The Hope Diamond is the most well-known gemstone among those said to be cursed, though many others have been over the years. Stories of disaster abound around this brilliant 45.52-carat blue diamond. How did this diamond, which came from India and was owned by Europe’s nobility for a long time, get up in the Smithsonian, one of the most cherished museums in the United States? Stones have tales, just like people do. This is the interesting history of the blue diamond.
From Mines to Monarchy: The Tragic Tale of the French Blue
The stone was originally acquired by Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in 1666 from the Kollur Mine in Telangana, India. A little over 112 carats in weight, the enormous blue diamond was bought by King Louis XIV of France in 1668. The king had the stone recut by his court jeweler into a 67-carat heart, giving it the well-known heart shape associated with Valentine’s Day, and set in gold. “Le bleu de France” (The French Blue) is the name given to the stone.
French explorer and trader Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605–1689). He was the first European to write about India’s diamond mines. Les Six Voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, which was translated into English as The Six Voyages of John Baptista Tavernier in 1678, was the title of an account published in 1676 by Tavernier detailing his six trips to India and Persia between 1631 and 1668. While Tavernier gave copious data on his trips and professional activities, he did not document the specifics of his significant business dealings. It’s possible that he was reluctant to disclose the origin and cost of the stones he bought because doing so may have harmed his company. Regretfully, this implies that not much information is available on his acquisition of the 115-carat blue diamond that he later sold to King Louis XIV (Morel 1988).
Together with the other crown jewels of France, this magnificent gemstone belonged to the French royal family until it was taken in 1792 during the French Revolution. The ultimate disaster that the diamond is said to have brought to its owners was experienced by reigning kings Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette during the revolution. They were both captured while trying to escape France and executed by guillotine for treason. During the French Revolution, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were apprehended while trying to escape France, according to the Smithsonian. The revolutionary administration received the royal jewels and kept them in the Garde-Meuble.
How Tavernier’s Diamond Became a Gem of Legend
Gems were usually cut in India to maintain their size and weight. This style was probably followed when Tavernier’s Blue Diamond was first cut into an asymmetric, almost triangular shape. Gem cutters polished the diamond’s natural faces, not trying to create a geometric shape or increase its sparkle, to maintain the diamond’s weight and size (Morel 1988). It is unknown whether the diamond was cut in India by Indian jewelers or if the Indian technique was applied abroad.
From French Blue to Hope: The Gem’s Evolution
The diamond was taken several decades later and turned up in London. The renowned jewelry continued to change hands, be seized, be re-cut, and be moved almost as if it had its own will after that.
First, a diamond that belonged to King George IV of England and had a striking resemblance to the stolen French Blue surfaced in London. After he died in 1830, the diamond was auctioned to help settle his massive debts. Henry Philip Hope, who gave the stone its name, bought it. The Hope family owned the diamond for a long time before it was sold at auction in 1908 to a Turkish Sultan who was overthrown by an army uprising.
Evalyn McLean: Diamonds and Despair
The renowned diamond traveled over the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in New York City at the turn of the 20th century. The Hope Diamond was purchased by renowned jeweler Pierre Cartier in 1909. In 1912, he persuaded American heiress and socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean to buy the diamond. The diamond’s final private owner, McLean, was unafraid of the stone’s past.
While she was the owner, she did suffer great misfortune: she lost her husband to insanity, her only daughter to suicide at the age of 25, her eldest son to a vehicle accident when he was nine years old, and finally, he passed away in an asylum. Financial misfortune also resulted in the family newspaper, The Washington Post, being lost at auction in a bankruptcy. McLean wore the diamond until she died in 1947, yet she did not think it brought her bad luck.
How Was the Hope Diamond Cut?
A carat is a unit of mass that was first determined by weighing a carob seed, which varies in size and weight naturally. In 1913, the US adopted the “metric carat,” which is equal to 200 mg or 0.200 g, to standardize the carat. The metric carat is currently used to determine the weight of diamonds and all other gemstones. Metric carats are the carat weights you are familiar with from jewelry retailers.
Gem weights are typically given in obsolete units in older sources. For instance, the weight of the blue diamond mentioned in the Francillon Memo was 177 grains, but the weight of Tavernier’s Diamond was 112 3/16 old French carats, a measurement somewhat less than a metric carat (A metric carat is roughly equal to one-third of a grain). The Hope Diamond’s and its precursor stones’ recognized metric carat weights are as follows:
- Hope Diamond: 45.52 carats;
- Tavernier’s Diamond: about 115 carats;
- French Blue Diamond: approximately 69 carats
After McLean passed away in 1947, Harry Winston, an American jeweler, purchased all of her jewelry, including the Hope Diamond. The stone would eventually find a permanent home in 1958. Over 100 million people have marveled at, Googled, and loved the renowned diamond since Winston gave it to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., where it would no longer be worn.
The Curse Was Continuing!
After McLean passed away in 1947, Harry Winston, an American jeweler, purchased all of her jewelry, including the Hope Diamond. The stone would eventually find a permanent home in 1958. Over 100 million people have marveled at, Googled, and loved the renowned diamond since Winston gave it to the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., where it would no longer be worn.
The mail carrier who sent the stone in a brown cardboard box to the Smithsonian Institution was the final individual to suffer the tragedy of the diamond. He lost his house in a fire not long after having an accident that shattered his leg!
Now, where is it?
The Hope Diamond was placed on display in the Harry Winston Gallery at the National Museum of Natural History’s recently finished Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals. The diamond is seen from all four corners of the vault since it is set atop a revolving pedestal. With millions of visitors each year, the Hope Diamond is still one of the Smithsonian’s most well-known exhibits today. The Hope still has a great deal of mystery around it, and scientists at the Smithsonian are constantly researching it to learn more about its fascinating past and exceptional beauty.
