The Curse of the Hope Diamond

Diamonds have always spun a realm of lore, legacy and mystery around them ever since they have been known to mankind. Engagement rings and loose diamonds are just meager modern manifestations of the truly supreme stone, which is believed to possess paranormal powers and healing properties. Diamonds have also been known to bring upon terrible curses on meddlers and vandalizers in the past. Such a terrible lore surrounds the famous “French Blue” now known as the “Hope Diamond”. Several controversies exist among scholars and researchers around the world regarding the authenticity and logistics behind the so called curse, but the well documented history and biography of the diamond suggests that there’s more to the ‘Blue Diamond’ than what meets the eye.

The Hope Diamond dates back to 1642, it is a diamond noted for its remarkable color, size, clarity, beauty, and history. The Hope Diamond is a very brilliant deep blue faceted ovoid diamond that measures 25.60 millimeters by 21.78 millimeters by 12.00 millimeters and weights 45.52 carats. The diamond is set in a pendent in which it is encircled by sixteen white diamonds, indeed an excellent engagement ring for your loved one. The Hope’s color is a combination of blue, caused by boron, as in all blue diamonds, and gray. The depth and intensity of its color and the occasional highlights that flash from its facets are unique. Vivid reds, yellows, and greens can be seen from different angles and the diamond fluoresces with a unique reddish color when exposed to ultraviolet light.

It all began in Seventeenth India when a French traveler and gem collector named Jean Baptiste Tavernier first set his eyes upon a huge112 3/16 carat blue diamond of unmatched color , brilliance and size on the forehead of an idol of the Hindu goddess Sita in a remote temple. The diamond is said to have been excavated from the Kollur mine in Golconda, India. Needless to mention Tavernier had to abide by the existing law under the powerful Mughal Sultanate while carrying it out from the country by paying a hefty price. When Tavernier returned to his homeland after twenty three years, the French monarch Louis XIV was extremely impressed with what the traveler had fetched for the kingdom and immediately declared Tavernier a ‘nobleman’. The Blue diamond found its place of honor in the royal crown and it was named ‘ Blue Diamomd of the Crown’ after going through a re-cut where it was reduced to 67 1/8 carats. It is said that Tavernier met an un-fateful end when he was torn to death by wild dogs while on a trip to Russia.

The diamond was handed down to his successor Louis XV who further cut the diamond to amplify it’s brilliance. When Louis XVI ascended the throne a great misfortune befell him and his wife Marie Atoinette. The uprise of the French Revolution took place and the French monarchy was put to an end. Both the King and his beloved wife were beheaded. Soon after the demise of the French royalty, custody of the French crown jewels was returned to the National Assembly. They were stored in Paris in a repository called the ‘Garde Meuble’ and put on public display. In the year 1792 a series of bizarre burglary incidents take place in spite of the place’s supposedly invincible security. And so the French Blue disappeared from history because no blue diamond of its weight and appearance was ever recovered.

The diamond again re-surfaced in 1813 under the possession of one Daniel Eliason, a Kindon diamond merchant in London. Scholars believed that the diamond that Eliason owned was in fact the blue diamond after having undergone several cuts as it did possess exactly similar properties as the French Blue. The blue diamond that surfaced in London was estimated at 44 carats. There is some evidence that shows King George IV of England bought the blue diamond from Daniel Eliason and upon King George's death, the diamond was sold to pay off debts. By 1939, possibly earlier, the blue diamond was in the possession of Henry Philip Hope, from whom the Hope diamond has taken its name.

Henry Philip Hope, who was one of the heirs of the banking firm Hope & Co. became a collector of fine art and gems, thus he acquired the large blue diamond that was soon to carry his family's name. Since he had never married, all his property and estate was passed on to his three nephews. One of his successors named Henry Thomas Hope finally got to own the diamond and upon his death 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, Lord Francis Hope. All these years of decay and degeneration finally culminated to a terrible end when Francis Hope became bankrupt by engaging in obnoxious activities such as gambling and his family is said to have died from extreme poverty.

Simon Frankel, an American jeweler, bought the Hope diamond in 1901 and hence brought the diamond to the United States. The diamond changed hands several times during the next several years, and finally came into the hands of Pierre Cartier. Cartier found a buyer in the rich Evalyn Walsh McLean who first saw the diamond in 1910 during a trip to Paris with her husband. She believed that things believed to be unlucky, had always turned out to be lucky for her. Cartier made use of this and emphatically narrated the Hope’s miserable history to her. Finally Evalyn did buy the diamond, which was then encrusted with 16 diamonds and attached to a string of several other diamonds. Though Evalyn McLean wore the Hope diamond as a good luck charm, others saw the curse strike her too. 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 the age of 25. In addition to all this, Evalyn McLean's husband was declared insane and confined to a mental institution until his death in 1941. All of her jewelry (including the Hope, which was probably worn as an engagement ring ) was put on sale by her grand children in 1949, two years after her death, in order to settle debts from her estate.

When the Hope diamond went on sale in 1949, it was bought by Harry Winston, a New York jeweler. He offered the diamond to be worn at numerous balls as an attempt to raise funds for charity and finally on November !0th , 1958 the Hope diamond traveled in a plain brown box, by registered mail to the Smithsonian Institution as a donation . It was the said that it was a stance taken by Winston in order to get rid of the curse himself. The Hope diamond is currently on display as part of the National Gem and Mineral Collection in the National Museum of Natural History for all to see.