Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/81

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DIAMOND.
45

great size, but of irregular form, is worn by the king of Saxony, when in court dress, as a button to the plume in his hat.

A Diamond of great purity, but of a bad form, has lately arrived from India. It is called the Nassauc, having been taken in the Peishwa's baggage during the Mahratta war. It weighs 79 carats and 2 grains, yet it is valued at only £30,000. Its form is triangular, and it is cut and polished so as to retain the greatest possible weight; but it exhibits none of the qualities which it would so proudly display if it had been well proportioned.

The king of Portugal has a rough. Diamond, which weighs nearly an ounce troy. It was found in the allavium of the river Abaité; its form approximates to the octahedron. No potentate is so rich in Diamonds as this monarch: I had the honor of being shewn his suit and estimated it at more than two millions.