More from My Days Off — Natural History Museum

Last Tuesday after I voted I set out again to the Mall to play tourist. Here are a few pictures from my visit to the Natural History Museum.

I always like to go and see the gems especially the Hope Diamond but also on display at the National Gem collection:

• the Marie Antoinette diamond earrings
• a 263-carat diamond necklace and a diadem (tiara) given by Napoleon to Empress Marie-Louise
• the Janet Annenberg Hooker fancy yellow diamonds
• 2 topaz crystals from Brazil, weighing 111 and 70 pounds respectively, and a 23,000-carat cut-and-polished topaz
• a 423-carat sapphire set in diamonds
• the DeYoung red and pink diamonds
• the 127-carat Portuguese diamond, the largest cut diamond in the collection
• the Rosser Reeves ruby
• the Carmen Lucia Ruby, weighing 23.1-carats, is one of the largest faceted Burmese rubies known to exist. The stone is set in platinum and flanked by 2 triangular colorless diamonds measuring 1.1 and 1.27 carats.

One of the really impressive places to visit.