DIAMOND: LARGE AND FAMOUS STONES 249 



me octahedral cleavage as diamond, and by piecing the portions together arrived at the 



^onciusion that the rough stone had the size of a hen's egg, the form of a rhombic 



odecahedron, and a weight of about 793| carats, which agrees closely with Tavernier's 

 account. 



Opinions differ also as to the derivation of the name " Koh-i-noor," which is sometimes 

 said to signify "Mountain of Light," and is supposed to have been given to the stone by 

 ' isnah. It has also been supposed to be a corruption of KoUur, the locality at which 



^^ as lound, and the name by which it is said to have been formerly itnown in India. 



ihe Orloff is the largest of the diamonds comprised in the Russian crown jewels, and 

 usually forms the termination of the imperial sceptre ; it is a stone of the finest water, 

 perfectly pure and with a briUiant lustre. In form (Plate X., Figs, la, lb, If,) it is very 

 Minilar to that of Tavernier's drawing of the " Great Mogul," being an almost hemispherical 

 losette bounded on the lower side by a cleavage surface, as was the case with the Indian-cut 

 -IVoh-i-noor.'- Its height is 10 lines, its greatest diameter 15| lines, and its weight 194f 

 carats. I his stone has had a chequered career ; it is said at one time to have formed one of 

 the eyes of an idol in the Brahmin temple on the island of Sheringham, in the Cauvery 

 river near Trichinopoly. It was stolen from here, at the beginning of the eighteenth century, 

 by a French soldier, passed into the hands of an English ship's captain, and so found its way 

 into Europe, and in 1791 was bought in Amsterdam (being on this account sometimes known 

 as the " Amsterdam " diamond) by Prince Orlofi' for the Empress Catharine II. of Russia 

 for the sum of 1,400,000 Dutch florins. 



There is a story to the effect that this stone came into the possession of the Russian 

 crown through an Armenian, named Schafras ; this story probably, however, applies not to 

 the " Orloff" but to another large diamond in the Russian crown jewels, namely, the Moon 

 of the Mountains. This diamond, which weighs 120 carats, became the booty of 

 Nadir Shah, who used it for the adornment of his throne. At his assassination, it 

 \\as stolen with other jewels by an Afghan soldier, from whom it passed into the possession 

 of the Armenian Schafras. The latter sold it in 1775 to Catharine II. for 450,000 roubles, 

 an annuity of 4000 roubles, and letters of nobility. 



The Polar Star, a beautiful brilliant of 40 carats (Plate XI., Fig. 15), also belongs to 

 the Russian crown, as does the peculiarly shaped stone known as the Shah. This latter 

 stone was presented in 1829 to the Czar Nicholas by the Persian prince, Chosroes, the 

 younger son of Abbas Mirza. It is of the purest water and in form a very irregular prism 

 (Plate X., Figs. 3a, 3b), 1 inch 5| lines long and 8 lines wide in the thickest part. The 

 boundaries of the stone are partly cleavage faces and partly artificially cut facets ; on three 

 of the latter the names of three Persian kings are engraved, so that the " Shah " is one of 

 the few examples of engraved diamonds. Professor Gustav Rose, who saw the stone soon 

 after it was brought to St. Petersburg, gave the weight as 88 carats, but this does not agree 

 with a subsequent statement to the effect that the stone has been re-cut and its weight 

 reduced from 95 to 86 carats, the interesting inscriptions being lost in the ])rocess. 



Another engraved diamond is the Akbar Shah, so called from its first possessor, the 

 Great Mogul, Akbar ; when in the possession of Jehan, Akbar's successor, Arabic inscrip- 

 tions were engraved on two of its faces. It subsequently disappeared for a long period, 

 reappearing again in Turkey, under the name of the " Shepherd's Stone," comparatively 

 recently, and still recognisable as the " Akbar Shah " by its Arabic inscriptions. It at first 

 weighed 116 carats, but after re-cutting in 1866 its weight was reduced to 71 or 72 carats 

 and the inscriptions were lost in the process. In 1867 the stone was sold to the Gaikwar of 

 Baroda for ^35,000. 



