|
CELEBRATED DIAMONDS 85
probable
result of cleaving and recutting the French stone, that they were parts
of the Tavernier diamond. The combination of weights, shapes, sizes,
and color, certainly appear to be incontrovertible evidence of the
truth of his theory. It is more than probable, therefore, that the Hope
diamond is identical with that worn by Louis XIV.
The
" Piggott " is a shallow stone brought from India to England by Lord
Piggott in 1775. It is said to have been sold by lottery in 1801 for
£30,000 and later bought by Rundell & Bridge, the London jewelers,
for £6,000. Ali Pasha of Egypt bought it for £30,000. The weight is
generally given as 81-1/2 carats, though Mawe, who saw the stone before it was sold to Ali, says it weighs 49 carats.
The
" Nassac," thought to have come originally from a temple at Nassak on
the upper Godavery and therefore so named, is said to have been taken
by Warren Hastings from the last independent prince of Peischwa in 1818
and sold to the East India Company. It weighed 89-1/2 carats, but the
shape was bad. Jeweler Emanuel of London bought it in 1831 for $7,200
and sold it soon after to the Marquis of Westminster, who had it recut
to a three-sided brilliant of 78-3/8 carats. It has since been
estimated at the unreasonably high value of $148,000. It remains in the
Westminster family.
An
addition was made to the Crown jewels of Russia in 1813 of considerable
interest. The Persian prince Chosroes, younger son of Abbas Mirza,
brought as a present to the Emperor Nicholas, a diamond of fine quality
in the form of an irregular prism weighing about 95 carats. On three of
the edges, which were
|
||
|
|
||