The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-05-28

diamond once more disappears from pub
lie view into the recesses OF a hank
vault
Inns diamond Is unique In every way
To begin with, 1t Is the largest. and. in
oeed, the only large blue diamond known
TO jewelers., There is an almost ridiculous
decline from: its IN carats of weight to
tho Tx, carats Of the Brunswick blue
stone. Yet the Brunswick come next In
size among examples Of the very rare
species; and the Brunswick stone is itself
believed to have formed q part of the
Sut l am anticipating.
The authentic history of the HOPE dfa-
mond begins with the year 1885, when
TaVernier, the famous jeweler, famous
also as a traveller into those Oriental
realms that erstwhile spanked with gems
OF fabulous value (cf. Marco Polo, Sinbad
Lemuel Gulliver and other authorities},
returned to Paris ffem what proved to
be his last tour. He brought with hIm
twenty-five diamonds. All of these were
purchased forthwith by Louis XIV for
z.9oo,0o0 francs in cash, with the title Of
l'aron d Aubonne thrown in as a sort of
nobility chrome TO bind the bargain
Chief among the brijliants was blue
diamond. Now, blue diamonds are al
most as rare as blue roses, and infinitely
diamond was the largest ever heard of
before or since in the entire history Of
precious stones. 1t was still in the rough
to be sure, and fiat and Ill formed. SO
that the process of cutting reduced it
from its original 1121a carats to 611A carats
Even then it was unique, unapproachab;e
unapprcached. On great state occasions
the grand mOnarque was one blaze of
jewalry, representing total value Of
60VD,0e0 francs, and the Tavernier blue
diamond, the most famous of all his COL
lection was pendulously resplendent from
a blue ribbon that encircled his neck
Then came the French Revolution and
the sacking Of the treasury of the Grand
Monarchs not Very grand descendant
The royal Jewels captured by the mob
were deposited in the Garde Meuble But
somehow the Tavernier diamond had dis
appeared from among them. For almost
half century nothing was heard of it.
Suddenly in the year 1880. a blue dia-
mond or 44A carats appeared unheralded
upon the markets. In the absence of the
Iavernier diamond this was the largest
blue diamond in the world Curiosity
| was p1qued. But all inquiries into its
| past history were baff1ed. The owner
Daniel Eliason, could or would say moth
| ing more than that he had purchased It
from a stranger. He had asked no ques-
lions and was able to answer none. Henry
Ai4o'i'A' AAopO, Inc ie@iiiouo paHhS., bought
the stone from EliaSon. The rumoreti
purchase money was G1300o. This was
reckoned good bargain for the banker.
| The stone has ever since been known as
| the Hope diamond.
Now, the unexplained appearance of
this blue marvel upon the market set the
| wiseacres to thinking. Was it not more
| than likely, they asked. that the new
stone was large fragment of the old ?
Ihey pointed out that the man who stole
the Tavernier diamond, or his descend
ants or assignees, would not dare to dis
pose OF 1t In its original shape What
more natural than that he should have
reduced it by cleavage to two or more
pieces, first selling off the smaller. piece
or pieces. and finally the larger?
An argument in point was that the Ia
vernier diamond had a triangular salient
giDbostty which might very well have