The Sunday herald and weekly national intelligencer., 1890-06-29


million dollars. King, distinguished diamond
expert and author, has pronounced this stone,
water, the first diamond in the world" In 179l
it was valued at S2,5C0,0CO. With this and eight
other large diamonds the unused crown, of
France is the richest regal crown in the world.
There are several other cut diamonds that
weigh almost as much as the R' gent, but there is
not space Tor the history OF each
The Stewart. This diamond. weighing in the
rough 2SSs carats, may take its place here, 1t
South Africa The date of the find was in 1872.
ltis on the London market
The, Star of the South, found by negress in
Brazil in 1858, was purchased by the late eX-
Gakwar of I'aroda in India. In the rough it
weighed 25t but cutting reduced it to l25 carats:
not of the first water, but free from flaws, was
found in South Africa in 1878. In the rough it
weighs pa carats.
The Jagersfontein was found in South Africa
in 1881, and weighs in the rough 2O9t carats.
THE KoH-I-NUR,
or Mound of Light" now belongs to the Crown
of England. Its legendary history goes back five
thousand years, but the first distinct and reliable
reference to it occurs in the memoirs of Sultan
ing in 1926 he describes how it came to him from
Bikermajt, Rajah of Gwalior, after the Battle OF
Paniput ltweighed then about lS1 carats. Sui
tan Ala. cd-din had acquired it in 1904, when he
defeated the Rajah of Malwa in whose family 1t
This stone, as well as the Great Mogul, belonged
to the Mogul Emperors when Tavernier visited
Delhi in 1865. but while he mentions the Great
Mogul he doesn't mention the Koh-i.Nur.
Learned writer's have argued that the Great Mo-
gul and the koh--Nur were identical, but Pro-
fessor Bali and Mr.. Strceter prove to the salts
faction of the ordinary reader that they were dis
tinct. The Great Mogul may have been cleaved,
mutlated, puverlzed, and destroyed after Tav-
ernier said he saw it. 1t may have been cut up
into number of small diamonds, or it may have
been ground into dust 1t may now be with Nc
Ginty at the bottom of the sea, or it may be
quietly reposing, temporarily forgotten, in the
pocket Of some cast-otf garment belonging to
as other famous diamonds have done, after hav-
ing been lost for ages, or it may never again be
seen. Anyhow, it seems to be established that
the Koh-i-Nur is not the treat Mogul.
. In l7.9 the Kohl .nur passed into the hands of
s Nadir Shah ,, when he seized Delhi from Mohamed
4Afghans, and afterwards to the Lion of the Pun
jaub, Ranglt Singh. The last owner of the gem
previous TO its contlscation by the East India
Company and its presentation to Queen Victoria
in $50 was the Maharajah Dhueep Singh, SOW
ereign of the Sikh nation The English at one
stroke despoled him of his diamond and his king
dom. Last summer May 2l, 1889, the eX-Maha-
@ P@ OF %etS
Grill, of Hampshire, Eng land. Some little time
before that h he sent letter I. to to-, the Queen of
me to demand the restoration Of my kingdom,
swinded from me by your Christian government,
but which / hope shortly, by the aid of Provl-
dence, to retake from my robbers. But my
diamond, the Koh i-nur. understand, is entirely
Majesty to be the most religious body that your
subjects pray for every Sunday, do not hesitate
to ask that this gem be restored to me, or else
privy purse" Queen Victoria has not yet
piled. When the Koh-i-nur was brought to
England it weighed lS6 LID carats, but it was
irregular in shape, and Queen Victoria had it
recut by Costar, of Amsterdam, Transforming it
to los carats at cost of $4,000. Ai1ho1eh Of
grayish tnge and not of the very finest water, 1t
| is valued at 100000.
In addition to the stones already mentioned
there are about half dozen Others which are
said to weigh more than the Koh-i-Nur and
about fifty which weigh between 100 and 30
carats. But there is not room for Il separate
reference 10 each OF these
THE TAvERNIER BLUE.
| The unique character of this stone entities it
to to special mention. men Tayernier brought it from
! Revolution it was stolen, and when it reappeared
long atterward it had assumed different shape.
When purchased from Tavernier the stone in the
rough weighed ll2t carats, but cutting had re-
duced to 67s beforeit was stolen. In 1880 name
less stone, weighing only All carats, but with the
delicate blue tint which had never been seen
! but in the Tavernier or French Blue, turned up
in the hands of a London ieweler named Daniel
Elason. and was purchased by one Thomas Hy
! Hope. 1t has since been known as the Hope
Biue e. but it has been proved to certainty that
| the Taverner Blue after being stolen had been
broken and the Hope Blue is the larger part of
it,. tbs valued at Sl50000, which is very high
mond, even of the purest water, is not reckoned
worth more than $4,000 to $4,000 if it doesn't
weigh over 80 carats.
TIE GREAT SANCY,
cut, weighs So carats. 1t is another of the dia-
monds which imaginative writers like to trace
back to Charles the Bold. But is pretty certain
Inau lne DOiu CnuIlle never saw II. NJ. NlchOlaS
Harlai, Seigneur de Sanci, when French Minister
at Constantnople in 1910, bought the stone there.
! He sold it to Queen Elizabeth of England, from
whom 1t passed to Dowager Queen Henrietta
| Maria of Bourbon, who presented it to the Jaco-
bite Earl of Worcester. who in turn presented il to
James III, who was then an exile in France.
James sold it to Louis XIV about 1895 for Sl25,-
600, and when the French crown jewels were In
yentoried in 1871 the Great Sancy was valued at
S2OO.OOO. After the French Revolution Prince
Demidoff of Russia bought it from French
merchant; in 1865 Demdof sold it to IL London
| hSnlZpr lnnUht q PnrSna phnn n
but in 1867 it was back in Paris, where il was
put on exhibition by the jewelry firm of Bapst,
who also had it in their showcase again at the
great Paris Exposition last year.
The Little Sancy belongs TO the royal treasury
of Prussia. 1t is Il brilliant weighing thirty
four carats. and as pendant to neck
lace. The diamond was bought from NJ. de
Sanci Cwho was diamond collector as well as /.
statesman and dpomat) by Prince Frederick
Henry of Orange the grandfather of King Fred
crick of Prussia Through King Frederick ii
passed from the Orange bequest TO the Prussian
royal treasury.
THE NAPOLEON
is so called because Napoleon bought it from Mr..
Eliason, in London, for $4,000, and it in the
hilt of his sword on the day he married JOsephin
Beauharnais, in 1896 After that IT disappeared
pear in the inventory of the French crown jew
els made by order of the Emperor in 1870, and the
late Empress Eugene, who is familiar not only
with the crown jewels Of France, but with all the
great Jewels of the world, says she never saw it,
One of the distinctions enjoyed bY Mr. Streeter's
book on The Great Diamonds of the World" is
that Mr.. Streeter had for colaborateurs the eX-
Empress of the French and the Queen of Eng
land.
Those who care to know about ali the wars and
murders and revolutions and dynastic upheaYals
and horrors that have been caused by these pre-
cous bits of mineral can't do better than read
Mn Ih,a Oh Of SOD,