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240
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PRECIOUS STONES.
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and forty-four carats ; Du Toit IL, representing one hundred
and twenty-four ; the Star of South Africa, a stone of fortysix and one-half carats, besides several others of superior weight, including the Tiffany Diamond No. I., owned by the firm of that name, a gem of great beauty, which, cut as a brilliant, weighs one hundred and twenty-five and three-eighths carats, and is valued at one hundred thousand dollars. An article published in Science, May, 1884, written by Mr.
G. F. Kunz, describes certain remarkable round diamonds from Brazil, the largest weighing forty-one and three-fourths carats, which were exhibited at the Amsterdam Exposition, and subsequently purchased by Messrs. Tiffany and Company. One of them was bought by Krom Mun Nares Varariddhi, Prince of Siam, during his late visit to this country. Two other diamonds in the possession of this firm are interesting on account of their peculiar characteristics ; one,
weighing six and three thirty-seconds carats, has eighteen facets, of which four of the top and the table are white, and four are decidedly black, and four on the back are white, while the remainder and the culet are black. In its native state, the diamond was a jet-black, but when submitted to the lapidary's operations, the interior of the crystal was found to be perfectly white with the exception of an occasional inclusion, proving that the black color was the result of a superficial coating. It lacks the fire of ordinary diamonds, but gives brilliant metallic reflections, and exhibits, by transmitted light, the outlines of a black Greek cross. Something analogous to this, says Mr. Kunz, is seen at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris, and in the collection at Munich. The other diamond is a brilliant, apparently brown, but really giving out beautiful dark rose-red reflections, constituting a red and brown stone, or a red diamond with a brown cloud, the red predominating. The gem |
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