History
The particulars of the Orlov's story have been lost with time, but it is widely reported that the diamond once served as an eye of the statue of the presiding deity of the Sri Ranganathaswamy Temple of Srirangam in southern India. The man held responsible for its removal was a French deserter, a grenadier from the Carnatic wars who apparently converted to the Hindu faith and worshipped at the temple for many years. Whether the deserter did this sincerely or solely to gain access to the statue is not known. The temple, situated on an island in the Cauvery River, was surrounded by seven enclosures; no Christians were ever permitted farther than the fourth. Once having pilfered the stone from its sacred home around 1750, perhaps after untold years of patient planning, the deserter fled to Madras (now Chennai) where he would find protection with the British Army, as well as a buyer.
The as yet unnamed stone passed from merchant to merchant in the everlasting quest for profit, eventually appearing for sale in Amsterdam. Shaffrass, an Iranian millionaire who then owned the diamond, found an eager buyer in Count Grigory Grigorievich Orlov. The Count paid a purported 400,000 Dutch florins, but would likely have agreed to any amount demanded.
Years before the purchase Grigory Orlov had been romantically involved with a young Catherine the Great of Russia, an affair beginning while she was still merely Empress Consort of Russia, married to the Emperor Peter III of Russia. Their affair continued as Grigory Orlov led the way in the dethronement of her husband in a coup d'état and the elevation of Catherine to power. Their relationship carried on for many years and produced an illegitimate child, but Catherine eventually forsook Count Orlov for Grigori Alexandrovich Potemkin. Count Orlov sought to rekindle their forlorn romance by offering her the diamond, as it is said he knew she had wished for it. While he failed to regain her affections, Catherine did bestow many gifts upon Count Orlov; these gifts included a marble palace in St. Petersburg. Catherine named the diamond after the Count, and had her jeweller, C. N. Troitinski, design a sceptre incorporating the Orlov.
Now known as the Imperial Sceptre, it was completed in 1784. A description is given by Burton (1986):
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