By Ray Lundin – Gemologist
The Hope Diamond can been seen at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
The famous Hope Diamond is the centerpiece of the gem collection at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. The Hope diamond (45.52 carats) is the world’s largest deep blue diamond. It is known for its striking blue color and its fascinating history of bringing bad luck to its owners. The diamond’s blue color was caused by trace amounts of boron in the stone. It has been stolen and recovered, sold and resold, cut and recut, disappeared and reappeared as a different cut stone. Through it all, the value of the diamond has increased. It is sometimes called the “Killer Stone.”
Smithsonian gem curator Jeffrey Post explained that researchers using computer analysis have traced the origin of the diamond and concluded that it was cut from a larger stone that was once part of the crown jewels of France. Post said researchers using sketches from pre-Revolutionary France, scientific studies of the French crown jewels and computer models helped to confirm the Hope Diamond as originating with a 115-carat stone found in India in 1668.
It was first cut Indian style. A French diamond merchant named Jean Tavernier purchased the diamond in India. Tavernier took the diamond to France and sold it to Louis XIV, king of France, in 1668. Tavernier, however, was killed by wild dogs during another trip to India (the first bad luck attributed to the owners of the diamond). Five years after Louis XIV bought it, he had the royal goldsmith cut it into a heart-shaped 67 carats. The blue diamond was then called “The Royal French Blue.” In 1774 Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette inherited the French Blue and she wore it often. During the French Revolution (1789-1799), Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded via the guillotine. In the turbulent years of the French revolution, the heart-cut blue diamond, while under guard in the French Treasure House, was stolen along with all the French Crown jewels. Some of the gems taken in this robbery were recovered, but not the blue diamond.
The blue diamond was believed to have been sold in Spain and cut into three smaller stones. The Goya portrait of Queen Marie Luisa painted in 1799 shows her wearing a deep blue diamond cut into 44.5 carats of rounded oval. It is said that the stolen Royal French Blue was recut to its present size by Wilhelm Fals, a young Dutch diamond cutter. He is said to have died of grief after his son, Hendrick, stole the gem from him. Hendrick, in turn, committed suicide.
In 1830, after the statue of limitations expired, a large blue diamond was quietly put up for sale in London. Henry Phillip Hope, a wealthy banker, bought the diamond for $90,000. It was after that the diamond took on its now still existing name, “The Hope Diamond.” It stayed in the Hope family until the turn of the century and the legend of its sinister influence began again.
The original Henry Hope died without marrying, leaving the stone to his nephew. The stone was then passed on to a grandson who changed his surname to Hope to inherit it. Unfortunately bad luck plagued him; his wife ran off with another man.
The last of the Hopes went bankrupt and the stone was sold to a jeweler. It changed hands frequently in the next few years. A Russian prince bought it and gave it to a ballerina. The night she wore it for the first time, a jealous lover shot her. A Greek broker who bought it fell off a cliff with his wife and children. The next owner, Turkish Sultan Selim Habib, was deposed in the 1908 revolution. The seller, Simon Montharides, died in a car crash.
It was put up for auction in Paris in 1909, but no one bought it. Shortly after that, C.H. Rousear bought it only to resell it in the same year to Cartier, the French jeweler. Somehow, the Hope Diamond found its way back to France in 1910. The next year Mr. Edward McLean and his wife found it at Cartier’s. He was the son of a millionaire publisher, John R. McLean. Edward and his new bride each had $100,000 from their respective fathers as a wedding gift. The exact price that Cartier wanted for the Hope was $200,000. Mrs. McLean was not able to take it at that time, as her husband did not want to put up his half of the money. One year later, Cartier arrived in Washington with it reset in a necklace. Mrs. McLean raised $154,000 to buy it from him. She really loved the Hope Diamond; there was no doubt of that. However, their son, Vinson, was killed in a car accident, their daughter died of an overdose of sleeping pills and Mr. McLean became mentally unbalanced, and died in a mental hospital.
But while gossip said the Hope was their undoing, Mrs. McLean placed no stock in legends about her diamond. She wore it constantly and stuffed it into a cushion when she didn’t. She hired a detective as a bodyguard to stand by on all occasions so she would not be robbed. At one point she pawned it to help the Lindbergh Baby, but the man she aided was an imposter. Mrs. McLean died in 1947, a legend in her own time. After Mrs. McLean’s death, Harry Winston bought the diamond along with other jewels in her estate for more than $1,000,000.
Harry Winston first displayed the Hope Diamond in his Fifth Avenue salon in New York. After putting it on display at various charity shows, he sent it by registered mail in a plain brown wrapper to the Smithsonian Institution in 1958. The stamps cost him $145: $2.44 postage and the rest for insurance of $1,000,000. The Hope Diamond is still on display in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
