A FAMOUS DIAMOND.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 165, 14 July 1928, Page 13 (Supplement)

A FAMOUS DIAMOND.

PRICE OF POSSESSION.

TRAGEDIES OF A OEM.

VIOLENCE AND MURDER.

The long list of tragedies associated with the Hope diamond was recalled recently in the succession of Henry Francis Hope Pelham-Clinton-Hope to the title of Duke of Newcastle, on the death of his elder brother. The new duk<s, who is the eighth of his line, is 62 years of age, and is a widower, but fig* been married twice. His first wife was a well-known actress, Mary Yobe, whom he married in 1894, and divorced in 1902. Two years later he married Mrs. Olive Muriel Owen, who had divorced her husband. She died in 1912. The Hope diamond derives its name from the fact that for many years it formed part of the collection of treasures in the possession of Thomas Hope (maternal grandfather of the present Duke of Newcastle), who bought in .1830 for £18,000. It was sold id *90' by the present duke owing to his 1 cial r embarrassment, and it brought £120,000. Like most of the art treasures in the Hope collection, it bad been bequeathed to him on entail, and he a to obtain the permission of the Chancery Court to ' sell it. A Blue Diamond. The Hope diamond was known as the Blue diamond, because of its colour, long before it passed into the possession of tho Hope family. It is the largest arid most perfect blue diamond in the world, and weighs »J7 carats. Diamonds vary a great deal in colour, the rarest colours in order of rarity being ruby red, rose pink, blue, emerald green aiiu bottle green. Brown, in the delicate, coffee-tinted diamonds found in Bran is prized as a colour, but deeper shades of brown lessen the value of the "tone*. A pale citron Shade is also prized, but other shades of yellow, which merge into the ochres, are not. Many are opaqHe and cloudy, owing to minute fissures or air bubbles, which lessen their lustre. There is a long record of disasters in Connection with the Blue diamond, but

violence and murder have been associated with other precious stones, such as the Koh-i-noor, which now forms part of the English Crowi. jewels; and the Orloff diamond, which, after having served as an eye for the idol Sheringham in the temple of Brahma, passed through various hands, and was bought in 1775 for £90,000 by Catherine 11. of Russia, who placed it among the Imperial jewels, where it remained until the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. But the history of the Blue diamond is more full of tragedies than any other gem, although it remained in the Hope collection for seventy years without bringing disaster to any member of the family. A Succession of Tragedies. The Blue diamond was brought to Europe from India in 1088 by a French traveller named Tavernier, who sold it to Louis XIV., the Grande Monarque. The King allowed his mistress, Madame de Montespan, to wear it, and shortly afterwards she had the misfortune to be displaced in the affections of the licentious Louis by Madame de Maintenon.-v It remained among the royal jewels, and was worn by the unfortunate consort of Louis XVI., Queen Marie Antoinette, who, like her husband, perished on the scaffold during the French revolution. Tradition asserts that the Queen had allowed her beautiful friend, Princess de Lamballe, to wear it on one occasion. The princess was murdered by a frenzied mob during the September massacres in Paris in 1792, 13 months before Marie Antoinette was guillotined. The princess, with hundreds of other aristocrats, had been thrown into prison, and during the first week in September the mob broke open the prisons, and in four days massacred 1082 of the inmates. The body of the Frincess de Lamballe was cut into fragments by the frenzied murderers "with indignities arid obscene horrors which human nature would fain find incredible," wrote Carlyle in his "History of the French Revolution." Her severed head was placed on a pike, and paraded through the streets, and under the windows of the Temple, where the King and Queen were prisoners. The Blue diamond disappeared during the Reign of Terror which ushered in the ftrst French Republic. It was next heard of in the possession of an Amsterdam gem dealer named Fals, who bad been commissioned by an unknown client to recut it. His son, a dissolute yOuth, stole it, and the father died of grief and despair. The son, after selling it to a Frenchman named Francois Beaulieu f'~ a fraction of its value, spent the proceede in debauchery,.and committed suil cide.

Penury and Wealth. Francois Beaulieu found that the Blue diamond was a white elephant. He could not attempt to dispose of it without the risk of having it taken from him as property that belonged to the State, and forfeiting his life for having kept it. But he was in desperate straits, and in order to get funds he induced a diamond cutter to cut off a small part of it, on the understanding that the cutter would receive a substantial share of the proceeds of the sale of the small piece. Beaulieu made his way to London in the hope of being able to dispose of the main part of the stone there. In order to secrete the stone he hid it in a hollow in the heel of his boot. He was afraid to offer it for sale to reputable dealers in London, and in that city was reduced almost to starvation. It is said that while carrying tho precious diamond in the heel of his boot he did all sorts of menial jobs for a living, such as cleaning the streets. Eventually he negotiated with a gem dealer named Daniel Eliason in Hatton Garden (the centre of the gem trade in London) for the sale of the diamond for the modest sum of £5000. Eliason insisted on having the stone in his possession, so that he might examine it carefully before handing over the money. When he went the next morning to Beaulieu's lodgings to pay the £5000 he found the unhappy Frenchman had died in the night, owing to weakness brought about by starvation. Modern Tragedies. In 1830 Eliason sold the Blue diamond to Thomas Hope, the art collector already referred to, for £18,000, and it remained in the Hope collection until 1901, when as already stated, the present Duke of Newcastle sold it for £120,000. It passed into the possession • i the Russian Prince Kanitovski, wlio lve it to his mistress, Mdlle. Lorens Laude, a Parisian actress. He became jealous and shot her on the stage on the first night that she wore it. Two days later the prince was assassinated by two men who were never brought to justice.

Simon Montharides, a Greek jeweller, was the next victim of the evil power of the Blue diamond. It is not clear how it came into his possession, but he sold it to the Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid. Montharides took his wife and children to a restaurant in Constantinople in order to celebrate the conclusion of a profitable deal by means of a sumptuous dinner. On the way home the horses attached to his carriage bolted. The carriage went over a precipice, and all of the occupants were killed. Abdul Hamid placed the Blue diamond, wtih other precious gems, under the care

'.of Kulub Bey, the chief of the eunuchs. Two months later Kulub Bey was found dead outside the door of the vault which contained the Sultan's treasure. He had been strangled, but his murderers were not discovered. Abdul Hamid kept the Blue diamond until he was deposed in 1909 in the revolution organised by the Young Turtcs. The Blue diamond passed into the possession of a Persian merchant named Habib, who was drowned shortly afterwards. When last heard of it had gone to America, in the possession of Mr. McLean, a millionaire. Even there it brought misfortune on its owner, for the millionaire's son and heir was killed in an accident.