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THE BOOK OF DIAMONDS
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THE AUSTRIAN DIAMOND
The
Austrian Diamond is a beautiful lemon yellow color and cut in a rose.
Its weight is 139 carats. It was purchased for a bit of rock crystal in
a stall in the market place of Florence at the cost of a few pence. It
belonged first to the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and is now in the
possession of Austria.
DRESDEN GREEN DIAMOND
There
is a very fine green diamond among the jewels of the celebrated "green
vaults" collected by one of the Kings of Saxony at Dresden, Germany.
This gem is the largest in the "Green Vaults" of Dresden and, owing to
its peculiar green tint, one of the rarest diamonds in the world. This
rare stone weighs 48-1/2 carats. It is probably of Indian
origin, but nothing seems to be known of its antecedents. It is valued,
according to Kluge at 30,000 pounds sterling, a very large sum for a
stone of such a small size, but accounted for by its unique character.
It was the Saxon monarch's weakness to collect the most valuable jewels
and the oddly shaped pearls and other curiosities of the vaults. They
must, however, have been exceedingly interesting. Mr. Streeter had at
one time a small red diamond, altogether unique of its kind, for which
he asked one thousand pounds sterling although it weighed only
three-quarters of a carat.
The Dresden Green was purchased in 1743 by King August the Strong of Saxony for the Royal Treasury. He is
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