CELEBRATED DIAMONDS 69
thousand
roubles. As Shaffras demanded patents for his brothers also, the
diamond was returned to him. He absconded to Astrakhan, but later
reopened negotiations with Count Gregori Gregorivitch Orloff, and sold
it for four hundred and fifty thousand roubles, of which one hundred
and twenty thousand went for commissions and expenses, and a patent of
nobility.
Bauer
says this transaction occurred in 1775 and that the consideration was
450,000 roubles, a pension of 4,000 roubles and a patent of nobility.
Dieulafait
says the stone was sent by Shaffras to his brother in Amsterdam who,
after twelve years and long negotiations, sold it to Russia for
$334,800 and a patent of nobility.
It
is evident from these accounts that there is no certain knowledge
about either of the transactions. Beyond the facts that Count Orloff
bought a large diamond in Amsterdam in 1775 and that Shaffras sold a
large diamond to Russia, the stories are open to question throughout.
All
we really know about the Great Mogul is that Tavernier saw it in Delhi
in 1665. Delhi was sacked in 1739 and the loot carried off by Nadir
Shah, the Mogul probably being among it. In 1747 Nadir was
assassinated, and a number of his large jewels were stolen by Afghans,
who were his favored personal attendants. Some years later two large
India cut stones appeared in Europe with confused histories of romance,
one of them similar to Tavernier's description of the Great Mogul, and
were sold between 1775 and 1791 to the Russian Crown for large prices,
the exact amount being unknown, though variously stated in definite
figures. One
