Vintage View: The Hope Diamond

When it comes to a single jewel, without doubt the most famous diamond on earth is what the Court of Louis XIV dubbed Le Bijou de Roi, or ’The King’s Jewel’, which was more blandly expressed by the British in the 1830s, as the Hope Diamond.

Greyish blue, at 45.5-carats in an antique cushion cut with faceted girdle — this is treasure beyond the wildest dreams of even the everyday billionaire, but it’s a stone with a dark reputation.

For 200 years it could only be speculated that the gigantic, blue diamond first recorded in the mid-17th century, was the same stone sitting behind bulletproof glass at the Smithsonian National History Museum in Washington DC. The world’s famed blue rock was first passed on (and likely stolen), by French gentleman-explorer, Jean Baptiste Tavernier, in the ancient city of Guntur near the Bay of Bengal in India.