late
major of H.M. 19th Regiment of Foot, for distinguished services during
the advance of Kandy in that year, with a piece of jewellery in which,
surrounded by rubies, was set a white spinel. On his return to London
the gallant ex-Major offered the piece to Messrs. Rändle & Bridges,
jewellers with an establishment near St. Paul's, but they would only
buy the gold and the rubies. Obviously they either did not attribute
any value to the white stone or were not prepared to pay the price the
vendor set upon it.
However,
they introduced him to a Mr. Lowrie, a professor and lecturer on
mineralogy, who lived near Finsbury Square. He inspected and tested the
stone, that latter by means of trying to scratch it with the hardest
kind of topaz in his possession. But this made no impression on the
white stone, whereas the topaz itself sustained scratches. Thereupon
Mr. Lowrie declared the hitherto unidentified stone to be a spinel of
great value. This judgment was upheld by a number of experts in whose
presence further tests were made. No doubt about it at all: the stone
was a white spinel. Later on, however, another expert was to cast
doubt upon this proof. In 1843 the stone, which weighed 285 grains or
seventy-one and a quarter carats and was valued at ,£23,000, was
offered to Louis Philippe, King of France, who was prepared to buy it
after certification by his Court jeweller. But the deal fell through
because this personage, so he stated, knew of no reliable tests that
could be applied to a gem of this kind.
A spinel, by the way, is a form of magnesium aluminate.
