Stories About Famous Precious StonesOrpen, Adela E. (Adela Elizabeth Richards)
History
Stories About Famous Precious Stones
Orpen, Adela E. (Adela Elizabeth Richards)
Gems
In the story of "the Regent" an account was given of the robbery of the
Garde Meuble in September, 1792, when the French jewels were stolen. The
Blue Diamond shared the fate of all the rest. It was stolen, but
unfortunately it was not found in that mysterious Allée des Veuves
where the Regent lay hidden. In fact, Tavernier's Blue Diamond, weighing
sixty-seven carats, never again re-appeared as such. Men had something
else to think of in France besides diamonds during the forty years which
followed the great robbery, so that the very existence of a blue diamond
was pretty nearly forgotten. True that John Mane, a fairly reliable
authority on diamonds, says that "There is at this time (1813) a
superlatively fine blue diamond of above forty-four carats in the
possession of an individual in London which may be considered as
matchless and of course of arbitrary value." This is a most important
statement, and in the light of subsequent investigations it would point
almost conclusively to the fact that the French Blue, already
metamorphosed, was in alien hands, except for the fact that the same
writer a little further on makes the announcement of a Blue Diamond,
weight sixty-seven carats, being amongst the Crown Jewels of France at
the same moment.
However this may be, suddenly, in 1830, the small world of
diamond-worshipers was startled by the appearance in the market of a
unique stone. A deep blue diamond, forty-four and one fourth carats,
which Mr. Daniel Eliason had for sale and about which he could give no
details. It sprang suddenly upon the world without a history, unless
indeed it be the same as that mentioned by Mane some eighteen years
before--and yet it was a cut and polished brilliant. Its form was
irregular, for it had one very flat side. Mr. Henry Philip Hope bought
it for ninety thousand dollars; and it henceforward became known as the
"Hope Blue."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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