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Glittering
Stones >> Hope Diamond
Hope Diamond
The Hope Diamond is a great deep blue diamond.
It was initially mined from the Kollur mine in Golconda, India,
and was a bluntly cut in triangular shape of 112 3/17-carats.
It was purchased by French mercantile traveler Jean-Baptist Tavernier
and sold to King Louis XIV of France in 1667 and was re-cut by
Sieur Pieta, the court jeweler and produced a 67 1/7-carat stone.
The stone became known as "The Blue Diamond of the Crown"
and the "French Blue" and was set in gold and hovering
on a neck ribbon for the King to wear on traditional occasions.
During the French Revolution when King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette
were held in the prison, the diamond was stolen.
A similar blue diamond was in the ownership of a London
diamond merchant in 1811, this diamond which is now known
as the "Hope Diamond" is supposed to be the re-cut French
Blue. It was acquired by King George IV, but after his death in
1831 it was sold confidentially to clear his debts.
It next appeared in the gem gathering of Henry Philip Hope in
1838. It had a number of incarnations together with being re-set
by Pierre Cartier in 1908. It was acquire by New York jeweler,
Harry Winston, who donated it to the Smithsonian Institution in
1959. The most recent examinations show it to weigh 45.53 carats
and are described as "Fancy dark grayish-blue."
The diamond is legendary for the misfortunes it evidently visits
upon its possessors, a fate that does not seem to have afflicted
the Smithsonian. See curse.
In 1911 the Hope diamond was shown to Mrs. Evalyn
Walsh McLean, of Washington D.C., at Cartier's in the Paris, but
she did not like the background. Cartier had the diamond
rearrange and took it to the U.S. where he left it with Mrs. McLean
for a weekend. This approach was successful. The sale was made
in 1910 with the diamond mounted as a headpiece on a three-tiered
crown of large white diamonds. Sometime later
it became the locket on a diamond necklace as
we know it today. Mrs. McLean's flamboyant ownership of the stone
lasted until her death in 1947.
For the next 10 years the Hope diamond was exposed at many exhibits
and generous events world wide by Harry Winston Inc., including
as the central magnetism of their Court of Jewels exhibition.
On November 10, 1958, they donated the Hope diamond
to the Smithsonian Institution, and approximately immediately
the great blue gem
stone became its premier attraction.
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