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.