Posted on 11/23/2008 3:03:45 PM PST by SunkenCiv
New evidence unearthed in France's National Museum of Natural History shows beyond reasonable doubt that the Hope Diamond is the same steely-blue stone once sported by the Sun King, they said. Mineralogist Francois Farges, heading an investigation published in a peer-reviewed French journal, told AFP he was now "99 percent sure" that the Hope and the mythical Blue Diamond of the Crown were one and the same. "The evidence corroborates a scenario under which the diamond, after being stolen in Paris in 1792, was swiftly smuggled to London, where it was recut," he said. The Blue Diamond came from a massive, 115.6-carat blue-tinged stone mined in the kingdom of Golconda, in India's Hyderabad state. In the mid-17th century, a French adventurer by the name of Jean-Baptiste Tavernier purchased the stone from Golconda's ruler and then sold it on to Louis XIV... Asked whether France would now ask for the diamond's return, Farges said this was unlikely... "if someone were to ask me if I were 100-percent sure that this was the same diamond, I would be unable to say so, because the nature and chemical composition of the original blue diamond were never recorded."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
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And what’s their point? We’re keeping it.
Dear French: Go away. We don’t have the jewels.
Bad luck follows this thing like white on rice. I say give it to them.
The jeweller Pierre Cartier is thought to have invented the story of the curse in 1910 in order to intrigue Evalyn Walsh McLean into buying the Hope Diamond. One likely source of inspiration was Wilkie Collins’ 1868 novel The Moonstone, which created a coherent narrative from vague and largely disregarded legends which had been attached to other diamonds such as the Koh-i-Nur and the Orloff diamond.
According to Cartier’s story, Tavernier stole the diamond from a Hindu statue. The diamond was one of the two eyes of the idol, and when the priests noticed it was missing, they placed a curse on whoever owned the diamond. One reason that this is not accepted is that the Hope’s matching sister stone has not been found. The legend claimed that Tavernier died of fever soon after, and that his body was torn apart by wolves (but the historical record shows that he actually lived to 84).
The Hope Diamond was blamed for the fall from the king’s favor of madame Athenais de Montespan and French finance minister Nicolas Fouquet, the beheadings of Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the rape, mutilation and beheading of the Princesse de Lamballe. The legend includes characters who are considered by some to be fictitious persons added since they remain historically unverified: diamond cutter Wilhelm Fals (killed when his son Hendrik stole it); Hendrik Fals (suicide); Francois Beaulieu (starvation after he sold it to Daniel Eliason).
Simon Frankel (alleged to be in financial difficulties) had supposedly sold it to Jacques Colot (suicide); the next owner, Russian prince Kanitowski, who supposedly lent it to French actress Lorens Ladue, who he later shot, and was later himself killed by revolutionaries; jeweler Simon Montharides (killed with his family) and Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid (the diamond was blamed for his forced abdication) who had supposedly killed various members of his court for the stone. 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.
The actress May Yohe made many attempts to capitalize on her identity as the former wife of the last Hope to own the diamond, and sometimes blamed the Hope for her misfortunes. In July 1902, months after Lord Francis divorced her, she told police in Australia that her lover, Putnam Strong, had abandoned her and taken her jewels. Incredibly, the couple reconciled, married later that year, but divorced in 1910. On her third marriage by 1920, she persuaded film producer George Kleine to back a 15-episode serial The Hope Diamond Mystery, which added fictitious characters to the tale. It was not successful. In 1921, she hired Henry Leyford Gates to help her write The Mystery of the Hope Diamond, in which she starred as Lady Francis Hope. The film added more characters, including a fictionalized Tavernier, and added Marat among the diamond’s “victims”. She also wore her copy of the Hope, trying to generate more publicity to further her career.
Lord Francis Hope married Olive Muriel Thompson in 1904. They had three children before she died suddenly in 1912, a tragedy that has been attributed to The Curse.
Evalyn Walsh McLean added her own narrative to the story behind the blue jewel, including that one of the owners was Catherine the Great. McLean would bring the Diamond out for friends to try on, including Warren G. Harding and Florence Harding. McLean often strapped the Hope to her pet dog’s collar while in residence at Friendship, in northwest Washington D.C.. There are also stories that she would frequently misplace it at parties, and then make a children’s game out of finding the Hope.
However, since the diamond was put in the care of the Smithsonian Institute, there have been no unusual incidents related to it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Diamond
Thanks M2CC. The Wiki-Wacky-pedia is good for something sometimes. :’)
Also, if they’d wanted to keep the gem, they shouldn’t have chopped off the heads of the nobility, or thousands of others during the lawless free for all masquerading as a government between the fall of the crown and the rise of Napoleon.
There was ‘The Blue Carbuncle’ by Conan Doyle as well to add to the lore of a cursed stone. Seemed more like the greed of people than a stone’s fault. Although I’d rather have the value of the thing than the stone. Good grief, it’s a gauche thing isn’t it?
I think the it’s better off where it is. It doesn’t seem to have harmed the museum.
This isn’t exactly news. It’s always been assumed the Hope was cut from the much larger — and vanished — Blue Tavernier. Gemology texts have reported this pretty much as a fact for years. The only thing new in this report is locating the lead model of the original Blue. It’s tragic the recut was botched so badly, even including a culet facet at the tip of the pavilion which leaks light. But it’s still an impressive hunk of crystallized blue carbon.
Tavernier's original sketch.
The Tavernier Blue was the precursor diamond to the Blue Diamond of the Crown (aka the French Blue), and subsequently the Hope Diamond. This has been accepted by many historians and gemologists for years and was scientifically proven with 3D imaging and prototyping technology in 2005. It is a Type IIb diamond.
Weighing 112 3/16-carats (115.16 modern metric carats, erroneously reported by many others as 110+/- carats), the crudely cut gem was described by Tavernier as a "beautiful violet" and brilliant in clarity and rare in color. The diamond was likely cut from the Kollur mine in Golconda, India.
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was a French traveller and trader, returning to France from India with many of the largest gems of the era, which he primarily sold to the French royalty and aristocracy.
After being stolen from the French Crown Jewels in 1792 during the turbulence of the French Revolution, the French Blue was cut into the Hope Diamond in an attempt to prevent its proper identification.
Another blue diamond believed to have been taken from the Tavernier was originally set as a ring for Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Emperor Paul I. It was given to the State Diamond Fund in 1860, by her daughter-in-law, the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna. Later, it was mounted into a stick pin. It is preserved in the collection of the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo, not far from St Petersburg.
Except the assassination of JFK, the election of Jimmy Carter, 9/11, and our present economic downturn.
Wait. My bad. I forgot. Those things were Bush’s fault.
Well, after Clintoon, Bush sure was hope!
;)
Saw it at the Smithsonian some years ago. I offerred to take the curse upon myself and relieve them from the burden of possessing it. They were not very pleased by my offer. Quite a rock though.
.......the lead model of the original Blue.....
What is this? Is it a model from metallic lead?
Is it made prior to the original cutting to test the faceting scheme?
"In the study, appearing in the journal Revue de Gemmologie, Farges' team recount how, in December 2007, they found a lead model of the Blue Diamond in the archives of the National Museum of Natural History. The model was made by a Paris jeweller, Charles Achard, whose clients included a "Mr. Hoppe of London." Using measurements provided by the Smithsonian, the French team used a computer to see how the gems match up, and find that the Hope Diamond fits perfectly inside the Blue Diamond."
I haven't seen the gemolgy journal referred to. The whole article is sketchy and hard to follow. Just why the lead model was made isn’t clear to me. It appears to be of the French Blue prior to its theft and recutting but even that is open to interpretation. I'll try to find out more.
The thing could be a zircon or paste as far as my knowledge of diamonds goes.
I've seen the stone on display at the Smithsonian. It's a beautiful rock. The setting is pretty gaudy, but that is not the stone's fault. I think it's in the right place, as well.
And, as the guy who says he thinks it the same stone said, there is no way to prove it.
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