|
28
|
PRECIOUS STONES
|
||
|
|
|||
|
Russia. It belongs now to the Princess Yassopouff. Its weight is forty carats. (Plate XVII.)
The
" Pasha of Egypt," a fine octagonal brilliant of forty carats, was
bought by Ibraham, Viceroy of Egypt, for £28,000. (Plate XIX.)
The
" Cumberland" was bought by the city of London for £10,000, and
presented to the Duke of Cumberland after the battle of Culloden. The
House of Hanover claimed it, and about thirty years ago Queen Victoria
restored it to them. Its weight is thirty-two carats. (Plate XVI.)
The
" Star of the South" was found July, 1853, in the western part of Minas
Geraes, Brazil. It weighed in the rough two hundred and fifty-four and
one-half carats, and after being cut in Amsterdam to a brilliant of one
hundred and twenty-five and one-half carats was sold to the Gaikwar of
Baroda for £80,000. (Plate XVI.)
The
" Star of South Africa" was the first large stone found in the Cape
(1869). It weighed in the rough eighty-three and one-half carats, and
was cut to a drop-shaped brilliant weighing forty-six and one-half
carats. It is a river stone, and equal in quality to the diamonds of
India and Brazil. It was sold for a large sum to the Countess of
Dudley, and is known to many as the " Dudley diamond." (Plate XIX.)
The
"Stewart" (Plate XIX.) was found in 1872, in the river diggings on the
Vaal. In the rough it weighed two hundred and eighty-eight and one-half
carats. It is of a yellowish tint.
A
very imperfect stone of six hundred and fifty-five carats was found in
the Jagersfontein, and another fine stone of two hundred and nine and
one-fourth carats came from the same mine. It is said an illicit
diamond buyer bought this of a Kaffir for £15.
By whom and where the " Victoria" was found is unknown. It came from the Cape to Europe in 1884, and
|
|||
|
|
|||