HOPE DIAMOND.
« 'AN UNSUCCESSFUL SEARCH. Bj Telegraph.— Press Association. -Copyr ! glit, (Received March 19, 9 a.m.) NEW YORK, 18th March. The New York Herald's Singapore correspondent states that a diver explored the wreck of the French liner La Seyne, expecting to find the Hope diamond, which it is believed Habib, a) diamond merchant, who was drowned, had aboard the vessel. The diver recovered the ship's safe, but it did not contain the diamond. In May, 1908, the diamond was bought by the then Sultan of Turkey for £80.000. In June last it was sold for £16,000. The Hope diamond is now 44i carats, and is still by far the largest blue diamond known, the only other of any size being but 12^ carats.* Originally it weighed 112£ carats, but on coming into the pospession of King Louis XIV. of France, about 200 years ago, it was cut down to 67£ carats, at which time it was valued at £18,115. During the French Revolution it disappeared with, the regalia, and ultimately got into the possession of the family of the Duke of Newcastle. It was prominently before tho public in July, 1899, when the Imperial Court of Appeal upheld a, decision by Mr. Justice Byrne, on behalf of the Newcastle family, forbidding Lord Francis Clinton-Hope to sell the .stone. This nobleman was then marriefl to May Yohe. who had been in Melbourne for some time. He hid aheady realised on a celebrated collection of pictures, including many of the most valuable Dutch and Flemish. paintings, afc Deepdeno, near Dorking, Surrey, which ho had inherited,'" receiving for thsm 5121 .500, and he then applied to the Court of Chancery for permission to sell the Hope or Tavemier diamond. Mr. Justice Byrne lefesed him leave to do so on the ground that it was a family heirloom. Lord Fiancis Clinton-Hope was a brother of the Duke of Newcastle. Later he divorced his wife en account of a^ scandal with Colonel Strong, in New lork. Colonel Strong afterwards married tha erstwhiie Lady Hope, who is now applying for a divorce. The La Seyne belonged to the Mes-sageries-Maritimes. In November last, in the Rhio Straits, near Singapore, sh« collided with the British In^ia Stcan* Navigation Company's eteamcr Onda.
HOPE DIAMOND.
Evening Post, Volume LXXIX, Issue 66, 19 March 1910, Page 5
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