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XXXVI.
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THE SHAH
Engraved
Diamonds—A Barbarous Subterfuge—Sadek Khan Bricked Up in a Dungeon—An
Incident of the Desert —"A Blaze of Jewels"—Oriental Extravagance.
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HIS
fine stone shares with the " Jehan-Ghir Shah" the honour of being the
only diamonds that are known to have ever been engraved in the East.
And so little known are even these specimens, that they are not so much
as mentioned by King in his otherwise interesting account of diamond
engraving in the Natural History of Precious Stones.
The
" Shah " seems to have formed part of the Persian regalia from the
remotest times. Barbot •asserts that it was lost when Nadir Shah's
treasures were plundered by his revolting troops after his death in
1747. But if so, it was afterwards recovered, for according to the
generally accepted account, it was presented to the Russian Emperor,
Nicholas I., by the Persian Prince Cosrhoes, younger son of Abbas
Mirza, when he visited St. Petersburg in 1843.
The " Shah" is table-cut, or what is technically known as lasque. It
is of the very finest water, without the least cloud or flaw, and so
pure throughout, that in treating it, the cutter was able to leave
several of the national facets untouched. This circumstance also
explains the small sacrifice which it suffered in
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