JEWEL WITH A CURSE.

Taihape Daily Times, 14 July 1919, Page 5

JEWEL WITH A CURSE.

SINISTER RECORD OF HOPE - !DI’.AMON‘D'.. ' ‘ T 9 ' The‘ Hope diamond is'a ‘blue stone of 44$ carats, and has a sinister fame as the unluckiest diamond in the world. .It is‘ believed to have been stolen firoln an image in‘a’ Hindu temple, and to carry the curse of misfortune or violent death. Taverner, who broughtiirt to Europe and sold it to Louis XIV., died a ruined ‘man. Mzne. dc Montespau"‘wol'e it and was at once supplanted by Mme. de Main— , tenon. Fauqliet borro'wed it and died _ in prison and disgrace. _ Marie Antoinette challenged fate by wearing it frequently, and ended on the guillotine, while her friend the . Princess Lamballe, to whom she lent it was torn .-to pieces by the Paris A mob. It was stolen in the Revolu— ' tion and sold for £IB,OOO to Mr 'l‘. iH. Hope, and it remained in the pos:session of his descendants till Lord iCFra.ncis Hope’ Pklham-Cf,-inton—who -‘married l\fEiss May Yohe, the American actress——sold it in 1901. In the ‘Hope family its evil record seems to have been temporarily ‘broken. ‘When Mr Simon Frankel, a New York |jeweller, bought it. His firm fell ‘into financial difliculties and he sold [it to'M. Colot. Brokn, who committed ‘suicide shortly after he had disposed of it -to Prince Kanitovsky. The ’ ‘prince lent it to an actress and shot her as she was Wearing it on the . Folies-Bergere stage; he was himself stabbed by Terrorists two days later. It has passed to the Sultan, Abdul p ‘Amid, who shot his Sultana, Salma ' Zobeidal, as she was wearing it, and was himself deposed. It was sold in ' .’ Paris in 1909 to a Mrgnabib, who was drowned at -sea. ofl:' Singapore, but I the jewel remained ii: France, and was ' {bought in l?&_tl‘ips__:§in - ward,-.,'McLea’h»'i?orC‘£§s,o3oo."