#TheGreat_Exhibition The British public were given a chance to see the Koh-i-Noor when the Great Exhibition was staged in Hyde Park, London in 1851. The correspondent of The Times reported: The Koh-i-Noor is at present decidedly the lion of the Exhibition. A mysterious interest appears to be attached to it, and now that so many precautions have been resorted to, and so much difficulty attends its inspection, the crowd is enormously enhanced, and the policemen at either end of the covered entrance have much trouble in restraining the struggling and impatient multitude. For some hours yesterday there were never less than a couple of hundred persons waiting their turn of admission, and yet, after all, the diamond does not satisfy. Either from the imperfect cutting or the difficulty of placing the lights advantageously, or the immovability of the stone itself, which should be made to revolve on its axis, few catch any of the brilliant rays it reflects when viewed at a particular angle. The diamond was redisplayed in a shadowed case, designed so the sunlight would catch it better. However, the public were not taken by its brilliance even then, and the diamond was recut in 1852, the year after the exhibition.[15] The Koh-i-Noor here made up part of the larger India Museum collection, but was displayed separately from the industrial and natural history exhibits of the collection.
Posted on: Mon, 13 Oct 2014 14:01:35 +0000