Thousands of visitors per day view the Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian Natural History Museum. The diamond is one of the world's most famous jewels. Now, a new secret has been discovered about the inch-wide, 45.52-carat diamond's past.
François Farges, a professor of mineralogy at the National d'Histoire Naturelle in Paris, and Jeffrey Post, the Smithsonian museum's curator of minerals have discovered that during the late 17th century, when the Hope was known as the "French Blue" and part of the personal collection of King Louis XIV of France, it was likely placed on a gold background and specially cut to produce an effect reminiscent of a sun at its center. Using computer modeling they produced the above image that simulates how this would have appeared.
Farges' 2009 discovery of a lead replica of the French Blue in the National d'Histoire Naturelle mineral collections led to the revelation about the diamond's past. The lead model provided the exact dimensions of King Louis XIV's French Blue for the first time.
A 1691 inventory of the French Crown Jewels notes that the gem was "set into gold and mounted on a stick." If placed in front of a gold sheet, these unique cuts would have caused a dazzling golden sun to appear at the center of the deep blue stone. For King Louis XIV, known as the 'Sun King,' this would have been an emblem representing his power. Since his colors were blue and gold, a blue diamond with a gold sun in the center would have been a perfect symbol for the king.
The sun effect was eradicated around 1749, when the Sun King's great-grandson, King Louis XV, ordered the stone to be lifted from its mounting and incorporated into an elaborate emblem. During the French Revolution, it was stolen along with the rest of the Crown Jewels, and although most of the other gems were recovered by French officials, the famous French Blue disappeared. The slightly smaller Hope Diamond that we know today was cut from the French Blue. It was first documented as being in London in 1812, and became well known when it showed up in the collection catalog of banker Henry Philip Hope in 1839.
The stone has been in the Smithsonian for almost half a century and is still one of the museum's most visited artifacts. After all this time the gemstone can still reveal surprises!
Source: smithsonian.com
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