26 Feb 2013 – BlinkBlink…
The recent news of the US$50mil diamond heist at Brussels airport where armed men held up security van as diamonds were loaded to a plane brought back this other story of the Hope.
Not a blinkblink person but this particularly Hope has always fascinated me and still continues to fascinate at this stage of life’s journey! The dramas, history, intrigues, stories, etc are endless and interesting. Hollywood had a chain of movies base on this Hope which is 45.52-carat (9.10 g), deep-blue diamond, now housed in the Smithsonian Natural History Museum in Washington DC/USA.
Several accounts, based on remarks written by the gem’s first known owner, French gem merchant Jean Baptiste Tavernier, suggest the gemstone originated in India, in the Kollur mine in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh (which in the 17C had been part of Golconda kingdom). Tavernier obtained the stone, possibly by purchase or by theft and brought a large uncut stone to Paris which was the first known precursor to the Hope Diamond. This large stone became known as the Tavernier Blue diamond. Smaller pix is a cubic zirconia replica of the Tavernier Blue.
Being the most famous diamond, it is also notorious for supposedly being cursed! Reading about it but of course the truth will never be reveled unless Hope can tell of all its experiences and sufferings. The Hope was first discovered in the 1600s and has been thru’ many owners. The original must be quite something. Bought, stolen, recut and shaped over the centuries and now finally at the museum, est worth US$250mil.
Pix: owned by King Louis XV in 1722/Assembled into elaborate pendant Order of the Golden Fleece. And the Hope Diamond in its present setting. Pix and sources on the Hope are from Wikipedia.
When one hears, sees and reads about the stories and history when diamonds are concerned, it is sad to know of blood and tears shed because of greed. For those who have joy in owing diamonds, well each to their own!!
I have nothing against diamonds, or rubies or emeralds or sapphires. I do object when their acquisition is complicit in the debasement of children or the destruction of a country – Edward Zwick