in every part of the world cannot be more than one hundred,
of which, it is thought, about fifty are in Europe, and the
remainder in Persia, India, Borneo, and, it may be added, on
the Western Continent. This number is constantly increasing
by new discoveries, and it would be difficult to give an exact
estimate at the present time.
A Portuguese dealer of the sixteenth century declared that
no specimens of more than thirty-seven and one-half carats
ever left India unless by stealth, so strict were the laws to
keep all the finest and largest diamonds from being exported.
Mawe, writing in 1839, expressed the opinion that the whole
number of diamonds in Europe distinguished for their size and
beauty scarcely reached half a dozen, and these were in the
possession of sovereign princes. Since then the number has
been greatly augmented by the discovery of new sources of
supply, and the removal of restrictions upon the exportation
from their native countries.
Without taking the Braganza into the account, there are
only two known diamonds — both uncut — that weigh more
than three hundred carats, and seven whose weight exceeds
two hundred. There are about twenty with a size exceeding
one hundred carats, while all the rest of the catalogue of
celebrated diamonds fall below one hundred.
At a sale of the effects of the late Duke of Brunswick, his
collection of diamonds included seven ranging from thirtyseven to eighty-one carats in weight. Two of the oldest
authentic diamonds in Europe, excepting the Koh-i-noor,—one
of twenty-four carats, and the other exceeding that weight, —
are said to belong to the Sultan of Turkey.
The Koh-i-noor, or Koh-i-Niir.—No diamond, probably, has
had a more romantic history, or has figured more largely in the
affairs of nations and individuals, than the Koh-i-noor, or
