It was once the property of Cleopatra.

I was obliged to make two trips to Egypt before I could persuade the owner to part with it.

I am always conscious of a certain sense of awe, Mr.Rickaby, when I touch this wonderful thing.

To think, sir, to think! that this bauble once rested on the bosom of that marvellous woman; that Mark Antony must have seen it, may have touched it; that Ptolemy Auletes knew all about it, and that it is older, sir, than the Christian religion itself!" He held it out upon the flat of his palm, the better for Cleek to see and to admire it, and signed to his son to hand the visitor a magnifying glass.
"Wonderful, most wonderful!" observed Cleek, bending over the spurious gem and focussing the glass upon it; not, however, for the purpose of studying the fraud, but to examine something just noticed--something round and red and angry-looking which marked the palm itself, at the base of the middle finger.
"No wonder you are proud of such a prize.

I think I should go off my head with rapture if I owned an antique like that.