixty broad, paved with the tiles for
which Persian art is famous, arranged in
elegant designs. The ceiling is vaulted
and decorated very deliberately in stucco,
an art in which the Persians excel. The
treasures were arranged in cases about
the sides of the apartment-like bookcases
and in glass covered receptacles re-
sembling showcases. The first objects to
attract our attention were the chairs and
tables covered with beaten gold. There
were about forty of the former, shaped
like an arm chair, but differing from the
usual household furniture in being en-
tirely overlaid with sheets Of gold nailed
on with gold fastenings. These chairs,
we are told, are worth $4,000 each; they
certainly are of great value, and $3.50, 900
does not seem an exaggerated estimate
for the entire number. The tables were
about six feet long and were completely
covered with the same precious material.
These sumptuous articles are truly
Oriental in character, for from the earliest
times beaten gold has been a favorite
method of decoration in the East, and is
often mentioned in their poems and
tales.
1t was an easy transition to pass from
examining these objects to an inspection
of the famous Peacock Throne. This is
one of the most celebrated treasures of
the East. Ages before it was acquired
by Persia it had worldwide celebrity.
1t stood in the audience hall of the great
palace of the Moguls at Delhi, and was
favorite object for eliciting the enthusi-
asm and descriptive talents of European
travellers in India. Taverier, himself a
ieweler, well known both in Europe and
Asia as such, estimated its value at some
twenty millions of dollars. Other experts
have valued this astonishing treasure as
high as $35, O00,0 900, while some place
its worth under $13, 000,0 900. Its name
is derived from the form of the back,
which radiates like the tail of peacock,
each separate feather glittering with the
matchless iridescence of countless jewels
of price. The frame of the throne if of
gold and the surface is blaze OF gems
arranged in intricate patterns, COM
bining to a common effect, a mosaic
whose splendor has never been ap-
preached, much less surpassed, since the
days of Solomon or the storied magnifi-
cence of Bagdad when at the zenith of
her glory and power. This bewildering
combination of the wealth of Oriental
mines and the skill of Oriental artists
was seized by Nadir Shah when he con-
auered India at the head of the armies of
Persia early in the seventeenth century.
After distributing spoil to the value of
$1,000 to each of his soldiers he brought
home with him it is said treasures to the
value of upward of one hundred millions,
of which the Peacock Throne was the
chief. Wherein the walls of the East
differs from that of Europe is its less
even distribution. 1t is concentrated in
the hands of the monarch and a few of
the mobiles, and hence, while the country
may give an impression of poverty the
court is always able to dazzle by pageantry
and genuine treasures.
On the seat of the Peacock Throne was
small box, covered with cloth of gold.
The key to this box, which is metal, is
retained by the Shah about his person,
except on the rare occasions when the
case is to be opened, when it is given to
the Lord Keeper of the Treasury, whose
head must answer for the result. Inside
of the case is silver casket, of which the
key is hidden in the royal library in a
box resembling book. Within the sill
yer casket is one of gold, whose key IS
kept by the Lord Keeper himself.
On this occasion the three keys were
forthcoming and the Lord Keeper placing
the precious packet on his lap opened one
case after another. When the golden lid
of the inner was raised splendor like
the radiance of the sun burst forth and
we looked on the famous Dar-i-Noor, or
Sea of Light. This is the great diamond
of Persia, one of the largest, most mag
nifcent and most costly gems in existence.
IT'S exact weight l am unable to state,
but it approaches the size of the Kohl
moor diamond before that was cut down
to its present dimensions.
We were next shown a case covered a
foot deep with pearls, lying together in
heap like sand on the seashore. The
pearl fisheries of Persia have long been
famous; the divers of Orymus and Bah
rein have rivaled those of Ceylon in the
treasures they have erected from the
deep, and for ages pearls were more &C
counted for at Ispahan than silver at Jer-
usalem in Solomon's time. The supply
seems at present to be somewhat less ow-
inc to the fact that the divers each year
are forced to plunge farther down to lind
the pearl system. But to judge from
that mass of pearls l inferred that there
were still few left in Persia
1 should not forget to speak also of