UNLUCKY JEWEL.

Otago Witness, Issue 3029, 3 April 1912, Page 57

UNLUCKY JEWEL.

FAMOUS "HOPE" DIAMOND. AMERICAN LADY DEFIES SUPERSTITION. (Fbom Ons Own CJohrespondent.) LONDON, February 7. The famous " Hope " diamond, which has such a tragic history, and which has long been regarded as the world's onluckiest stone, was worn for the first tinw for years in Washington this week.Tha occasion was a reception to the Russiau Ambassador given by Mr and Mrs E. B. M'Lean. The diamond was worn by ths hostess as a pendant. Mr M'Lean bought the diamond last year from a famous 1 Parisian jeweller, on the understanding (according to a New York paper) that i? the etone brought misfortune within eii months it could be returned. Mr M'Lean desired to return it within the stipulated period, but the jeweller tie* clined to receive it, and a lawsuit fol« lowed, which has now been amicably ad* justod. Mrs M'Lean agreed to retain the diamond, and the price of £52,000 has been paid. The reception afforded a fitting setting for the exhibition of the famed genu More than £6OOO had been epent for the! decorations and the collation, including £I6OO for 4000 English lilies specially; ordered from England. Ths M'Leans are the parents of the " billion dollar baby," so called because he is expected to uu herit the vast wealth of his multi-million* aire grandparents. Mr John R. M'Lean and Mr Thomas F. Walsh. He will bo the richest child in the world. The Hope diamond wa« brought froiri the East by the French traveller Tavernier, who sold it to Louis XIV. Tavern nier's son ruined his father by speculation. Fouquet, Louis XlV's fajnous Miit. ister, borrowed the stone and met with disaster. It was to Marie Antoinette, who died on the scaffold. The Princesse de Lamballe, who occasionally woro it, was torn to pieces by the Paris mob. In 1850, Mr Henry Thomas Hope, from' whom it gets its name, bought it for £IB.OOO. He escaped disaster, and it seems to have remained quiescent until 1901, when Lord Henry Francis Hope, sold it to a Jjondon mercliant, who resold it to New Y'ork. The New York jeweller promptly be* came a bankrupt, and in 1906 a French broker got it for £60.000 and sold it to a Russian prince, who gave it to a beauti*. fnl actress. He shot her from a box the first night she wore it. and was assassin*, ated by revolutionists soon afterwards.: The broker went mad and committed fhii-* cide. The next owner, a, Greek, came to a violent death a few days after he sold is to the then Sultan Abdul Ham id, of Turkev, who lost his thron«.