BIGGEST SAPPHIRE

Waikato Times, Volume 119, Issue 19911, 13 June 1936, Page 14 (Supplement)

BIGGEST SAPPHIRE

Stone Weighing Forty—~two Pounds—

Said to be Worth £3OOO.

The world's largest sapphire. more Jinn i‘llh hravicr than its nearest rival. is now in London. Discovered in Ceylon nearly a year ago it. has been sent. over by the Government of Ceylon for expert examination and: disposal. ‘ in me workroom of a Weet End lapidary a reporter we.- permitted to handle the stone. It takes lome handling. too, for its weight. is “lb. or in terms of Jewellery 100.800 «aunts in spite of its nine it 11:! on e pimn wooden bench. unguarded—and in the lily mind uniovely—n lump or plinmv white etone larger than any man's head and shaped by nature into Hm rough semblance of the country of iis origini it inokerl for all the world like the ‘kind nf stole which might have beenw placed in a prominent position on the iypival rnckery of the lnei. century, and which the present-day gerdenor‘ would be at pains to hide. ‘ Worm about 38000. "And that.“ as its present custo—dian explained. “is its chief advantage. I could leave it safely on the pave-

ment in Bond Street and not. feel anxi— ‘ ous. i ”To tine ordinary person it would be Just a nuisance and the connoisseur would Instantly realise the hopeless—ness of doing anything useful with it. And I would pity the stone crushing instrument which tried to destroy it. “The only way to dispose of it would be to get some expert to out it into several stones. and in that case lt would only be worth a. fraction 0! its present value. "Its price as it stands is not remarkable high. £3OOO perhaps, or soy £4OOO at the outside. But it you required it out so as to show its full beauty you would have to pay £IO,OOO and you would not be able to take it away to show your friends to—morrow or the next day. “There is no cutting apparatus in the world which could cope with it; the largest existing wheel could only deal with a stone 3. third that size. “However, I could do it by constructing a opt-rial wheel and gear. “If it had been a blue stone now instead of white, its value could not be calculated at all. Nothing but dia—mond could make any impression on it."