GOLCONDA DIAMOND

Hokitika Guardian, 26 August 1933, Page 6

GOLCONDA DIAMOND

i TRAGIC HISTORY DISCLOSED

LONDON, August 18:

The tragic- Golconda diamond has i been sold to a London diamond merI chant by, the. Archduke Joseph of Aus--1 tri;a. for £25,000. :' N o t only Is : it the most magnificent ; Indian diamond in existanqe; it has ‘also, a very .romantic history. The Golconda was discovered about :a- century ago by an Indian diamond digger in Golconda, Hyderabad. He succeeded in concealing it from em-. j ployers, but eventually showed it to an overseer named Turner, to whom lie proposed to share aqually in the proceeds of sale.

, Turner, however, preferred to murder the Indian, B.eing pursued by the', police, hie swallowed the diamond and died in agony in the arms of his captors.

The police doctor performed an autopsy. oil'the dead man, and discovered the diamond in' the stomach. Hu concealed the discovery,' and himself' sold, the precious stone, to a/wealthy English planter, who caused the dia-* niond to be included in a costly diadem ordered for his mistress. This was a well known. English dancer performing in Calcutta. ■ On the return journey to England, from the ship, and in 1849, a d.own-at-heel individual offered the- diamond for sale to a British * peer known for his collections'of precious stones. 1

The. peer, however, informed the police, who decided to interrogate the vendor. When they tracked -him down, they found him-lying with his throat: cut, in a sq.ualidlodging house-.

Three years later the dia»u,oud- -vvas offered to an Amsterdam jeweller, who bought it, but not until 1870 was lie able to sell it to the Treasurer of-the House of Hapsburg,: in whose posses-: sion the historic diamond witnessed the tragedies of the Archduke Rudolph, the Empress. r .the Archduke Franz Ferdinand.