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OVER THE COUNTER
of the Hungarian Prince Esterhazy was bought for $100,000 and later the famous Zone of Diamonds, originally owned and worn by Marie Antoinette, together with twenty-four lots of stones were sold to Tiffany's by the French govern­ment for $500,000. In 1877 the firm acquired the large canary-colored diamond, found in Kimberley, South Africa, which now bears the Tiffany name.
Carrier's is another famous New York diamond house, but one does not think of the store in Fifth Avenue as indigenous to its surroundings or as part of a (Manhattan tradition. Rather, it is identified with the international phase of gems, since this store, and the Carrier store in London, are only outposts—or were, until the second World War began—of the great establishment in the Rue de la Paix, Paris.
Even the Paris house, however, is not as old as Tiffany's or Black, Starr & Gorham. But it probably can boast greater glamor and color in its briefer career. Through its doorways the crowned heads of Europe passed in a long file—without their crowns. The king of Spain was a good customer. He bought jewels while his English queen was several doors down the street having the fittings for her fifteen new dresses per season at the house of Worth. The diamond necklace and 200-carat sapphire of the Queen of Rumania came from Carrier's—as did fabulous gifts for every famous French actress from Sarah Bernhardt to Gaby Deslys. The velvet carpet in the store was said to be lined with tiny springs which gave it pleasurable buoyancy under foot but were actually intended to impede the running-step of thieves.
The Paris house was founded by Louis-Franoois Carrier at No. 29 Rue Montorgueil in the year 1847 just when Louis Napoleon was coming into power. The fashion whims
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