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THE HOUSE IN CHARTERHOUSE STREET
tahedron
weighing 234.5 carats was found in 1888 in the De Beers mine and sold
to an Indian Prince. The Star of South Africa we already have
discussed. The Tennant, weighing 112 carats, was found by one James
Tennant, well-known mineral dealer of London, in 1873. The Tiffany
Yellow, owned by Tiffany & Co., weighed 128.5 carats and was
discovered in the Kimberley mine about 1878. The Jagersfontein or Pam,
found in 1889 in the Jagersfontein mine, weighed 123 carats and, when,
cut, 56.5 carats. The Red Cross, a large canary-yellow square-shaped
brilliant, weighed 375 carats and after being cut was presented to the
British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John of Jerusalem by the
Diamond Syndicate in 1918. Curiously, through the table-facet one can
see a series of inclusions arranged in the form of a maltese cross—thus
partly explaining its name. The Tiger-Eye, a deep amber-tinted diamond
found in the Vaal River in 1913, weighed 178^ carats. The Colenso, a
beautiful yellowish octahedral crystal of diamond, weighed 133 carats
and until the first World War was exhibited in the Mineral Department
of the British Museum of Natural History at South Kensington. It was
presented to the trustees by John Ruskin, who had a keen interest in
gem stones, and was named by him "in Honour of his Friend, the loyal
and patiently adamantine First Bishop of Natal."
The
fact of the matter is, there have been many large diamonds discovered
which never found their way into the records simply because their
owners didn't surround them with ballyhoo. In his book, The Genesis ot the Diamond, Alpheus
F. Williams, who was general manager of De Beers Consolidated Mines,
lists scores of stones of at least 100 carats in weight found in South
Africa alone. In fact, 14 were found to be 500 carats and over; 16 were
between 400
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