LARGEST SAPPHIRE.

Shannon News, 7 November 1924, Page 3

LARGEST SAPPHIRE.

ONCE A PAPERWEIGHT. LONDON, Aug. 29. Still another a,ttraction has. been added to' tlie JBritish Empire Exhibition at Wembley. This is the world's largest sapphire, a jewel weighing ten uunces''.and valued at more than £SOOO. This stone was discovered recently in the home of a Maihomniedan official in Hyderabad State,, wna had been using it for many years as a paper-weight. In fact, so little value did this man attach to the curiouslooking stione, whidh is intricately carved in the form of an ear ornament that he frequently gave it ■to hi s *chUdren as a pretty plaything. The stone has a long, and romantic history which has been traced from the' twelfth century, when it was an ornament on a. Budda belonging to the Ballala kings of South India it was handed down from generation to generation until it came into the possession pf a white man, who eventually gave it as a present to the ancestors of its present owner.