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John Francillon (1744–1816) was a jeweler and lapidary, an English naturalist and an entomologist of Huguenot descent. Francillon was a London jeweller who was also a dealer in natural history specimens and paintings. He was the agent for John Abbot selling his American bird and natural history illustrations. He maintained a large insect collection. Some of his butterflies appear in the Icones of William Jones. He was a Fellow of the Linnean Society. ==The Francillon Memo== In September 1812 Francillon was allowed to trace around an unset blue cushion-shaped diamond in the possession of the diamond merchant Daniel Eliason. Francillon drew the diamond in plan and elevation, coloring the plan drawing to match the deep blue color of the stone. Below the drawings he wrote notes to explain that he had been given permission to draw the gem by its owner, Eliason, and that it was " ... a very curious superfine deep blue Diamond." "There is other evidence which places a 44-carat blue diamond in England at least as early as 1812." George Frederick Kunz, a distinguished American gemologist, told of finding two detailed sketches of the Hope Diamond made by a Soho lapidary in 1812. As he explained in an article in the Saturday Evening Post,〔Kunz G. F., Ray M. B. (1928) The gem collector in Europe. Saturday Evening Post, 21 January 1928, pp. 33-34, 36, 38.〕 Kunz discovered the sketches in an old book by Pouget〔Pouget, Jean Henri Prosper. 1762. Traité des pierres précieuses et de la maniere de les employer en parure. Paris: Chez l'auteur (), 1762.〕 that he found one day while browsing in Quartich's bookshop in London.〔Patch, Susanne Steinem. Blue mystery: the story of the Hope diamond. (D.C. ); New York: Abrams, 1999. Page 18. ISBN 0-8109-2797-7〕 It is now known that this rare blue diamond was once part of the missing Royal and Imperial crown jewels of France. It was commonly known as the French Blue and had been set into Louis XV's jeweled insignia for the Order of the Golden Fleece. The French Blue had been stolen on 11 September 1792 along with most of the French Crown Jewels and was never recovered. The Francillon Memo is the first record of the diamond which would come to be known as the Hope Diamond. Francillon's drawing is dated two days after the statute of limitations for recovering French stolen property in the Napoleonic code had expired. Who sold the stone to Eliason is unclear, as is how long it was in his possession before he allowed Francillon to view and draw it. Also a mystery is who authorized the cutting of the French Blue to form the Hope Diamond. The Francillon Memorandum says: ''"The above drawing is the exact size and shape of a very curious superfine deep blue Diamond. Brilliant cut, and equal to a fine deep blue Sapphire. It is beauty full and all perfection without specks or flaws, and the color even and perfect all over the Diamond. I traced it round the diamond with a pencil by leave of Mr. Daniel Eliason and it is as finely cut as I have ever seen in a Diamond. The color of the Drawing is as near the color of the Diamond as possible. Dated: 19th September, 1812. John Francillon, No. 29 Norfolk Street, Strand, London."''〔(U.S. Geological Survey Library )〕 The Francillon Memorandum remains in the Pouget book today, in the (George Frederick Kunz Collection ) of the United States Geological Survey Library in Reston, Virginia. The Pouget book was donated to the USGS as part of Mr. Kunzs' private library after his death in 1933. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「John Francillon」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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