Evening star., 1905-08-17
TO SELL STOLEN JEWELS
THIEVES OF BIG STONES MUST
TURN TO THE FAR EAST.
Diamonds Of 10 Carats or More Must
Be Cut to Find Buyer Here =
or in Europe. &
From the New York Sup

From the New York Sun .
Dfsposing Of stolen Jewels Is a difficult
Undertaking. particularly IL the Jewels
are or great value. 1t Is almost impOs-
sioie to get rid of large stones in this
country and harder still to dispose of
them In England and France IL they are
stolen The only way to do 1t with safety
Is to cut the stone up, and when a large
stone Is cut 1t decreases greatly In value
Diamond dealers all over the world are
on the lookout now for the large pear
shaped diamond that was stolen from the
T1nany work rooms some weeks ago.
Every reputable dealer would refuse to
buy that brilliant II 1t were offered for
sale in the shape In which 1t was stolen
That there are diamond dealers who are
not reputable goes without saying, but II
they bought this stone they would buy 1t
with the idea of cutting it. =.
Large diamonds ars not numerous
that they cannot he Kept track Of When
large diamond IS found 1t sooner or
later finds its way to the greatest dia-
mond market in the world. which is Lon
don. Persons through whose hands
large stone passes are careful to note it's
good points as well as its defects, II It
has any
Know Big Diamond.
Every diamond over ten carats is con-
ticular note Every dealer who handles
such a stone can give a minute descrip-
tion of it. The purer the stone the more
attention 1t attracts from the persons
who handle it. That is why it Is hard to
dispose of stolen diamonds of any ac-
count. for when one is stolen every dealer
throughout the world hears Of 1t and has
such a good description of the missing
stone that he can hardly fail to identify
it
The ordinary stolen jewels find their
way to pawnshops and fences. There are
jewelers. in this town who have the repu-
tation Of being fences, but none of them
does business direct with thief.
When large stone is stolen here or in
England or France the first place the
searchers look for 1t to turn up Is in
Amsterdam, which is the center Of the
diamond-cutting industry. If 1t doesn't
owners can bid good bye to It, for 1T will
probably be disposed Of without trouble
in the orient. India. Persia and Turkey
are the three countries where large dia-
monds can be sold without cutting them
up.
Once they are taken into one of these
countries they are hidden just as If they
were put back into the ground. Diamond
important jewels that have been stolen
have found their way to these countries.
The Indian princes will buy and ask no
questions.
markable judge of all kinds of precious
stones. and many of them count most of
their wealth In this form.
Lost in the Orient.
Diamond dealers and police all over the
civilized world have long realized that as
soon as a precious stone finds it's way to
the orient it is lost until its buyer dies
and his property Is divided among his
wives or his relatives.
The large precious stones generally find
their way into the crowns Of royalty The
Orion. which weighs 194& carats, is in
the Russian crown jewels. That stone
formed one Of the eyes of an idol in the
Brahman temple on the Island Of Sriran-
gam in the Kaveri river near Tricbi-
nopoli. The story has 1t that 1t was stolen
from there early in the eighteenth CEN
tury by a French soldier. From him it
found its way into the hands of an Eng
1ish ship captain and SO got into Europe.
1t turned UP in Amsterdam in 1871 and
for a time it was called the Amsterdam
diamond. 1t got It's name of Orloff when
Prince orlon bought it for 100000
Dutch forms and presented it to the
Empress Catharine II of Russia. This
jewel forms the head of the imperial
scepter.
Three other famous jewels in the pos
session of the Russian crown are the
Shah, the Moon of Mountains and the
Polar Star-the first of So carats. the sec
ond of 12O carats and the third of 40
mond. one Of the very few large engraved
lamonds in existence. All are perfect
blue white stones. Catherine II bought
the Moon of Mountains for 45O 900 rubles
an annuity Of 1000 rubles and letters of
royalty.
The Braganza.
These are not by any means the largest
known stones In existence. but they are
among the most valuable. because of
their purity Some of the
monds on record are Brazilian stones, but
doubt always has been cast on their gen.
uineness. The Braganza Is a Brazilian
stone as big a hens egg and weighing
1.OSO caratS. 1t is preserved in the Portu-
guese crown jewels but there has al
ways been doubt as to It's genuineness If
1t is genuine. diamond experts say, 1t is
worth 1924 ,OO0,0O0
Another large stone on which there has
been good deal of speculation as to it's
genuineness is owned by the Rajah of
Mattang Borneo. 1t weighs 367 carats.
OF the large diamonds that have been
found in recent years the Excelsior Is the
largest. 1t was unearthed in the Jagers-
fontein mine in the Orange River Colony,
length. inches In breadth and inch in
thickness.
The Excelsior was found in June 1893.
There was flaw in it, however and 1t
had to be cut. The larger section Of It
found its way to Tiffany & Co. where 1t
still remains waiting purchaser. When
the Tiffany robbery first became known
1t was thought that it was the Excelsior
that had been stolen.