26 PRECIOUS STONES
have
been known by that name. It is supposed to have been cut for Charles
the Bold; found on his body after the battle of Nancy, by a soldier,
and carried to Portugal; sold to the Baron Sancy, of France, and by him
sold to Elizabeth of England in 1600. The consort of Charles I., of
England, brought it to France in 1649 and pawned it to Cardinal
Mazarin, by whom it was bequeathed to Louis XIV. With others it was
stolen during the revolution of 1792. Ten years later it was among the
Spanish crown jewels. From 1828 to 1865 it belonged to Prince Demidoff,
by whom it was sold for £20,000. It was exhibited at the Paris
Exposition in 1867. (Plate XVI.) It weighs fifty-three and
three-fourths carats.
The
" Hope" is a beautiful sapphire-blue diamond, weighing forty-four and
three-eighths carats. In its present condition it has been known since
1830. A London banker, Mr. Henry Thomas Hope, bought it for £ 18,000.
Tavernier brought from India a stone of that color for Louis XIV., of
France. In the rough it weighed one hundred and twelve and
three-sixteenths carats, and was cut to sixty-seven and one-eighth
carats. This was stolen with other jewels of the French crown in 1792,
and was never found. Mr. Edwin W. Streeter, of London, bought a small
stone of the same color, weighing about one carat, for £300. Another
drop-shaped stone of the same color, weighing thirteen and
three-fourths carats, was sold at Geneva in 1874 for seventeen thousand
francs, from the collection of the Duke of Brunswick. As the weights
and shapes of these three stones, after allowing for the loss by
cutting, would bring them to the original weight and size of
Tavernier's diamond, Mr. Streeter thinks they are parts of it,
especially as. the very rare color of all is the same. The " Hope" was
lately bought by a New York diamond importer, and is at present in New
York. (Plate XVI.)
The " Piggott" is a shallow stone brought from India to
