it liable to easy
fracture: in every sense converting what would have been a rare and
magnificent jewel to a comparatively valueless specimen.

One of the chief services rendered by precious stones is that they may
be employed as objects of adornment, therefore, the stone must be cut of
such a shape as will allow of its being set without falling out of its
fastening--not too shallow or thin, to make it unserviceable and liable
to fracture, and in the case of a transparent stone, not too deep for
the light to penetrate, or much colour and beauty will be lost. Again,
very few stones are flawless, and the position in which the flaw or
flaws appear will, to a great extent, regulate the shape of the stones,
for there are some positions in which a slight flaw would be of small
detriment, because they would take little or no reflection, whilst in
others, where the reflections go back and forth from facet to facet
throughout the stone, a flaw would be magnified times without number,
and the value of the stone greatly reduced. It is therefore essential
that a flaw should be removed whenever possible, but, when this is not
practicable, the expert will cut the stone into such a shape as will
bring the defect into the least important part of the finished gem, or
probably sacrifice the size and weight of the original stone by cutting
it in two or more pieces of such a shape that the cutting and polishing
will obliterate the defective portions. Such a method was adopted with
the great Cullinan diamond, as described in Chapter IV. From this
remarkable diamond a great number of magnificent stones were obtained,
the two chief being the largest and heaviest at present known. Some idea
of the size of the original stone may be gathered from the fact that the
traditional Indian diamond, the "Great Mogul," is said to have weighed
280 carats. This stone, however, is lost, and some experts believe that
it was divided, part of it forming the present famous Koh-i-nur; at any
rate, all trace of the Great Mogul ceased with the looting of Delhi in
1739. The Koh-i-nur weighs a little over 106 carats; before cutting it
weighed a shade over 186; the Cullinan, in the same state, weighed
nearly 3254 carats. This massive diamond was cut into about 200 stones,
the largest, now placed in "The Royal Sceptre with the Cross," weighing
516-1/2 carats, the second, now placed under the historic ruby in "The
Imperial State Crown," weighing 309-3/16ths carats. Thes