Mr Hornby's Diamond: Its Travels, Diplomatic Role and Possible Equation with the Nur al-‘Ayn (original) (raw)

The Journal of Gemmology, 2019

Abstract

The Hornby diamond has received scant attention in the literature on gems, with writers noting merely that it was supposedly sold to a shah in Persia in the early 1800s. Detailed information about this diamond is available, however, in a book written by the British diplomat Sir Harford Jones Brydges in the 1830s. From this and other documentation it is possible to pick up the trail of this ~60 ct pink diamond, proceeding from the Iranian Shah Karim Khan to India and then to Britain, where it was put up for auction, and finally back to the Iranian court where, as a diplomatic gift, it helped thwart Napoleon’s plans to invade British India. If this diamond still resides within the Iranian Crown jewels, it seems possible that it is the pink Nur al-‘Ayn (‘Light of the Eye’), which is estimated to weigh approximately 60 ct.

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