By Tracy Miller, Owner, Tracy’s Fine Jewelry
Happy October everyone! Who’s ready for bonfires, football, pumpkins and cooler weather? I know I am. In honor of October and Halloween I thought I would share with you an interesting story regarding one the most exquisite, and cursed, pieces of jewelry in the world, The Hope Diamond.
Most jewelry comes with happy stories of anniversaries and birthdays. Some pieces that are inherited often come with tall tails. Throughout history many of the royal collections have been tied to some rather legendary tails of thievery and horrible curses.
However, the Hope Diamond is by far, the most famous of all the cursed pieces of jewelry in the world. The diamond can be traced back to the 17th century where it was mined in Golconda, India, weighing 112.0 carats. It was purchased by a gem merchant by the name of Jean Baptiste Tavernier, who in turn sold the diamond to King Louis XIV of France in 1668.
Louis XIV had the diamond recut to enhance its beauty to a 67 1/8ctw, and reset. He then officially renamed it ‘The Blue Diamond of the Crown’ and would often wear it on a long ribbon around his neck.
In 1749 when Louis XIV’s Great-Grandson, Louis XV was King, he ordered the crown jeweler to make a decoration for the Order of the Golden Fleece using the diamond and the Cote de Bretagne, a large red stone thought to be a ruby, but later found to be a red spinel.
During the Reign of Terror in 1791 the crown jewels were taken from Louis XVI and his Queen, Marie Antoinette, who were both later beheaded as they tried to flee France. That same year the crown jewels were stolen when the French National Treasury ‘The Garde Meuble’ was looted. Even though many of the jewels were recovered, the Hope Diamond was not. The diamond disappeared for some time but it eventually ended up in the hands of King George IV of England. It was sold after his death in 1830, to settle his enormous debts.
By 1839 the Hope Diamond was in the possession of Henry Philip Hope, one of the heirs of a banking firm Hope & Co. Hope was a collector of gems and fine art and had acquired the blue diamond, which would forever more carry his family’s name, for his private collection.
Henry never married, so when he died in 1839 his estate was left to his three nephews. The Hope Diamond went to Henry’s oldest nephew, Henry Thomas Hope. When Henry Thomas died the diamond went to his widow and later to her oldest Grandson, Lord Francis Hope, who shared his grandmother’s life estate with his siblings.
Francis was a gambler and came into an enormous amount of debt. In 1898 he asked permission from the courts to sell the Hope Diamond to relieve his debt, but was denied. He again appealed in 1899 and was again denied. Finally in 1901 his request was granted by the House of Lords and Francis Hope was able to sell the diamond.
Simon Frankel, an American jeweler purchased the Hope Diamond that same year and brought the diamond into the United States, where it changed hands several times over those next few years. A Sultan, an actress, a Russian Count and Pierre Cartier, all owned the diamond at one time.
In 1910 Cartier sold the diamond to Evalyn Walsh McLean, an heiress and socialite who had heard of the diamond’s curse but elected not to believe in its negative history. Instead it was stated that ‘unlucky objects were lucky for her.’ The diamond was remounted onto a new setting and Mclean became very attached to the diamond. However, in the years following her acquisition of the stone, her son died in a car accident, her daughter died of an overdose and her husband ended up in a sanitarium from brain atrophy from alcoholism. Evalyn herself died of pneumonia in 1947 and once again the diamond was sold, along with the family’s bankrupt newspaper the Washington Post.
The diamond was then purchased by Harry Winston, who donated the cursed diamond to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural history in Washington D.C. in 1958. It is rumored that the diamond was hand delivered to the Smithsonian by Registered Mail in a paper box. Harry Winston having paid $2.44 in postage and $155 in insurance for the delivery. The legend continues, that the mail man who delivered the parcel had his leg crushed in an automobile accident shortly thereafter.
The diamond still resides at the Smithsonian, and has been on display ever since. The Hope Diamond is currently valued at approximately $350 million dollars.
