Thievery, royalty, revolution, gambling, eccentricity, mystery and curses are all part of the spectacular and storied past that is the famous – and infamous – Hope Diamond. Weighing in at 45.52 carats, this type IIb, dark blue stone’s condition is reportedly flawless. Contributing to the awesome beauty is its unusual red phosphorescence. Surrounding this gem legend is a pendant containing 16 impressive pear and cushion-shaped colorless diamonds. An additional 45 colorless diamonds are part of its chain.

The Hope Diamond’s interesting and diverse history is believed, to begin with, Jean Baptiste Tavernier, a French merchant, and traveler, who purchased a 112 3/16 carat diamond probably from the Kollar mine in Golconda, India. Triangular in shape and having a crude cut, its beauty was evident even then as Tavernier described its color as a “beautiful violet”. How Tavernier obtained the diamond is somewhat murky. One legend has him stealing the diamond from a mounting as the eye of an Indian idol. Later, the diamond obtains royalty status when it is sold to King Louis XIV of France in 1668. King Louis’s court jeweler, Sieur Pitau, re-cut the diamond in 1673 and the result was a 67 1/8 carat stone. At this time the color was described as intense steely blue. Making it part of his official wardrobe, King Louis XIV wore the stone in a gold setting suspended from a neck ribbon for ceremonial occasions. It became known as the “Blue Diamond of the Crown” or the “French Blue”.

In 1749 the stone was reset by King Louis XV by court jeweler Andre Jacquemin into a piece of jewelry for the Order of the Golden Fleece. During the reign of Louis, XVI all the jewels of the French Royal Treasury were turned over to the government. However, the diamond did not remain French government property for long as in September of 1792 it was stolen by looters during the upheaval of the French Revolution.

It is in 1812 London that the famous diamond resurfaces. A diamond merchant, Daniel Eliason, was reportedly in possession of a deep blue diamond that evidence suggests was the re-cut “French Blue”. Somehow the stone again found its way to a royal family, becoming the property of King George IV of England. Upon King George IV’s death in 1830, the stone was sold to resolve his debts.

More mystery surrounds the Hope diamond as there is no recorded history of where or from whom, in 1830, the next owner, Henry Philip Hope, acquired it. It is during Henry’s ownership that the famous gem acquires its name, taking the last name of its owner – Hope. By 1839 the stone passes to Henry Thomas Hope, the original Hope’s nephew. In 1887 the stone finds itself bequeathed to Francis Pelham Clinton with the condition that he change his name to Hope and never sell the diamond. Now known as Lord Francis Hope, the former Francis Pelham Clinton’s vice in life was gambling. After years of finding himself on the losing end of most his bets, Lord Hope found himself bankrupt and turned to the one asset he had remaining to relieve his debt situation. It took years of legal wrangling, but Lord Hope finally succeeded in obtaining permission to sell the diamond in 1901. From this point, the diamond found itself with new owners many times in the next 10 years. They included a New York dealer, a Turkish diplomat, a French diamond expert and finally a French jeweler, Pierre Cartier.

In 1910 Mrs. Evalyn Walsh McLean was shown the diamond at Cartier in Paris but she rejected the mounting. Not taking no for an answer, Cartier re-set the stone and took it to Mrs. McLean in the United States. It is believed that the “Hope curse” may have originated with Cartier or a salesperson with Cartier in order to further gain Mrs. McLean’s attention. Cartier left the Hope Diamond with her for the weekend and in 1911 she purchased the stone. The Hope Diamond’s most eccentric owner, Mrs. Mclean had the stone mounted as a headpiece and later as a pendant from which she would suspend the McLean Diamond, 31.26 carats, and the Star of the East, 94.8 carats.

Mrs. McLean’s sense of humor resulted in the stone being worn by her Great Dane, Mike. Soldiers in the hospital played catch with it and she loaned it to friends on several occasions. Mrs. McLean never considered the stone unlucky even though her own life was full of tragedy. Her nine-year-old son was struck by a car and killed. Her husband divorced her and died insane and her daughter committed suicide. Mrs. McLean herself became a morphine addict. Two years after her death in 1947 the Hope Diamond, along with her entire jewelry collection, was purchased by Harry Winston. Harry Winston, Inc. sent the stone on a charity money raising tour for a period of about 10 years.

On November 10, 1958, Harry Winston donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution, shipping it to them unceremoniously in a brown paper bag through the U.S. postal service! Since being donated to the Smithsonian, the Hope Diamond has traveled little, being displayed outside its current home only four times; at the Louvre in Paris for a French Jewelry exhibit, in South Africa for the Rand Easter Show in Johannesburg, at Harry Winston in New York for their 50th-anniversary gala and back to Harry Winston in 1996 for some cleaning and restoration. It can be observed today at the Smithsonian as one of the museum’s star attractions.