THE HOPE DIAMOND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIV, Issue 1085, 20 August 1912, Page 4

THE HOPE DIAMOND.

WAS IT ABOARD THE TITANIC? According to the magazine, the Lady, the celebrated “Hope” diamond was on board the Titanic when she went down. It states also that though the French Press has commented on the fact, it seems to have escaped notice ou the other side of the Channel. 111-luck is believed to dog the possessor of this stone, and the superstitious will say that the wreck of the Titanic was the crowning misfortune of its baleful career. The “Hope” is said to be the loveliest of all colomed diamonds. It is of a brilliant sapphire blue. Mr H. T. Plope, father of the Dowager Duchess of Newcastle, bought it early in the nineteenth century for ,£iS,ooo. The diamond is believed to be part of the “Tavernier blue,’’ which was one of the French Crown jewels, stolen during the French Revolution. It gained its name “Tavernier” from the merchant Jean Baptiste Tavernier, who sold the stone to Louis XIV., or the Regent Duke of Orleans—for authorities differ—and the misfortunes which befel the French Bourbons have been laid at its door. Lord Francis Hope, the brother of the Duke of Newcastle, sold the diamond in 1906. It was sold again in 1909. Now, if the Lady is right, it has done its worst and last.