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Diamonds of Fate
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187
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Now,
when thirty-two years had elapsed there appeared in the hands of a
dealer, one Daniel Eliason, a blue diamond of a tint identical with
that worn by Louis XIV, but it only weighed forty-four and a quarter
carats, or twenty-three and one-eighth carats less than the King's gem.
Was this a new stone that had no connection with the royal jewel? The
possibility must be admitted, but in the light of what transpired
subsequently we are justified in arriving at a different conclusion.
But
before we go in search of clues to the unravelling of the mystery, let
us see what Mr. Daniel Eliason did with his forty-four-and-a-half-carat
blue diamond. Being a trader, he did not wear it suspended round his
neck, but seeking a customer for it, found him in the person of a Mr.
Henry Thomas Hope, and from the time that gentleman parted with £ 18,000
to get possession of the lovely gem of a beautiful sapphire blue, it
became known as the "Hope" diamond. Of this stone E. W. Streeter, as
great a connoisseur of gems as any of his contemporaries, says "that
because of its extreme brilliancy, faultless texture, exquisite form
(7/8--inch in breadth, 1-1/8 inches in length, and of unusual
thickness), it is unique". He estimated its value at ,£30,000. It was
his opinion that Louis XIV's blue diamond had been cloven into two
parts: one the size of the Hope diamond (being none other), and
another, after allowing for the unavoidable waste in recutting, of
ten to eleven carats.
Streeter illustrated his theory by the following diagram:
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