THE AUSTRALIAN ]\IUSEUM MAGAZINE. 



THE OKLOFF. 



The Orloff is first heard of in tlie 

 beginning of the eighteenth century, 

 when a grenadier, a deserter from the 

 Indian Armj^ of France, stole it from 

 a temple in Mysore. He fled with his 

 spoil to J\ladras, and there sold it for 

 £2,000 to an English sea captain. The 

 purchaser carried it to London, and 

 disposed of it for £12,000. It was 

 subsequently bought by Prince Orloff, 

 and presented by him to Catherine II 

 of Russia, in the hope that he might be 

 restored to lier favour. It remained 

 among the Russian crown jewels until 

 recently. AVhere is it now? It weighs 

 193 carats, and has the shape, and is 

 about the size of half a pigeon's egg. 



THE GREAT MOGUL. 



This stone was described by Taver- 

 nier, who saw it at the Court of Aur- 

 ungzeb, in 1005. He puts its weight 

 at 280 carats, but states that it had 

 been cut from a rough stone weighing 

 787 1- carats. It had the shape of an 

 egg cut in half, thus resembling the 

 smaller Orloff diamond. Its subsequent 

 history is entirely unknown, though at- 

 tempts have been made to identify it 

 with the Kohinoor and the Orloff. It 

 has either l)een wholly lost or cut into 

 several smaller stones. 



THE LARGEST DIAMOND. 



Tlie Cullinan, thougli its history has, 

 so far, been i)i'osaic enougli, has tlie dis- 

 tinction of being the largest diamond 

 known; in its rough state it weighed 

 3,025| carats, about 20 ounces troy. It 

 was found in January, 1905, in the Pre- 

 mier Mine, Transvaal. The mine man- 

 a.ucr, P^rederiric Wells, .v n, late one 



evening, descending a jagged slope in 

 an open working when he saw a corner 

 of the huge diamond projecting from 

 the surface. He dug it out with his 

 pocket knife, and, entering the office of 

 the comj)any, he handed the diamond to 

 the general manager, McHardy, who 

 was sitting with the president, Mr. T. 

 M. Cullinan, inspecting the day's yield 

 of diamonds. We can imagine their 

 astonishment. The stone was taken to 

 Pretoria, where it was exhibited to the 

 public for several days, subsequently be- 

 ing sent to the London office. For two 

 years it lay in the London and West- 

 minster Bank, its enormous size making 

 a sale impossible. Finally, at the in- 

 stance of President Louis Botha, it was 

 purchased by the Transvaal Government 

 for £200,000, and presented to King 

 Edward, as a recognition of his Ma- 

 jesty's grant of a constitution to the 

 Colony. The Cullinan was cut by the 

 Amsterdafti firm of Joseph Asscher and 

 Company, the ])rocess taking nine 

 months. It was cut into a drop bril- 

 liant weighing 516^ carats, another of 

 92 carats, square brilliants of 309 and 

 62 carats, and about one hundred smal- 

 ler stones, all without flaw and of the 

 flnest quality. The united weight of 

 the gems cut from this marvellous dia- 

 mond is 1,050 carats. Experts \'alue 

 them at a million pounds. 



In October, 1919, another large dia- 

 nu)nd weighing 1,500 carats (about half 

 the weight of the Cullinan) was un- 

 earthed at the Premier Mine; it is 

 thought that this once formed part of 

 the Cullinan, which was not a com- 

 plete crystal, one side showing a cleav- 

 ao'e surface. 



Artists at the Museum. — Artists and 

 art classes ai'e fre(|uent and welcome 

 visitors to the Museum. Miss Dora 

 Olfsen, the well-known sculptress, work- 

 ed for some weeks in our shops, pre- 

 paring models of tyiiical Australian 

 animals wiiich will be reproduced as 

 statuettes. An art class from the Tech- 

 nical College under the leadership of 



]\liss li. Hlakemore makes Avtekly visits 

 during the session for the purpose of 

 painting Australian birds, and the de- 

 votees of commercial art lind in our 

 collections material which can be used 

 in their work. The students of the 

 Sydney Art School have made extensive 

 use of the skeletons exhibited in the 

 Osteological Gallery. 



