The Great Moghul originally weighed 787 carats, but when seen in the treasury of the Emperor Aurungzebe in 1665 by Tavernier it had been cut down to an estimated weight of 280 carats. It appears to have been given to the Emperor Shah Jehan by the Amir Jumba. It is by some supposed to be a portion cleaved off the Koh-i-Nur by some great convulsion of nature in remote ages long before either were discovered. The diamond is believed to be at present in the possession of the Shah of Persia.
The Regent or Pitt diamond was found either in Borneo or India, and weighed then 410 carats. It was bought by Mr. Pitt, Governor of Madras, for £20,400, and was subsequently sold in 1717 to the Duc d’Orleans, Regent of France, for £80,000. In the process of cutting the diamond was reduced to 136-14/16 carats, and was amongst the French Crown Jewels stolen during the Revolution. Later it was recovered, and is still believed to be in France.
The Hope diamond is a beautiful blue brilliant weighing 44-1/4 carats, and is one of those stones which is reputed to bring bad luck to its owner. It formed part of the collection of Mr. H. T. Hope, who bought it for £18,000, and after whom it is named. The stone was last heard of in the possession of an American, and quite recently the newspapers gave an account of a small child being killed in a street accident, the child being the only son of the owner of the Hope diamond.
Pearls are not like diamonds or other hard stones, which, having gone through periods of thousands of years under enormous pressure deep down in the earth, can now last for thousands more with undiminished lustre set in a ring or a crown, exposed to the free air of this terrestrial globe. The pearl is really only a sort of disease, or perhaps to put it more mildly a distemper, or milder still a pastime, on the part of the pearl oyster. A large pearl naturally takes many years to form inside the oyster’s shell, whilst small ones take so many years less. Even in one or two years a foreign substance, say a small shot, will, if placed in a pearl oyster, become to all appearance a pearl of high price. Even minute effigies of elephants and Bhuddhas when introduced will, in the course of a few months, be thinly but completely coated with pearl lustre. The true and valuable pearl also had a nucleus, probably a grain of sand, and this year after year has been covered with thin coatings of pearl lustre, so that small or large it is practically solid, so solid that it cannot be broken if trodden upon. But even so it is merely the product of decades, and has not the lasting-power of diamonds, or rubies, or sapphires, or emeralds.
A marked example of the comparatively short life of pearls is furnished by a very celebrated one known as the Pearl of Portugal. This pearl was as large as a pigeon’s egg and of that shape, and naturally at its zenith was of enormous value. Seen a few years ago by an expert, he described it as having deteriorated into nothing more valuable than a piece of chalk of the same size and shape. Owners of valuable pearls will immediately exclaim: “Oh! but that is because it was not constantly worn next the skin.” There are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of women who religiously wear their pearls next their skins all day, and some even at night, under the impression that they are so preserved. One of the highest experts in pearls and precious stones, however, puts this custom on a much lower plane. He says that the wearing of pearls next the skin is no doubt good as a burnisher, likening, from a purely commercial point of view, a woman’s skin to a finer form of chamois leather. But as to any preservative quality in the contact he will have none of it.
Queen Elizabeth’s earrings, the four great pearls which hang beneath the arch in the King’s State Crown, are, therefore, apart from their personal connection, of considerable interest, as regards the life of a pearl as a gem of value. These pearls have probably never been worn next the skin, even of a Queen. They are drop-shaped and manifestly only suitable for earrings or pendants. Yet though Queen Elizabeth died more than three hundred years ago they are still in good preservation. Thus they may remain for several centuries more if, as at present, they are kept in a perfectly air-tight compartment at an even temperature. But at best they can never outlive a diamond.
The exact history of these pearls is difficult to follow, and it is more by tradition and indirect evidence that it is assumed that they came from Queen Elizabeth. That great lady was, as all her pictures show, fond of pearls. She was a great Sea Queen, and we may be assured that her captains who quartered the globe brought home any great pearl they came across from distant seas or lands, knowing it would find a Royal purchaser. James I probably had not much use for pearls, except to horde them, but they seem not to have been amongst the Crown Jewels which he succeeded to, for they are not mentioned in the careful list that monarch made out in his own handwriting, and signed both at head and foot. This is understandable, for the pearls were Queen Elizabeth’s private property to bequeath to whom she pleased. It is not clear whether Charles I ever had these pearls, but the suggestion is that he had, and that he disposed of them to meet his necessities in his wars against Cromwell. Into whose hands they fell is a matter for conjecture as well as how they passed through the next century, for the next portrayal that we come across of them is in the State Crown of another great Queen, Victoria.
They hung as pendants beneath the cross of the arches of the crown, one at each corner. Here they were retained by Edward VII, and still occupy the same position in the State Crown of George V.
What wonderful stories those pearls could tell! Of the Great Armada and the pride of that great victory; of the bloody days of Charles I, and of his tragic death outside the window at Whitehall; of the gay days of Charles II, and the long and prosperous reign of Queen Victoria. But in all those centuries they probably had no greater adventures or dangers than they experienced together with the other Crown Jewels during the Great War of 1914-19.
The safe place in the Tower chosen for them by Edward VII is burglar-proof, fireproof, and proof against alarms and excursions; but when William the Conqueror built the Tower, he had undoubtedly never expected that it might be subject to an attack from the air. Even so he had made his roofs so thick and strong that a dropping cannon-ball might well be rebuffed. The pearls and their comrades the gems therefore looked on with calm toleration whilst the Germans waged and raged for four years over them. Indeed, they had got quite accustomed to this aerial bombardment, for though bombs fell close around them, still a miss is as good as a mile. It was only just towards the end of the war that news came which made the soldiers think that larger and heavier and more destructive bombs were likely to be used by the Germans. Then William the Conqueror, walking in the pleasant fields of heaven, said to Queen Elizabeth: “I am sorry, but I am afraid my walls and roofs cannot keep these out. You had better send your pearls away to one of the other palaces of the King, out in the open country.” So the pearls and their consorts one day without any fuss just slipped off and went to stay at Windsor till the war was over. That William the Conqueror and Queen Elizabeth were wise in their decision was obvious, for leaning over the ramparts of heaven they saw one great bomb fall into the Tower moat on the west, another they saw hit the railings on the edge of the moat to the north, whilst a third hit the Mint across the road to the east, and a fourth dropped within a few yards of the Jewel House into the river to the south. The next might have sent several million pounds’ worth of jewels to God knows where.