1863, ISBN: 9781153792974

Paperback. New. This item is printed on demand. Paperback. This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (… More...

Paperback. New. This item is printed on demand. Paperback. This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1863 Excerpt: . . . and was the very paragon of paragons. Since the Mountain of Light came into the possession of the English, it has been cut as a brilliant, whereby it has been-still further diminished in weight, but enhanced in value and beauty. The old Iron Duke was the first to place it in the mill; and it took thirty-eight days to cut, working twelve hours a day without intermission. Next to the Paragons come a few highly celebrated diamonds of rare value and beauty, but below the paragon standard of a hundred carats. There is the Shah of Persia, with its curious inscription of Indian possessors, now belonging to Russia--a long irregular prism weighing eighty-six and three sixteenths carats; and the pear-shaped Sancy, which was the smallest of the three possessed by Charles the Bold of Burgundy, and which now belongs to Prance--the others having gone by circuitous routes, the one to the Pope and the tiara, the other to Austria and the imperial crown. For Charles the Bold, and, indeed, all his congeners, were the greatest patrons of Jewels known in mediaeval Europe; and all the royal collections extant gained by the fall of the House of Burgundy. The Sancy was lost on the field of Nancy, where Charles had worn it, and where he lost not only his diamond but his crown and his life. Picked up by a common soldier, it was thrown away as a piece of glass, then sold for-a florin to a Swiss priest--afterward falling into the hands of L Then weighing 186 carats. 1863. Thefts at Diamond Mines. 147 the Baron de Sancy, a Huguenot nobleman, who caused it to be conveyed to the King, Henry III. But the messenger was attacked by brigands on the way, and swallowed the gem to preserve it. The corpse was opened, and the diamond found in his stomach. Then there is t. . . This item ships from La Vergne,TN.<