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FIRE IN THE EARTH
the
Hope Blue. There have been many contradictory stories about this stone,
some of them absurd. The best account, I think, is that prepared by
Robert M. Shipley in his fascinating little booklet, Famous Diamonds of the World.
A
blue diamond is exceeding rare, he says, especially when a rich depth
of color is combined with great brilliancy. The Hope diamond color has
been described as "d'un beau violet."
"There
are diamonds of a sapphire hue, and one of a ruby red, which are of
high value; there are also green, white, olive, black, yellow and fire
colored; but the red and blue are the rarest of all natural
productions." This is an old quotation, and while a very few quite red
stones have been found since that time, red is still the rarest color
and really blue stones are almost as unusual. But all do not agree on
the sapphire hue of the Hope. It has been criticized as too light in
color to be a fine sapphire blue, and the late Godfrey Eacret of San
Francisco described it as being of a slightly grayish blue.
The
origin of this gem is not known with certainty, but circumstantial
evidence so strong as to be almost irrefutable links it with the blue
diamond which Tavernier bought in India during his visit there in 1642.
The stone which this early diamond trader secured supposedly came from
a mine located on a branch of the Coleroon in Southwest India. In the
rough it was "flat and thin" and weighed 112-1/2 carats.
In
1668 Tavernier returned to Paris and there sold the blue diamond, along
with many others to Louis XIV. It is believed that Louis, or one of his
successors, had the rough stone cut, since a century later the only
blue diamond in the French crown jewels which fitted Tavernier's
(220)
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