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Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605-1689) was a French explorer and merchant. He was the first European to describe the diamond mines in India. In 1676, Tavernier published an account of his six journeys to India and Persia from 1631 to 1668 in Les Six Voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (translated into English in 1678 as The Six Voyages of John Baptista Tavernier). Though Tavernier provided a wealth of information about his travels and work, he did not record the details of his important transactions. It is likely that he did not want to reveal the source and the price of gems that he purchased since that information could negatively affect his business. Unfortunately, this means that little is known about how he acquired the 115-carat blue diamond that he sold to King Louis XIV (Morel 1988).
In India, gems were typically cut to retain size and weight. Tavernier's Blue Diamond was originally cut to an asymmetric, somewhat triangular shape, likely following this fashion. To preserve the weight and size of the diamond, gem cutters polished its natural faces without attempting to enhance its sparkle or obtain a geometric shape (Morel 1988). It is not known if the diamond was cut in India by Indian cutters or if it was cut elsewhere in the Indian style.
Louis XIV's great-grandson, Louis XV, inherited the royal jewels when he ascended to the throne. Around 1749, King Louis XV tasked the Parisian jeweler Pierre-Andr Jacqumin with creating an emblem of knighthood of the Order of the Golden Fleece. The finished emblem featured a number of spectacular gems, including the French Blue Diamond, the 107-carat Cte de Bretagne spinel (carved into the shape of a dragon and originally thought to be a ruby), and several other diamonds. It was rarely worn, functioning instead as a symbol of the king's power (Post and Farges 2014).
Amidst the turmoil of the French Revolution, King Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette attempted to escape France, but were apprehended and returned to Paris. The French Crown Jewels, including the French Blue Diamond in the Order of the Golden Fleece, were turned over to the revolutionary government and moved to the Garde-Meuble, the Royal Storehouse, where they were put on view for the public once a week until 1792. On visiting days, the doors of the armoires would be opened and a selection of mounted and unmounted jewels could be viewed in special display cases.
In 1774, at the age of 20, Louis XVI (1754-1793) inherited the throne and a government entrenched in debt after the death of his grandfather, King Louis XV. Louis XVI was unable to bring about the social, economic, and political changes necessary to solve the problems of the country and preserve the French monarchy. Louis XVI was married to Marie Antoinette (1755-1793), a queen infamous for her frivolous spending habits during a time of economic struggle. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette attempted to flee the country during the French Revolution in 1791. They were recaptured and were executed in 1793 for committing treason against the new government of France.
On the night of September 11th, 1792, a group of thieves climbed through the first-floor windows of the Garde-Meuble into the room where the French Crown Jewels were stored and escaped with some of the jewels. At the time, no one in the storehouse even realized that a theft had taken place: The seal on the door to the room had not been broken, and no guards were stationed inside of the room. The thieves returned over the following nights to steal more of the jewels. By the evening of September 17th, the group of thieves had grown to about fifty. Acting loudly and carelessly, they attracted the attention of the patrol, putting an end to one of the most curious thefts in history (Morel 1988).
The various political factions in France in 1792 blamed each other for the theft of the French Crown Jewels. One of the more popular theories of the time alleged that Georges-Jacques Danton, a member of the French Convention Nationale, hired thieves to carry out the theft in order to purchase the withdrawal of the Duke of Brunswick's army from France. Though there was no proof of Danton's involvement, the theory gained wide support because it coincided with the opinion of Napoleon, who could not understand why the allied armies would retreat unless a secret deal was involved.
Historians have concluded that Danton was probably not involved with the theft. In 1889, Germaine Bapst argued in the Histoire des joyaux de la couronne that the culprits were bands of vagrants who were encouraged by the lack of order in the national guard and had no connection to any of the political factions of the French Revolution (Morel 1988).
During the French Revolution, the French Crown Jewels were stored in the Garde-Meuble, the Royal Storehouse. The room where the jewels were stored was sealed and nominally under guard. A shift system was organized to rotate the guards daily.
The security arrangement was critically flawed. The shift system eventually fell apart, leaving the room unguarded on many occasions. The seal on the door, intended to alert guards to a break-in, also prevented them from patrolling inside the room. Moreover, it only protected the room from someone already inside the Garde-Meuble. The thieves that made off with the crown jewels entered instead by the unbarred windows (Morel 1988).
Most of the stolen gems did not make it out of France. The Order of the Golden Fleece, however, was carried to London by one of the more fortunate thieves, Cadet Guillot Lordonner (Bapst 1889). The two most prominent stones in the emblem, the French Blue Diamond and the Cte de Bretagne spinel, would both eventually turn up in London. The Cte de Bretagne surfaced there in 1797 before rejoining the French Crown Jewels in 1824. The French Blue appeared in London much later, in 1812, although by then it had been recut to a smaller stone.
It is now clear that the French Blue resurfaced in London nearly 20 years later, although no one seems to have recognized it at the time. It had by then been recut to a smaller (though still spectacular) gem, which we know today as the Hope Diamond.
The above drawing is the exact size and shape of a very curious superfine deep blue Diamond. Brilliant cut, and equal to a fine deep blue Sapphire. It is beauty full and all perfection without specks or flaws, and the color even and perfect all over the Diamond. I traced it round the diamond with a pencil by leave of Mr. Daniel Eliason and it is as finely cut as I have ever seen in a Diamond. The color of the Drawing is as near the color of the Diamond as possible.
Intriguingly, the Francillon Memo is dated just two days after the twenty-year statute of limitations for crimes committed during the French Revolution had passed. The diamond may have resurfaced at this time because the possibility of prosecution and of France reclaiming the diamond was eliminated, making the owner comfortable enough to share the diamond with others (Winters and White 1991).
By 1817, when Sowerby's book was published, twenty-five years had passed since the theft of the French Crown Jewels. Over forty years more passed before anyone published about a possible connection between the French Blue and the Hope Diamond. Why did it take so long for experts to link them? One possibility is that the theft itself was not widely known in Sowerby's time. It is likely that the individuals in charge of protecting the gems did not want the theft to be widely reported since this would advertise their failure and damage their reputation. In addition, the robbery occurred in a time before mass communication existed, when media was limited and functioned much differently than it does today. The theft of the crown jewels of France may thus not have been widely reported, explaining why Sowerby and others in London did not suspect a link between the two diamonds (Post and Farges 2014).
George F. Kunz, a prominent American mineralogist active around the turn of the twentieth century, found the Francillon Memo tucked into a 1768 book about the French Crown Jewels in a London bookshop (Kurin 2006). The book and memo were later donated to the USGS, where Smithsonian researchers rediscovered them.
The above drawing is the exact size and shape of a very curious superfine deep blue Diamond, Brilliant cut, and equal to a fine deep blue Sapphire. It is beauty full and all perfection, without specks or flaws, and the Color even and perfect all over the Diamond.
According to Mawe, then, Eliason had parted with the diamond and it had come into the possession of George IV, the King of England. However, no evidence linking the Hope Diamond to the king has been found in the British royal archives, and we do not know whether George IV ever possessed it as either owner or borrower (Post and Farges 2014).
Henry Philip Hope died in 1839, leaving his possessions to his three nephews: Henry Thomas, Adrian, and Alexander. In his will, Henry Philip Hope divided his money and property amongst the brothers, but did not leave instructions for the division of his gem collection. Given the immense value of his collection, the Hope brothers argued for years over who would inherit it. In 1849, after ten years of dispute, the brothers reached an agreement: the property went to Adrian, the Hope Pearl and around 700 precious gemstones went to Alexander, and the Hope Diamond and seven other gems went to Henry Thomas (Kurin 2006).
Henry Thomas Hope loaned the Hope Diamond for display at the Crystal Palace during the Great London Exhibition. According to a catalogue from the exhibition, 28 diamonds from the Henry Philip Hope Collection were exhibited. This suggests that the brother of Henry Thomas, Alexander, must have contributed diamonds to the display effort since Henry Thomas had only inherited eight gems from his uncle and Alexander had inherited the rest (Kurin 2006).
The Great London Exhibition, officially called the Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of all Nations, was held from May to October 1851. It brought together displays of the latest inventions in science and technology as well as craftwork, fine art, and gems from around the world. The exhibition was envisioned and organized by inventor Henry Cole and Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria, and was held in an iron and glass building called the Crystal Palace that was constructed specifically for the event. In total, the Great London Exhibition of 1851 attracted some six million visitors in the five months that it was open.
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