Golconda Diamonds: Le Bijou du Roi 'Hope Diamond'

Famous Hope Diamond

Le Bijou du Roi - 'King's Jewel' or Le bleu de France - 'France's Blue', 'French Blue', or popularly known as 'Cursed Hope Diamond', and the Tavernier Blue, is a large, 45.52-carat (9.104 g), deep-blue diamond, the blue tavernier diamond is believed to have come from the Kollur mine in Golconda, India. At present the blue diamond is housed in the National Gem and Mineral collection at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.

Tavernier Blue known origin of the Hope Diamond

It is blue to the naked eye because of trace amounts of boron within its crystal structure, and exhibits red phosphorescence after exposure to ultraviolet light. It is classified as a Type IIb diamond, and is notorious for supposedly being cursed. It has a long recorded history, with few gaps, in which it changed hands numerous times on its way from India to France to Britain and eventually to the United States, where it has been regularly on public display since. It has been described as the “Most Famous Diamond in the World”.

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, 

1605 - 1689

The 'Hope Diamond', 1974, on several accounts, based on remarks written by the gem’s first known owner, French gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, whom historically known first owner in mid-1600s', suggest that the gemstone originated in India, in the Kollur mine in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh - which at the time was part of the 'Golconda kingdom' - in the 1700s'. According to the legend, a curse befell the large, blue diamond when it was plucked  or stolen from an idol in India - a curse that foretold bad luck and death not only for the owner of the diamond but for all who touched it.

The legend said that it begin with a theft of this 'Hope Diamond'. Several centuries ago, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier made a trip to India. While there, he stole a large blue diamond plucking it out from the forehead (or eye) of a statue of the Hindu goddess Sita. For this transgression, according to the legend, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was torn apart by wild dogs on a trip to Russia (after he had sold the diamond). This was the first horrible death attributed to the cursed diamond.

King Louis XIV, 1638 - 1715

Back then, now owned by Louis XIV (5 September 1638 – 1 September 1715), known as Louis the Great (Louis le Grand) or the 'Sun King' (Roi Soleil), were most of the tarot card 'Sun and the King' image depicted, was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who reigned as King of France from 1643 until his death in 1715.

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier brought to Paris a large uncut diamond stone 'Tavernier Blue' which was the first known precursor to the Hope Diamond. It was a crudely cut triangular shaped stone of 115 carats (23.0 g). 

Another estimate is that it weighed 112.23 carats (22.446 g) before it was cut. Tavernier’s book, the Six Voyages (French: Les Six Voyages de J. B. Tavernier), contains sketches of several large diamonds that he sold to King Louis XIV possibly around 1668 or 1669 including the 'Tavernier Blue' diamond.

In 1669, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier sold this large 'blue tavernier diamond' along with approximately one thousand other diamonds to King Louis XIV of France for 220,000 livres, the equivalent of 147 kilograms of pure gold.

n 1678, King Louis XIV commissioned the court jeweller, Sieur Pitau, to “make him a piece to remember”, and Pitau took two years on the piece, resulting in a “triangular-shaped 69-carat gem the size of a pigeon’s egg that took the breath away as it snared the light, reflecting it back in bluish-grey rays.” It was set in gold and was supported by a ribbon for the neck which was worn by the King Louis XIV during ceremonies; to recut from the 'Tavernier Blue', resulting in a 67.125-carat (13.4250 g) stone which royal inventories thereafter listed as the 'Blue Diamond of the Crown of France' - French: "diamant bleu de la Couronne de France" or the 'French Blue'.

And to qoute: "At the diamond’s dazzling heart was a sun with seven facets – the sun being Louis’ emblem, and seven being a number rich in meaning in biblical cosmology, indicating divinity and spirituality." — report in Agence France-Presse, 2008.

King Louis XV, 1710 - 1774

In 1749, Louis’ descendant, King Louis XV (15 February 1710 – 10 May 1774), known as 'Louis the Beloved' was a monarch of the House of Bourbon who ruled as King of France from September 1, 1715 until his death in 1774, had the 'French Blue' set into a more elaborate jeweled pendant for the 'Order of the Golden Fleece' by court jeweler André Jacquemin.

Golden fleece pendant

The assembled piece included a red spinel of 107 carats shaped as a dragon breathing “covetous flames”, as well as 83 red-painted diamonds and 112 yellow-painted diamonds to suggest a fleece shape. The piece fell into disuse after the death of Louis XV. The diamond became the property of his grandson King Louis XVI.

Marie Antoinette born Maria Antonia Josepha Johanna; 2 November 1755 – 16 October 1793,

Marie Antoinette, 1755 - 1793

was the last Queen of France before the French Revolution. She was born an Archduchess of Austria, and was the penultimate child of Empress Maria Theresa and Francis I, Holy Roman Emperor. Wife of King Louis XVI, whom used many of the French Crown Jewels for personal adornment by having the individual gems placed in new settings and combinations, but the 'French Blue' remained in this pendant except for a brief time in 1787, when the stone was removed for scientific study by Mathurin Jacques Brisson, and returned to its setting soon thereafter.

French revolution, 1789 - 1799

King Louis XVI, 23 August 1754 – 21 January 1793), born Louis-Auguste, was the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution.

King Louis XVI, 1754 - 1793

During the French Revolution, the crown jewels (including the blue diamond) were taken from the royal couple after they attempted to flee France in 1791. The jewels were placed in the 'Garde-Meuble' but were not well guarded. From September 12 to September 16, 1791, the 'Garde-Meuble' was repeatedly robbed, without notice from officials until September 17. Though most of the crown jewels were soon recovered, the blue diamond was not.

Historians suggested that one robber, Cadet Guillot, took several jewels, including the 'French Blue' and the 'Côte-de-Bretagne spinel', to Le Havre and then to London, where the 'French Blue' was cut in two pieces. Morel adds that in 1796, Guillot attempted to resell the Côte-de-Bretagne in France but was forced to relinquish it to fellow thief Lancry de la Loyelle, who put Guillot into debtors’ prison.

On September 11, 1792, while King Louis XVI and his family were confined in the Tuileries Palace near the Place de la Concorde during the early stages of the 'French Revolution' or also know as 'Reign of Terror - la Terreur', 1789 to 1794, a group of thieves broke into the Garde-Meuble (Royal Storehouse) - stole most of the Crown Jewels during a five-day looting spree.

Tuileries Palace

In 1793, King Louis XVI was guillotined in January and Marie was guillotined in October, and these beheading are commonly attributed as a result of the blue diamond’s - 'curse', but the historical record suggests that Marie Antoinette had never worn the Golden Fleece pendant, 'Hope Diamond', because it had been reserved for the exclusive use of the king.

Duke Karl Friedrich, 1828 - 1853

Duke Karl Friedrich, was later known to possess a 13.75-carat (2.750 g) blue diamond which was widely thought to be another piece of the 'French Blue'. This smaller diamond’s present whereabouts are unknown, and the recent CAD reconstruction of the 'French Blue' fits too tightly around the Hope Diamond to allow for the existence of a sister stone of that size.

There is some evidence that the blue diamond resurfaced in London by 1813 and was owned by a London diamond merchant in the late 18th century and early 19th century,jeweler named Daniel Eliason, speculatively by 1823. Everyone is in doubt during this period speculatively the cut of the original blue diamond defined as presently different from the recovered blue diamond.

According to scientific investigation conducted in 2008 confirmed “beyond reasonable doubt” that the 'Hope Diamond' and that owned by the kings of France were, indeed, the same gemstone, in the sense that the 'Hope Diamond' had been cut from the 'French Blue'.

A source at the Smithsonian suggested there were “several references” suggesting that King George IV had, indeed, owned the diamond. George IV (George Augustus Frederick; 12 August 1762 – 26 June 1830) was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover following the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820, until his own death ten years later.

King George IV, 1762 - 1830

After death of King George IV in 1830, it has been alleged that some of this mixed collection was stolen by George’s last mistress:

Lady Maria Conyngham

Lady Maria Conyngham, and some of his personal effects were discreetly liquidated to cover the many debts he had left behind him. Another report states that the king’s debts were “so enormous” that the diamond was probably sold through “private channels”. In either case, the blue diamond was not retained by the British Royal family.

Thomas Hope, 1769 - 1831

Thomas Hope (30 August 1769 – 3 February 1830/1831); was a Dutch and British merchant banker, author, philosopher and art collector: whom later reported to have been acquired the French Blue for either $65,000 or $90,000. It has been suggested that Eliason may have been a “front” for Hope, acting not as a diamond merchant venturing money on his own account, but rather as an agent to acquire the diamond for the banker.

In 1839, the 'Hope Diamond' appeared in a published catalog of the gem collection of Henry Philip Hope, a member of the same Anglo-Dutch banking family. The stone was set in a fairly simple medallion surrounded by many smaller white diamonds, which he sometimes lent to Louisa de la Poer Beresford, the widow of his brother, Thomas Hope, for society balls. After falling into the ownership of the Hope family, the stone came to be known as the - 'Hope Diamond'.

When Henry Thomas Hope died in 1862 at the age of 54, the 'Hope Diamond' stayed in the possession of Hope's widow. But when Henry Thomas Hope's widow died, she passed the Hope diamond on to her grandson, the second oldest son, Henry Francis Hope Pelham-Clinton-Hope, 8th Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne (3 February 1866 – 20 April 1941).

Henry Philip Hope,  oldest nephew of Thomas Hope

The oldest nephew, Henry Thomas Hope, received eight of the most valuable gems, including the 'Hope Diamond'. It was displayed in the Great Exhibition of London in 1851 and at the Paris Exposition Universelle in 1855, but was usually kept in a bank vault. In 1861, Henry Thomas Hope’s only child, Henrietta, married Henry Pelham-Clinton, Earl of Lincoln (and later Duke of Newcastle). When Hope died on December 4, 1862, his wife Anne Adele inherited the gem, but she feared that the profligate lifestyle of her son-in-law might cause him to sell the Hope's properties. 

Upon Anne Adele’s death in 1884, the entire Hope estate, including the 'Hope Diamond', was entrusted to Henrietta’s younger son, Henry Francis Pelham-Clinton, on the condition that he add the name of 'Hope' to his own surnames when he reached the age of legal majority. As Lord Francis Hope, this grandson received his legacy in 1887. However, he had only a life interest in his inheritance, meaning that he could not sell any part of it without court permission.

Because of gambling and high spending lead to his bankruptcy and due to his marital issues with his wife Mary Augusta "May" Yohé were divorced in 1902. Henry Francis Pelham-Clinton-Hope requested from the court in 1898 for him to sell the 'Hope Diamond'. In 1899, an appeal case was heard and again his request was denied. In both cases, Francis Hope's siblings opposed selling the diamond. In 1901, on an appeal to the House of Lords, Francis Hope was finally granted permission to sell the diamond.

May Yohé an American musical theatre actress, 1866 - 1938

Lord Francis sold the diamond for £29,000 (£2,641,880 as of 2015), to Adolph Weil, a London jewel merchant. Weil later sold the stone to the diamond dealer Simon Frankel, based in New York and London. One report stated that he had paid $250,000.However, in New York it was evaluated to be worth $141,032 (equal to £28,206 at the time).

Period of 1902–1907 that several owners bought from Simon Frankel and owned it temporarily who met with ill-fortune, but this report conflicts with the more likely possibility that the blue diamond remained in the hands of the Simon Frankel jewelry firm during these years. Like many jewelry firms, the Frankel business ran into financial difficulties during the depression of 1907 and referred to the gem as the'Hoodoo Diamond'.

In 1908, Simon Frankel sold the diamond for $400,000 to a Salomon or Selim Habib, a wealthy Turkish diamond collector, reportedly in behalf of Sultan Abdulhamid of Ottoman Empire; on June 24, 1909 - the stone was included in an auction of Habib’s assets to settle his own debts - Selim Habib reportedly sold the stone in Paris in 1909 for $80,000. The Parisian jewel merchant Simon Rosenau bought the 'Hope Diamond' for 400,000 francs and resold it in 1910 to Pierre Cartier for 550,000 francs. In 1910, it was offered for $150,000, according to one report.

Washington Post:  Edward Beale McLean and wife Evalyn Walsh McLean,  1912

And to qoute/s:

"Both Ned McLean and his pretty wife are quite young, and in a way unsophisticated, although they were born and reared in an atmosphere of wealth and luxury. All their lives they have known more of jewelry, finery, banquets, automobiles, horses, and other articles of pleasure than they have of books, with their wealth of knowledge." — report in The New York Times, March 1911.

Mrs McClean wearing the

'Hope Diamond' necklace

"No mention of any ill luck having befalled Eliason, Hope, or any of their descendants was ever made. The Frankels surely were very prosperous while the stone was in their possession, as were the dealers who held it in Europe. Habib’s misfortune referred to in the newspaper accounts occurred long after he had sold the stone… As Francis Hope never had the stone and May Yohe probably never saw it … the newspaper accounts at the time mentioned were laughed at, but since then it has been the custom not only to revive these stories every time mention of the stone appears in the public press, but to add to them fictitious incidents of misfortune as to alleged possessors of the stone at various times." — T. Edgar Willson, in an editorial in The New York Times, 1911.

The tenuous deal involved wrangling among attorneys for both Cartier and the McLeans, but finally, in 1911, the couple bought the gem for over $300,000, although there are differing estimates of the sales price at $150,000 and $180,000. An alternative scenario is that the McLeans may have fabricated concern about the supposed “curse” to generate publicity to increase the value of their investment. According to the legend and concept of a curse attached to the diamond did not appear in print until the twentieth century.

At present description:  “lay on a bed of white silk and surrounded by many small white diamonds cut pear shaped”. The new setting was the current platinum framework surrounded by a row of sixteen diamonds which alternated between Old Mine Cut and pear-shaped variants. Mrs. McLean wore it to a “brilliant reception” in February 1912 when it was reported that it was the first time it had been worn in public since it had “changed owners”. She would “sport the diamond at social events” and wore it numerous social occasions that she had organized.

In life instances of Mrs. Evalyn Walsh McLean's first born son, Vinson, died in a car crash when he was only nine. McLean suffered another major loss when her daughter committed suicide at age 25. In addition to all this, Evalyn McLean's husband was declared insane and confined to a mental institution until his death in 1941. 

But the stone was not stolen during their ownership, when Mrs. McLean died in 1947, she bequeathed the diamond to her grandchildren through a will which insisted that her former property would remain in the custody of trustees until the eldest child had reached 25 years of age. This requirement would have prevented any sale for the next two decades. However, the trustees gained permission to sell her jewels to settle her debts, and in 1949 sold them to New York diamond merchant Harry Winston. 

Harry Winston, 1896 - 1978

Mr Harry Winston purchased McLean’s “entire jewelry collection”. Over the next decade, Winston exhibited McLean’s necklace in his “Court of Jewels,” a tour of jewels around the United States, as well as various promotional events and charity balls. The diamond appeared on the television quiz show The Name’s the Same, in an episode which first aired on August 16, 1955, when a teenaged contestant with the actual name - 'Hope Diamond' - was one of the mystery guests, as well as at the August 1958 Canadian National Exhibition. At some point, Hary Winston also had the Hope Diamond’s bottom facet slightly recut to increase its brilliance.

Harry Winston (March 1, 1896 – December 28, 1978) was an American jeweler. He donated the 'Hope Diamond' to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958 after owning it for a decade.

Smithsonian mineralogist George Switzer is credited with persuading jeweler Harry Winston to donate the Hope Diamond Institution for a proposed national gem collection to be housed at the National Museum of Natural History. On November 10, 1958, Winston acquiesced, sending it through U.S. Mail in a box wrapped in brown paper as simple registered mail insured for $1 million at a cost of $145.29, of which $2.44 was for postage and the balance insurance. Upon its arrival it became Specimen #217868.

Harry Winston had never believed in any of the tales about the curse; he donated the diamond with the hope that it would help the United States “establish a gem collection.” Winston died many years later, in 1978, of a heart attack. Winston’s gift, according to Smithsonian curator Dr. Jeffrey Post, indeed helped spur additional gifts to the museum.

Current image of the Hope Diamond

For its first four decades in the National Museum of Natural History, the 'Hope Diamond' lay in its necklace inside a glass-fronted safe as part of the gems and jewelry gallery, except for a few brief excursions: a 1962 exhibition to the Louvre; the 1965 Rand Easter Show in Johannesburg, South Africa; and two visits back to Harry Winston’s premises in New York City, once in 1984, and once for a 50th anniversary celebration in 1996. To guard against theft during the diamond’s trip to the 1962 Louvre exhibition, Switzer traveled to Paris with the Hope Diamond tucked inside a velvet pouch sewn by his wife. The Hope Diamond was placed into the pouch, which was pinned inside Switzer’s pants pocket for the flight.

When the Smithsonian’s gallery was renovated in 1997, the necklace was moved onto a rotating pedestal inside a cylinder made of 3-inch (76 mm) thick bulletproof glass in its own display room, adjacent to the main exhibit of the National Gem Collection, in the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals. The Hope Diamond is the most popular jewel on display and the collection’s centerpiece.

An article entitled “Hope Diamond Has Brought Trouble To All Who Have Owned It” appeared in the Washington Post in 1908. An additional account of the Hope Diamond’s “cursed origins” was a fanciful and anonymously written newspaper article in 1909.

Hope Diamond, 1974

The 'Hope Diamond' was also blamed for the unhappy fates of other historical figures vaguely linked to its ownership, such as the falls of Madame Athenais de Montespan and French finance minister Nicolas Fouquet during the reign of Louis XIV of France; the beheadings of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette and the rape and mutilation of the Princesse de Lamballe during the French Revolution; and the forced abdication of Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid who had supposedly killed various members of his court for the stone (despite the annotation in Habib’s auction catalog). Even jewelers who may have handled the Hope Diamond were not spared from its reputed malice: the insanity and suicide of Jacques Colot, who supposedly bought it from Eliason, and the financial ruin of the jeweler Simon Frankel, who bought it from the Hope family, were linked to the stone. But although he is documented as a French diamond dealer of the correct era, Colot has no recorded connection with the stone, and Frankel’s misfortunes were in the midst of economic straits that also ruined many of his peers. The legend includes deaths of numerous other characters who had been previously unknown: Diamond cutter Wilhelm Fals, killed by his son Hendrik, who stole it and later committed suicide; Francois Beaulieu, who received the stone from Hendrik but starved to death after selling it to Daniel Eliason; a Russian prince named Kanitowski, who lent it to French actress Lorens Ladue and promptly shot her dead on the stage, and was himself stabbed to death by revolutionaries; Simon Montharides, hurled over a precipice with his family. However, the existence of only a few of these characters has been verified historically, leading researchers to conclude that most of these persons are fictitious.

Note: This blog were first published here on 08/16/2009 under the blogger name davezichos555, and now this story is fully revised and updated its details of story to its present date.

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