Page:A treatise on diamonds and precious stones including their history Natural and commercial.djvu/82

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DIAMOND.

A fine stone, weighing 101 carats, called the Nizam Diamond, was brought from India by Governor Hastings; it made a most perfect brilliant, and was presented to our late gracious Queen Charlotte.

An individual lately received a rough Diamond from Brazil, above 90 carats; which, when formed into brilliant, weighed nearly 32: it cost £200 in workmanship.

In the crown jewels of France is afine light blue brilliant, which weighs 674 carats, and was estimated at above £100,000.

In commerce Diamonds of magnitude rarely compensate the possessor, there being so few purchasers. A friend of mine told me, that his father bought a fine brilliant for £12,000, and kept it twenty years without being able to dispose of it. Circumstances at length arose which rendered it necessary for