A SULTAN'S JEWELS.

Evening Post, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 24, 29 January 1912, Page 3

A SULTAN'S JEWELS.

ABDUL HAMID'S TREASURES. PRIVATE VIEW. On the private view of the treasures of Abdul Hamid 11., seized by the Turkish Government after his flight and lecently sold in Paris, the skies were low and grey, Paris pavements wet, the roads steeped in mud, and a drizzling rain falling. Yet long before the hour th© doors would open people crowded to the salerooms of the Rue de Seze (says* the Manchester Guardian). A queue, four or five deep, extended from the pavement outside, through the long . passage, up the broad staircase. Policemen were on every side and detectives mingled with the crowd. When the doors were thrown open the throng pressed towards the gia^s cases, each officially sealed, each guarded by a policeman. Soon people were hustling and pushing and jostling each other pitilessly, each more eager than his neighbour to gaze upon the treasures, the Orient pearls, the flashing brilliants. Despite this eagerness one felt at once that the attitude of the crowd was critical. There was no murmur of enthusiastic Admiration. The word bizarre was freely uttered ; the expressions trop lourd, surcharge were frequent. MEN AND WOMEN OF MANY NATIONS.. Men and women of many nations gathered at the showi; conversation went on in varied tongues. There were foreigners who gazed spellbound at the diamond-laden treasures, bub the Parisians soon found out what alone pleased them. The shelves of a glass chiffonnief were filled with objects in pure gold — cups, a coffee service, a smoker's service, and inkstands. These at once roused great admiration. From among all the other cases in the room two alone were especially singled oui^— the case in which flowed the "rivers" of pearls and that displaying the unmounted diamonds. Around these two cases people pressed and thronged. One became painfully aware Jiow all Paris could push and scramble. "Les perles sont si captivantes," said the women. Their attraction for the Parisian lay not alone in their rich, soft, irridescent beauty, but in fche splendid simplicity of those long strings void of gorgeous or fantastic setting. The diamonds, each stone isolated in its iron support, unspoiled by ill-advised mounting, many of prodigious size, most of them of wonderful brilliancy and colouring, seemed almost equally captivating. They were! there to be bought and mounted by the buyer. It was curious to hear the remarks of interested jewellers. Audacious attempts were made to depreciate the pearls. "There is onefine pearl in that row." "Three of those are good." "There, are six good stones in that chaplet." All thus to put brother jewellers or unwary amateurs off the scent. The necklaces and chaplet® thus decried sold for immense sums. Amid the multitude of Eastern jewellery- were many modern articles of Iveneh origin. There were jewellers in the room who recognised their own work. "Those diamonds came from our firm, I heard a grey-haired little Frenchman say as he stood before one of the cases'. "We furnished all the large stones. . . The large one* only, he added. "It was in 1876, 35 years ago." He had been a young man then, perhaps a simple salesman in the farm of which he was now a chief. One of the large brilliants he pointed out formed the ooncr© of an immenbo diamond star fixed on a spring, so that it was never 6till,^but quaked ceaselessly, giving the effect of a. "twinkling star" of first magnitude. When hew> and there among the gorgeous mass one came upon a jewel or an ornament that was discreet and chaste it was generally recognised at once as of French workmanship. TREASURES OF LOCAL COLOUR. The treasures of most distinctly local colour were those eggcup-ahaped stands made to hold, the, delicate porcelain cup «m« m wl " ch the Turk sips his thick black coffee. Thore were more than eighty of them,, of gold and the richest enamel, many m exquisite open work, all thickly studded with diamonds. "Trop de diamants! Trop de diamants!" said the Parisians. ons heard the phrase- repeated again and again. Card-cases, watches, cigarette-cases, men's ornamenaments, women's ornaments— all were overrunning with, diamonds. Few of the women who pressed and crowded round- the cases had any wish "to wear those gorgeous ornaments. They were jewels to be worn by an Eastern potentate, by the women of his harem not to adorn the fine beauty of the Parisienne; jewels to be gloated over by those who love such treasures for their own sake, for their glow and glitter and the wealth they represent, as it is said Abdul Hamid' gloated over fhese, fingering them voluptuously for hours together. With few exceptions they were not for those who admire and appreciate jewels as an adornment, an accessory. Jean Richepin's preface to the catalogue reads strangely like reclame after seeing the treasures and impressions they made alike on the "all Pans ox the private view and on the masses who cVowded to the public exhibition on the Sunday. No, Parisians at large did not experience any emotional shocks; no quiverings of emotion such as shook the poet disturbed their equanimity. They gazed at the wonderful treasures, the surfeit of precious stones, they lingered before the marvellous pearls and the unset brilliants, and having satisfied their curiosity passed out with the Frenchman's' characteristic, almost imperceptible shrug of the shoulders. But at the sale all was flutter and excitement. The room wa« thronged with men of a different "world." There were comparatively few women. These men were chiefly jewellers come to buy, many of them jewellers of foreign origin. PRICES QUICKLY RISE. Prices quickly rose to sums far above the expert's valuation, above intrinsic worth. And every time an important lot was brought to the table^ and the bidding went furiously on, people drew in their breath, suppressed exclamation* were heard Mich as one hears from children before a wonderful display of coveted sweetmeats or playthings. When the peals were put up the bidding was fiercu. When at the sale of one of the necklaces, tho big piece of the day, 50,000 francs was added at a single bid a sort of cheer rose from the crowd. People 'mounted on benches and chair's the better to see tko bidders. That necklace was knocked down at a little less than a million francs. The unset diamonds also roused great excitement. And on© single emerald, hotly contested between two bidders, went at last for 89,000 francs — twice its stated value. When iL came to the turn of the zari's, every buyer in the room seemed, to be bidding. They were usually put up in couples, and scon thus were wondoifully beautiful, radiant with colour, and looking less oppressively bediamoned than when massed together. Much oi' the jewellery will probably be picked lo pieces, and many treasures made out of one, each with tho prestige of having figured in the sale of Abdul Hamid's jewels. They will be scattered far and wide, and a great deal of money made out of them. And the jewelled opera» glassed and telescopes through which

the Red Sultan issaid to have looked on from a distance at the sufferings of his tortured subjects, will they now be held by delicate, innocent hands, serve to watch innocent spectacles? , At the close of the first day's sale a tall, handsome, grey-haired Turk slowly crossed' the hall, his head bent, his expression inexpressibly sad. He was not one of the "Young Turks."