The Saint Paul globe., 1899-04-23
MILLIONS In A SHAWL
PEARLS AND OTHER PRECIOUS
STONES WORKED OUT IN
ARTISTIC PATTERNS
OF INDIAN PRINCE
Cost of the Wonderful Garment Said
to Have Been Five Million Dol
Iars-WonderfuI Collections of
Rulers of England's Oriental EN-
pire-Gems of Great Value.

| That India, after a foreign occupation
of some centuries, and in spite of the ap-
parent poverty of the great bulk of the
people,is still probably the greatest treas
ure house ON earth Is due to the fact that
| for ages 1t was. with Ceylon and Burma,
| the field which supplied the rest of the
world not only with gold, costly fabrics
and spices, but with precious stones, the
finest specimens Of which. however. were
ever retained by the Hindoo and Mogul
Princes for their own personal adorn-
ment
One of the jewel treasures of the Indian
Princes, that of the Gashwar of Raroda,
| is perhaps the most remarkable being
appraised by experts few years ago at
the immense sum OF three hrors OF rupees.
or $15.000,0o0 Among his collection. his
chief diamond necklace. worn on state oc-
casions, contains the .'Star of the South"
a Brazilian stone weighing 254 carats, for
which 100000 was paid the whole neck
lace being valued at 40 1acs of rupees or
81, ,000,000 The masterpiece in his possess
sion, however, Is a wonderful shawl COM
posed entirely of inwrought pearls and
other precious stones worked in the
most harmonious and artistic arabesque
patterns. and which actually cost the ex-
traordinary price of S.. 100000
This shawl was intended as present
to cover the tomb Of Mohammed but
when 1t was finished the Gashwar
thought twice of the idea and kept 1t
himself While 1t is true that the native
jewelers. as a rule care less for the purity
and comercial value of the stones than
for the general effect produced, yet their
artistic feling and skill in setting gems,
often but poorly cut and polished, can
not be surpassed AS an evidence of
this, comb of matchless workmanship
was presented to the Prince of Wales by
the Raja Of Jaipur. Another present
which the Prince OF Wales received on his
visit to India in 1875 was a sword from
the, Maharaja of Kashmir, set with dia-
monds and emeralds valued at $25 OOO in
addition to which there was a solitaire
diamond In the belt worth s1O,O00.
Probably one of the most expensive
hats ever worn by any person apart from
an actual crown was that of Sir Jung
Bahadur, Prime Minister to the King
of Nepal, when he paid his formal re-
spects to the Prince of Wales on the lat
ter entering the dominions of Sir Jung's
master, for in addition to a magnificent
headdress of diamonds worth over $780,
600, he wore in an aigrette a single ruby
the size of a marble, presented to him
timable value.
At the grand darbar held at Delhi, the
ancient capital of the Mogul Empire,
when Queen Victoria was proclaimed
Kaisar-T-Hand Empress of India), the
costumes of some OF the native princes
appeared to have beggared description
The Maharaja Holhar, for instance. pre-
sumably as small item in respect to the
rest of his attire, wore certain pair of
gloves made of delicate gold flexible scale
work, encrusted with diamonds, having
in the center of each back magnificent
emerald.
OF single stones the late King oS Wis
apur owned two fine rubies one of which
weighed 5OA carats. and the other, n per-
feet, filawless stone, 171a, both being val
ued respectively at $4,000 and S.5GDa-
These stones nysteriously disappeared
but should any one chance to discover
them. they would. at the present value