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232
GEMS.
named Perret, bought it for 170,000 lire; it weighs about 132 carats.
There are many very large sapphires in the Russian treasury. In the French treasury there are 160 that are valued at 600,000 lire. At Dresden, in the green vaults, there were many of remarkable beauty. In the Viennese Kronenschätze is one which is wonderfully large and fine.
According to Emanuel, an English gentleman had one, perhaps the finest ever seen, but he sold it, and substituted a false one in the precious ornament which had contained it. This was so like the real one, that the appraiser of the jewels left by him at his death estimated it at 2,500,000 lire, and made the heirs pay legacy duty on it.
It is said that the King of Aracan had one as large as a thumb.
Most beautiful is that sapphire which belongs to the Borghese of Rome, for which, not many years since, was offered 20,000 gold zechins, or about 235,000 lire.
Some authors assert that the sapphire cuts better than the ruby, because it is more easily broken.
We find corundums engraved by the ancients, and at the present day they are still engraved. I have how­ever never had the opportunity of seeing blue quartz, that is, Western sapphires, having antique engravings.
In the Genevosio collection of Turin there was a white sapphire which had the head of Tiberias en­graved on it. In the Strozzi collection was one with the profile of Hercules. In that of Paris they have a
Sapphire Page of 243 Epilogue
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