The Du Toil diamond was found in 1878 at Du Toit's pan. It has been cut, and weighs 244 carats. It is the largest cut diamond.
Large diamonds are usually heirlooms in great families, and almost every royal house in Europe has one or more celebrated gems.
The Court of Holland has ono of conical shape, ' valued at £10,368.
Tho buttons of the silk stole of King Joseph i. of Portugal were each a line brilliant worth about X5000, or, in tho aggregate of twenty, £100,000.
George IV. of Britain purchased a magnificent brilliant of a blue colour, which formed the chief ornament of the crown at his coronation. It coat £20,000.
The Pigot Diamond, brought to England by Earl Pigot, on his return froru tho Governor-General ship of India, WaS disposed of in 1801 by lottery for .£30,000. It afterwards passed into the hands of one of the Portuguese princes. It weighs 49 carats, and Ls valued at £40,000.
In the Crown Jewels of France there was a rich brilliant of a sky-blue colour. It weighs 67 carats and 2-16ths, and is valued at 140,000.
The Maximilian Dianzond of the Austrian royal family is of a yellow colour, and rose-eut. It has been rated at 1394 carats, and valued at £155,682.
The Sanci Diamond originally belonged to an Eastern merchant, from whose hands it passed into those of Charles the Bold of Burgundy. Charles wore it in bis cap at the battle of Nancy in 1475, where he WAS killed. A Swiss mercenary found the gem, and sold it to a priest for a florin, about twenty pence of British money. The priest sold it again for about 2s. 6d. After this it catne into the hands of Antonia, king of Portugal, who pledged it to a gentleman named Do Sanei for 40,000 francs, and afterwards, being unable to redeem it, he sold it to the same gentleman for 100,000 francs. A de,scendant of this gentleman, having occasion to deposit the family jewel with the Federal Government of Switzerland, entrusted it to the care of a faithful servant for that purpose. The servant disappeared for a long time, but so confident WitS De Sanei of his honesty, that he caused search to bo made in his track, and found him at last murdered and half buried. In his stomach was found the brilliant, he having swallowed it to preserve it for his master 1 The Russian Diamond is in the crown of Russia. Some Indian had placed it in the socket of an idol's eye. An Irish soldier gouged out the optic. After going through many adventures, it was sold by Count Orloff to tho Empress Catharine in 1775 for £90,000 in present money, an annuity of i4000, and a patent of nobility. It is of tho size of a pigeon's egg, and of a flat oval form. It weighs 179 carats, or 716 grains, and is without a flaw. Besides this stone, there is a stone among
the Russian crown jewels valued at 1869,800.
The Pitt Diamond.—Mr. Pitt, the grandfather of the Right Hon. William Pitt, when Governor of Madras, purchased a diamond from a native for £12,500. When re-ent it was worth twelve times the money, and weighs 136i carats. The small laminte, shreds, and cuttings from it were valued at £8000. It was purchased in 1717 by the Duke of Orleans for £135,000, and in the negotiations £5000 were expended. In 1791 a commission of jewellers valued the stone at twelve millions of francs, or nearly £500,000 sterling. Its original weight was 410 carats.
Tho Persian Court possesses the Sea of Glory and the Mountain of Light, the one valued at £145,000, and the other at £34,848.
The Nizam or Hyderabad Diamond belongs to the Nawab of Hyderabad. It measures 2.48 inches in length by 1.35 inches in breadth, and iths of all inell in thickness, in the rough state. The gem was found in the mud well of a native house, awl was purchased for the Nizam. A child was play ing with it as a stone, and on eight anima being offered for it, its value was ascertained. A small portion of the gem had been broken off ono end before it was offered for sale. It weighs 1108 grains, nearly 277 carats (another authority says 340 carats).
The Mo9hu/ Diamond wasdescribed by Tavernier. He says : The water (of it) is perfection, and it weighs 319i ratis, which are equal to 280 of our carats,the rati beingseven-eighths of a carat. When Dlirimgola, who betrayed the king of Golconda, his master, made a gift of this stone to Shah Jabal], from whom it descended, it was uncut, and weighed 000 ratis, which aro equal to 787i carats, and it had rnany flaws. If this stone had been in Europe, it would have been differently treated, for some good pieces would have been taken from it, and the stone left much larger ; as it is, it has been almost polished away. It was a Venetian (Hortensio Borgio) who cut it, for which ho was badly paid. They reproached him for having spoilt the stone, which ought to have remained heavier, and instead of paying him, the emperor made him pay a fine of 115.10,000, and would have taken still more if lie had possessed it. If the Venetian had known his work better, he might have taken some good pieces off, without doing injury to the king, and without having expended so much trouble in polishing it, but lie was not a very accomplished diamond-cutter.' That Moglinl diamond cannot now be traced. Many believe that the Orloff diamond and a stone now in Persia were cleaved from the Great Moghul.