Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/77

 SECT. VI.

Notice of Peculiar Diamonds.

largest of all the undoubted Diamonds is that mentioned by Tavernier, as being in the possession of the Grand Mogul. In form it is an oval, about the size of half a hen's egg. According to the same traveller, who weighed it, its weight was 296 carats; it was probably facetted all round in rose, as he does not state it was brilliant cut. This gem was found in the washings near Caldore, to the east of Golconda, about the year 1550.

Diamond of a singular form, weighing 193 carats, is said to have represented the eye of an idol, and to have been stolen from its position by a French soldier, who escaped with it to Madras, where he sold it for about