The largest Indian-cut diamond was the Great Mogul, which weighed in the rough 817 metric carats 4793g old French carats), but was reduced in weight to metric carats by the unskilful cutting of a Venetian lapidary. It was probably found about 1650. It was seen by the great French gem-dealer Tavernier at the court of Aurengzeb in Delhi in 1666, and is believed to have later formed part of Nadir Shah's booty. As there is no definite historic notice of it since Tavernier's time, this great diamond must either have been lost or else cut up into two or more smaller ones. Next in size among the Indian diamonds seen by Tavernier was a table-cut stone weighing 242 5/16 carats (249.46 metric carats). All trace of this diamond also seems to have been lost, although it may pos sibly be hidden away in the very mysterious Persian treasury, to which belong the °Darya i-niirp (Gem of Light), weighing 191 metric carats and the °Taj-e-maV (Crown of the Moon), which weighs 150 metric carats.
One of the finest Indian-cut diamonds is that named the Sancy, after the Huguenot noble man Nicholas Harley de Sancy, who owned it tovfard the end of the 16th century. There is a romantic talc to the effect that at the request of Henry III of France, Sancy sent this diamond to the Swiss as pledge for the payment of a body of mercenaries. The messenger to whom he entrusted it was attacked and murdered, but instead of giving up the diamond swallowed it. Sancy had the body opened and found the gem in the faithful man's stomach. This diamond was sold to James I of England in 1604, and was one of the Crown jewels taken to the Continent by Queen Henrietta Maria in 1642 to raise funds for Charles I. It eventually came into the possession of Cardinal Mazarin, who bequeathed it with 17 other fine diamonds to the French Crown in 1661. In 1722 Louis XV wore it at his coronation. • It disappeared from France during the Revolution and passed through various hands, being acquired in 1865 by the rich Parsee merchant Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy. Later the Maharaja of Puttiala owned it. It now belongs to the son of Viscount Astor.
Regarding the early history of the Orlov many strange tales have been related, among others that it had formed one of the eyes of a Hindu idol in a temple on the island of Sriran gam, Mysore, whence it had been stolen by a French grenadier. It almost certainly belonged to the Persian Nadir Shah, and was probably part of the immense plunder he carried off from Delhi in 1739. After his assassination in 1747 the diamond was sold by one of his Afghan soldiers to an Armenian merchant, who event ually disposed of it in 1775 to Count Orlov for 1,400,000 florins ($560,000) and a patent of nobility. The count gave it to Catharine II of
Russia. The weighs 194g of the older carats (199.73 metric carats). A much smaller Russian diamond is the °Polar Star,' a brilliant weighing 40 carats (41.08 metric carats). Of precisely the same weight is the diamond called the °Pasha of Egypt' bought of Ibrahim Pasha for $140,000.
The °Regentp or °Pitt° diamond was the great diamond of the French Crown jewels. It was bought in India by Thomas Pitt, governor of Fort Saint George, Madras, in 1701. Pitt sent the stone to England for cutting, its weight being reduced by this operation from 410 carats (422.10 metric carats) to 13674 carats (140.64 metric carats). After considerable negotiation Pitt sold his diamond to the Regent Orleans for £135000 (about $675,000). It was stolen from the Tuileries in 1792, but was soon recovered. Later on it was pawned in Berlin and then in Amsterdam to raise money for the Republican army. During the Empire it adorned the hilt of Napoleon's sword. The Regent was reserved for the state when the greater part of the French Crown jewels were sold in 1887, and has been placed in the Louvre Museum.
The famous Florentine diamond, now in Vienna, is an Indian-cut stone, acquired in the early part of the 17th century by the Grand Duke of Tuscany. After 1745, when Grand Duke Franz Stephan, husband of Empress Maria Theresa of Austria, was crowned em peror of Germany, this diamond entered the Imperial Austrian Treasury. It weighs 137.27 metric carats (133g of the older carats) and is of a yellowish hue. The assertion has often been made that it originally belonged to Charles the Bold of Burgundy, but there is no convinc ing evidence of The celebrated blue diamond of the French Crown jewels, valued in 1791 at $600,000, was cut from a rough diamond of 1151/2 metric carats sold by Tavernier to Louis XIV in 1668. When cut as a brilliant it weighed 67% carats (69.1 metric carats). It disappeared in the troubles of 1792. The splendid sapphire-blue brilliant, known as the Hope diamond, weighs 45.52 metric carats. In the Russian Treasury is a fine red brilliant-cut diamond weighing 10 carats; this was acquired during the reign of Emperor Paul. The collection in the (Green Vaults? in Dresden, Saxony, includes a diamond of greenish hue weighing 41.1 metric carats.