MAGNIFICENT JEWELS.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume X, Issue 1, 7 January 1893, Page 13

MAGNIFICENT JEWELS.

The fiiest pearl inexistence is one which the French travel ler Tavernier sold in the seventeenth century to tbe Slab for £lOB 000, and wnieh is still the property of the Persian Crown. The laianm of M i-eat possesses a pearl of 12) carats, perfectly transparent, wineb is estimated at £32,030 ; while tbe Princess Youswup >ff oa« one still more valuable, which formerly belonged to Pailip IV. of Spun, who bought it in 1623 for 8 »,033 du eats. Leo X 111. has a pearl which has for over a century been in the Vatican, and which is valued at £16,000

With regard to peirl necklaces. that of tbe E upress Frederick, composed of thirty-two pearls, is valued at £24.000, which is ab >ut £3 030 more than the appraised value of the Q ieen * neckl ice of pink pearls, at one time exhibited among the Crown jewel* at the To «er. B irones* Gustave de R ithsehild has a necklace with five rows of pearls, which is worth £4O 000, and her cou«in, B irones* A iolphe, has one still more vatu ible. both ladies adding to them when a really tine pearl comes into tbe market. file Empress of R issia has a necklace of pearls with seven rows, but the stones are c msidered not to be quite so tine, while the Grand D ichess Marie of Russia has a necklace with six rows worth £36,000.

With regard to the most celebrated diamond*, such as the Regent, the Sincy, the Kohinoor, etc., the first named has for the last five years been on view at tbe Louvre, and is estimated at £125 000; while the Saucy, after having belonged to the Princess Paul Demidoff, passed into the hands of Sir Jamsetjee Jejheeboy, of B >iu bay, who gave £20,000 for it. The Orloff, originally bought fcr £9O 000 by the Piince of that name as a present for tbe Empress Catherine 11., is now among tbe Russian Crown jewels; while among the Austrian Crown jewels is the Fiorentin, valued at £101000; while the Ksjihof Goleonda (from whence originally came the French Regent* ha* Hie Nizim, valued at i 220.000. another Indian Rsjsh owning the S.ar of the S rath, f >r which he paid £160,003 The Great Mogul, which the Shah of Persia named Deriai, or ‘Ocean of Light,' has never been valued, but the largest diamond of all belongs to tbe Raj th of Mitam, in the island of B >rneo, who declined an offer from the Dutch Government of two warship* and £32 000 in specie. King Charles of Portugal has a very fine diamond, weighing 205 carats ; and the F.npress Eugenie, who has sold so many of her j iwels, still has a comb in diamonds said to be unrivalled for lustre, and a great length of vine and fruit designs done in diamonds, which are of dazz'ing beauty » hen worn at night.