History of a Diamond: Hope Diamond

History : 

According to the legend, a curse will befell the large blue diamond when it was stolen from an idol in India. It is said a curse would foretold bad luck and death not only for the owner of the diamond but for all who touched it. Whether or not you believe in the curse, the Hope diamond has intrigued people for centuries. Its perfect quality, its large size and its rare color make it strikingly unique and beautiful.

The Origin of Hope Diamond

The Hope diamond is said to have originated from the Kollur mine located in Andhra Pradesh, India. According to the records from the diamond’s first owner, Jean Baptiste Tavernier; the diamond was discovered in the 17th century. No one is sure who discovered the stone but the first owner of record is Tavernier, a French gem merchant. It is said that the gem was obtained along with a number of other stones during one of Tavernier’s voyages to India. The large stone that Tavernier took to his home in Paris was far from the stone that is found in the Smithsonian Museum today. The triangle shaped 115 carat uncut stone was referred to as the Tavernier Blue diamond. Records estimate that Tavernier sold the Hope diamond along with a number of others to King Louis XIV for a sum equivalent to 147 kg of gold and a patent of nobility.

King Louis XIV and the Hope Diamond

After obtaining the Hope diamond, King Louis XIV had the court jeweler, Sieur Pitau, recut the diamond in to a 67.125 carat stone. After being cut the stone became known as the Blue Diamond of the Crown of France or the “French Blue.” The King desired for a piece of jewelry that would make him stand out during royal ceremonies and requested the jeweler to make him something special from the gem. According to reports it took two years, but Pitau would set the stone in gold and support it with ribbon so that the king could wear the 67 carat stone around his neck. The stone would be passed on to the King’s descendant, King Louis XV.

King Louis XV and the Hope Diamond

King Louis XV had his court jeweler, Andre Jacquemin, reset the diamond again. His desire was to create a more elaborate piece that he could wear for the Order of the Golden Fleece. This order was an order of chivalry created in 1430 to celebrate the Duke of Bugundy’s marriage to Isabella of Portugal. The order still exists today. Jacquemin created a jeweled pendant that included 83 red painted diamonds and 112 yellow painted diamonds arranged to represent a fleece. The King rarely wore the diamond piece however, and after his death it was inherited by King Louis XVI, his grandson.

King Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the Hope Diamond

King Louis XVI and his wife Marie Antoinette took ownership of the French Blue. During the beginnings of the French Revolution, the King and his family were confined to the Palais des Tuileries at which time thieves broke in to the royal storehouse and stole the French Crown Jewels. Among those jewels stolen in the 1792 robbery was the French Blue. Some of the famed jewels would eventually be recovered, but the French Blue was believed to be lost for good. As the story goes, despite the fact that the treasured gem was lost, it still became cursed at the time of the King and Antoinette’s beheading in 1793.

Missing Hope Diamond

It is believed that after the French Blue was stolen, re-cut and smuggled in to England. No one is exactly sure how the gem got to London or who had ownership of it while it was “missing” until 1812. 
The Hope diamond was the larger of the two sections of the re-cut French Blue diamond and in the early 1800’s it resurfaced in England in the possession of Caroline of Brunswick’s nephew, Duke Karl Friedrich. Between the early 1800’s and 1812 the blue diamond made its way from the Duke’s ownership to that of London diamond merchant Daniel Eliason.

People who possess the Hope Diamond

The 45.54 carat blue diamond was eventually sold by Eliason to a London Banker named Thomas Hope. The price paid for the stone is uncertain but is believed to be either $65,000 or $90,000. Once the stone became property of the Hope family it became known as the “Hope Diamond” and stayed in the family for more than fifty years. At this time the Hope diamond was set in a medallion with small white diamonds surrounding it. In 1839, the Hope Diamond was under ownership of Henry Philip Hope when he died and the three sons of Thomas Hope and his wife would fight for ten years in court over the inheritance of Henry’s jewel collection. Henry Thomas Hope, the oldest of Henry’s nephews would ultimately inherit the Hope diamond, as the jewel collection was split between the siblings.

Henry Thomas Hope would keep the extravagant gem in a vault for most of his life. When Henry Thomas Hope died in 1862, his wife Anne Adele inherited the stone but she long feared that her daughter’s husband would force her to sell the stone for the money. When Adele passed away in 1884, it was revealed that she had left her entire estate to her grandson, Lord Francis Hope under the condition that he changed his surname back to Hope. A stipulation was also made that said he could not sell any of Adele’s estate (including the Hope diamond) without permission from the court.

Pierre Cartier took ownership of the diamond and in 1910 he attempted to sell it to Washington DC socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean. While Cartier presented the diamond with tales of its mysterious past, he did not sell McLean and her husband on the gem. Many believe that Maclean and her husband refused to buy the gem because of the setting it was in but when Cartier had it reset the McLean’s eventually purchased it. The deal would not close on the purchase until 1911 for a total of $300,000. Mrs. McLean would frequently wear the stone to events in its new platinum framework (that still holds the stone today) surrounded by sixteen diamonds cut in Old Mine Cut and pear shaped variants. Mrs. McLean would flaunt the stone as much as possible but in 1947 when she died she left the stone to her grandchildren who would receive it when the eldest of them reached age 25. This provison should have protected the stone from being sold. However, the trustees who took possession of the stone until the children were old enough to take it, got permission to sell the stone. In 1949 the Hope Diamond was sold to diamond merchant Harry Winston to settle McLean’s debts.

Was the Hope Diamond really cursed?

Since the beheading of Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI, the Hope Diamond is said to have been cursed, but some question whether or not the curse is real. Many believe that the idea of the curse was created to add more mystery to the stone and make it more appealing to prospective buyers. There is no denying however, that many of those who took ownership of the stone experienced significant misfortune. 

In January of 1911 The New York Times ran an article featuring a number of cases of those who were befallen by ill fortune after coming in to contact with the diamond. This list included:

• Jacques Colet bought the Hope Diamond from Simon Frankel and committed suicide.
• Prince Ivan Kanitovski bought it from Colet but was killed by Russian revolutionists.
• Kanitovski loaned it to Mlle Ladue who was “murdered by her sweetheart.”
• Simon Mencharides, who had once sold it to the Turkish sultan, was thrown from a precipice along with his wife and young child
• Sultan Hamid gave it to Abu Sabir to “polish” but later Sabir was imprisoned and tortured.
• Stone guardian Kulub Bey was hanged by a mob in Turkey.
• A Turkish attendant named Hehver Agha was hanged for having it in his possession.
• Tavernier, who brought the stone from India to Paris was “torn to pieces by wild dogs in Constantinople.”
• King Louis gave it to Madame de Montespan whom later he abandoned.
• Nicholas Fouquet, an “Intendant of France”, borrowed it temporarily to wear it but was “disgraced and died in prison.”
• A temporary wearer, Princess de Lamballe, was “torn to pieces by a French mob.”
• Jeweler William Fals who recut the stone “died a ruined man.”
• William Fals’ son Hendrik stole the jewel from his father and later committed suicide.”
• Some years (after Hendrik) “it was sold to Francis Deaulieu, who died in misery and want.”

Source: The New York Times, January 29, 1911

Victims of Hope Diamond

1. Jean Baptiste-Tavernier. The story is that he came down with a raging fever soon after stealing the diamond, and after he died, his body was possibly ravaged by wolves. However, other reports show that he lived until the ripe old age of 84, so"¦ yeah.

2. King Louis XIV. He bought the stone from Tavernier and had it re-cut in1673. It was then known as "The Blue Diamond of the Crown" or the "French Blue". King Louis died of gangrene and all of his legitimate children died in childhood, except for one. But that isn't atypical of the times, I don't think.

3. Nicholas Fouquet, who worked for King Louis XIV, is said to have worn the diamond for some special occasion. Shortly thereafter, he fell out of favor with the king and was banished from France. The Louis changed this sentence to life imprisonment, so Fouquet spent 15 years in the fortress of Pignerol. Some people believe that he was the real Man in the Iron Mask, but other accounts dispute this.

4. and 5. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette.

Louis inherited the French Blue, Marie wore it, and I think we all know what happened there. That's the story, anyway - we have no photographic evidence that Marie wore the gem, but it fits in nicely with the curse, don't you think?

6. Marie-Louise, Princess de Lamballe, was a member of Marie Antoinette's court and was her closest confidante. She was killed by a mob in a most horrific fashion "“ apparently hit with a hammer, decapitated, stripped, and disemboweled, among other things. Her head was impaled on a pike and carried to Marie Antoinette's prison window.

7. Wilhelm Fals was a Dutch jeweler who re-cut the diamond again. His son ended up murdering him and then killing himself.

8. Greek merchant Simon Maoncharides owned the diamond. His curse? He drove his car over a cliff and killed himself, his wife and his child.

9. Evalyn Walsh McLean. Evalyn was a spoiled heiress who lived a charmed life"¦ until she bought the diamond. She happily wore the diamond and there are stories that she would even affix the jewel to her dog's collar and let him wander around the apartment with it. But wearing the Hope Diamond came at a steep price: first her mother-in-law died, her son died at the age of nine, her husband left her for another woman and later died in a mental hospital, her daughter died of a drug overdose at 25 and she eventually had to sell her newspaper "“ the Washington Post - and died owing huge debts. Evalyn's surviving kids sold the diamond to Harry Winston. Nine years later, Winston mailed the gem to the Smithsonian for $2.44 in postage and $155 in insurance. Which brings us to number 10:

10. James Todd, the mailman who delivered the diamond to the Smithsonian, apparently had his leg crushed in a truck accident shortly thereafter. He also suffered a head injury in a separate accident. Oh, also, his house burned down.

7 most Expensive Diamonds in the world:

#1 The Cullinan diamond ($ 400 Million) The Cullinan diamond is now mounted on the head with sticks Cross, and is the largest rough gem-quality diamond ever found, at 3,106,75 carat with 621.35 g. Polishing stones from the largest gems named Cullinan I or Star Africa First, and at 530.2 carats (106.0 g).The price of this diamond is about $ 400 million.

#2 The Hope Diamond The hope diamond is a large, 45. 52 carat with 9. 10 grams, the location is in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC-blue Hope Diamond to the naked eye because the number of traces of boron in the crystal structure, but exhibits a red phosphor under ultraviolet light. The price of this diamond is about $ 350 million.

#3 The De Beers Centenary Diamond The Centenary Diamond was unveiled in final form May 1991. The Centenary Diamond D levels were classified on the basis of color as color by the Gemological Institute of America, which is the highest grade a diamond is colorless and internally and externally flawless.  De Beers Centenary Diamond, at 273. 85 carat (54. 77 g), is the third largest diamond has been produced in the Premier Mine. The price of this diamond is about $ 100 million.

#4 The Steinmetz Pink The Steinmetz Pink is displayed as part of the Smithsonian’s “The Splendor of Diamonds” exhibition. The Steinmetz Pink is the diamond weighing 59.60 carat with 11. 92 gr, given a color as Fancy Vivid Pink by the Gemological Institute of America. The Steinmetz Pink is the largest known diamond has been given Vivid Pink.  The price of this diamond is about $ 25 million.

#5 The Wittelsbach Diamond Wittelsbach Diamond is also known as Der Blaue Wittelsbacher is 35. 56 carat (7.11 g) blue diamond with VS 2 clarity that has been appreciated by the nobility of Europe for centuries. It has become part of both the Austrian and Bavarian crown jewels. Color and clarity has been compared with the Hope Diamond.  The price of this diamond is about $ 16,4 million.

#6 The Heart of Eternity The Heart of Eternity is a very rare class of colored diamonds. The Heart of Eternity is the measure of diamonds 27. 64 carats  or 5. 528 g. The Heart of Eternity cut by the Steinmetz Group, with a diamond before selling to the De Beers Group. It was found in the Premier Diamond Mine in South Africa. The price of this diamond is about $ 16 million.

#7 The Moussaieff Red Diamond The Moussaieff Red Diamond is a diamond measuring 5. 11 carats (1. 022 g) with a triangular brilliant cut  sometimes called a trillion or a trilliant cut, rated in color as Fancy Red by the Gemological Institute of America.  Although this may seem relatively small when compared to other famous diamonds, in fact, the Moussaieff Red is the largest Fancy Red the GIA reports having value. The price can reach up to $ 7 million.