About the Tavernier Blue Diamond and Common Practices in the Mining Fields

THE TAVERNIER BLUE.

A Precious Colour in Diamonds--"D'un Beau Violet"--Famous Mines in History and Tradition--Misfortune follows Tavernier--The Old Idea of Great Diamonds being Unlucky--One Stone with a Treble History.

This stone is described as "D'un beau violet," and at once attracts the attention of every connoisseur. There are diamonds of a sapphire hue, and one of a ruby red, which are of high value; there are also green, white olive, black, yellow, and fire-coloured; but the red and blue are the rarest of all natural productions. An affluent of the Coleroon somewhat north of the Palqhat Pass in the South-Western Ghauts is said to be the locality where this unique specimen was found.

It must strike students as very wonderful that the places in which great diamonds were said to be discovered are not the extensive mines at the base of the Neela-Mulla mountains, in the vicinity of the Krishna and Pomar rivers, where a hundred thousand miners, labourers, and merchants dwelt in the time of Methold; nor the mines of Golconda, described by Jean Baptiste Tavernier; nor those of Raulconda; nor the Gani or Coloor, seven days journey from the same capital, where, in Tavernier's time, sixty thousand labourers were at work, and where, we are told, a poor Vaisya preparing a piece of ground to sow some millet, struck his hoe on a stone, which to his surprise and the dealers, too, turned out to be a diamond weighing twenty-five carats. It was from this thin soil that a stone of forty carats was found, which was presented to Shah Jehan by the Persian general Emir Jemla. But the stones found here were tinged with green, yellow, or red. Tavernier speaks of a diamond the weight of which was 793 carats, which was given by the Emir Jemla to the emperor. Sumelpoor on the South-Western frontier of Bengal, and near the source of the river Quel, was also visited by Tavernier, and the South-West of Allahabad on the Ganges, a stronghold of the Prasians, was also the locality of the most ancient diamond mines.

Vast as were and are these diamond fields, comparatively few remarkable stones are declared to have been discovered there, and for obvious reasons. The feudal lord of the soil made conditions with the employer of labour, similar to those existing between the rich merchant jeweller Marcandar, and the King of Golconda, who stipulated that the merchant should pay yearly to the king 30,000 pagodas of 8s. 6d. each for working the mine, and reserve for the king's special right all stones found, which exceeded in weight two carats. This, no doubt, accounts for so few large diamonds coming to light. The merchant's temptation to have large stones broken up was very great.

The experience of smuggling in all ages, and in every country, confirms the report that this restriction only stimulated the secreting and disposal of the commodity so reserved. It was indeed a tremendous premium on the concealment of the place where these exceptional stones were found; and as the inventive faculty of Easterns is of luxurious growth, it may well be believed that the extraordinary incidents which were related about the discovery of wonderful stones, would be as wonderful, and far more plentiful than the diamonds themselves.

Tavernier, on his last return from the East, sold twenty-five large diamonds to Louis le Grand Monarque, 1668. But this violet blue stood at the head of the list. From 1391 to the end of the eighteenth century diamonds were passionately sought for both by men and women in most Courts of Europe to adorn their persons, and their grand reception rooms. The sums of money given to Tavernier by Louis XIV. for this Blue diamond and the other stones purchased by the Grand Monarque, so enriched the merchant, that he purchased a great estate, to which he retired to spend in peace his remaining years with his loved and trusted son. His sovereign, besides enriching Tavernier with above pound 100,000, added the honour of nobility. Alas! The ill-luck which was said to pursue the merchants in these gems from India seems to have attached itself to this famous traveller. The son involved his aged father in such unfortunate speculations, that he was compelled to sell his estate to pay his debts, and at the age of eighty-four to venture out once more to the East. On his journey he was attacked by fever and perished. It is very noteworthy that Emir Jemla died, after the miscarriage of his son, in a similar manner. That this blue diamond was cut after coming into the possession of the French king, and reduced to 67 1/8 carats is most probale. It appears that by cleavage subsequently the diamond was reduced to 44 1/4 carats, and after this treatment it came into the possession of the late Mr. Henry Thomas Hope, and stands unrivalled.