carats in weight. The figures quoted are carats, but are probably not in all instances based upon one exact standard—
NAME. | ORIGIN. | WEIGHT IN THE ROUGH. |
WEIGHT WHEN CUT. |
---|---|---|---|
Nizam | India | — | 277 |
Excelsior | S. Africa. | 9713/4 | 239 |
De Beers of 1888 | S. Africa. | 4281/2 | 2281/2 |
Orloff | India | — | 1943/4 |
Darya-i-nur | India | — | 186 |
Victoria | S. Africa. | 4571/2 | 180 |
Taj-i-mah | India | — | 146 |
Regent or Pitt | India | 410 | 1367/8 |
Austrian Yellow | India | — | 1331/4 |
Star of the South | Brazil | 2541/2 | 1253/4 |
Tiffany Yellow | S. Africa | — | 1251/2 |
Stewart | S. Africa. | 2883/4 | 120 |
Koh-i-nur | India | — | 1061/16 |
Full discussions of the history of these diamonds and of many others will be found in the works named in the Bibliographical Notes. Dr. Max Bauer's "Precious Stones" contains a good set of figures representing most of the celebrated big diamonds of the world. A large uncut Cape stone, given to the British Museum by John Ruskin and named after Bishop Colenso, is a good octahedron of 1292/3 carats.
Diamonds and the more valuable of precious stones generally are bought and sold by the weight called a carat. This carat, whatever its precise value, is always considered as divisible into 4 diamond grains, but the subdivisions of the carat are usually expressed by the vulgar fractions, one-fourth, one-eighth, one-twelfth, one-sixteenth, one-twenty-fourth, one-thirty-secondth, and one-sixty-fourth. The origin of the carat is to be sought in certain small hard leguminous seeds, which, when once dry, remain constant in weight. The brilliant, glossy, scarlet-and-black seed of Abrus precatorius constitutes the Indian rati, about 2 grains; the Adenanthera pavonina seed is about 4 grains. The seed of