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Ch.16: Famous Pearls

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Famous Pearls.                          289
Lapidibus." In this work he mentions a Pearl, belonging to his patron Rudolf, which weighed 120 grains, and cost as much as 120,000 gold pieces. Rudolf also possessed another Pearl that weighed as much as 180 grains,
The Youssoupoff Pearl, 1620.
One of the largest Pearls known in Europe, a pear-shaped Pearl weighing 524 grains, was brought from India in 1620, by Gongibus of Calais, and sold by him to Philip IV. of Spain, for 80,000 ducats, a sum equivalent to about £18,000. The merchant when asked by the king how he could have been bold enough to risk all his fortune in a single little article, replied " Because he knew there was a King of Spain to buy it ! " It is believed that this mag­nificent Pearl is now in possession of the Russian. Princess Youssoupoff.
The Shall Pearls, 1633—1635,
The Shah of Persia possessed in 1633, a Pearl
an inch in diameter, which was valued at .£64,000.
It is said that two years later he bought another
beautiful Pearl from an Arab, coming from the
Catifa fishery. The price paid for this was 32,000
tomanas, or £56,000. It weighed 672 grains, and
the shape was an almost perfect heart. At the present
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Ch.16: Famous Pearls Page of 341 Ch.16: Famous Pearls
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