Hi there!
Welcome back to The History Edit, which is coming at you rather late as the last few days have been full of ‘I now live in France and have a tonne of bureaucracy to get through’ errands. This included enrolling my son at the local school in a smashing little nearby village. 🥰
Last week was my birthday and we managed to escape out for a fancy dinner without the wee cherubs. We visited a beautiful restaurant situated next to a medieval mill tower in Mezin and the food was amazing!
Deadly Jewels
This week a story about a cursed diamond caught my eye. I’m a lover of all things sparkly and have a huge interest in historic jewels, especially royal jewellery, and would probably just be encrusted in diamonds if I was a princess!
However, this particular jewel comes with a dark history of misfortune and I think I would pass on this one…
The Hope Diamond
The 45.52 carat Hope Diamond is a rare blue naturally occurring diamond that currently resides in the Smithsonian Institute, Washington DC. However, before it reached its final destination, it changed hands with various royals and high society members, bestowing its bad luck.
In the 1660s, a French merchant named Jean-Baptiste Tavernier bought a (most likely stolen) 112 carat diamond in India, which was known as the Tavernier Blue. It had been rumoured that the giant jewel had been pilfered from a temple where it had adorned a statue as one of the eyes of a Hindu god. When they noticed it was gone, it is said that the temple’s priests laid a curse on future possessors of the stone. This may be a folklore tale of old but the bad luck of the people and families that it passed through in the next few centuries speaks volumes. Hex or coincidence?
Off with their heads
On his return to France, Tavernier is said to have sold the large rock to King Louis XIV, making himself a tidy sum of money. However, before he could enjoy it, he was mauled to death by a pack of wild dogs.
In the hands of the dazzling Sun King, the diamond was cut into a smaller stone that became known as the French Blue and was passed down through his line to Louis XVI and his wife, the famed Marie Antoinette. The French queen was known for her love of jewels but it is not known if she personally wore the French Blue.
Not wearing the beautiful stone was not enough to save Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette from its vengeful hex and they were later imprisoned and lost their heads to the guillotine during the French Revolution in 1793. The French Crown Jewels were looted during the revolution, and the French Blue seemingly disappeared from history.
The wrathful stone continues
It later reappeared in the early 19th century, having been recut into the smaller stone that we see today by a Dutch jeweller, William Fals. He also fell foul of the curse and ended up being murdered by his own son, who then took his own life.
A London diamond expert, Daniel Eliason, acquired the diamond in 1812, and it is rumoured to have been passed into the private collection of George IV. We know how poor old Prinny’s life went, with the loss of his daughter, his waistline, and his popularity.
The diamond continued its slow and destructive path, much akin to The One Ring, and ended up in the hands of a rich banker, Thomas Hope. The diamond passed down through his family until bad financial luck forced the family to sell it. (More curse victims?)
After eventually being acquired by Pierre Cartier sold the diamond, which he had reset into the necklace that we see today, to Edward B. McLean and his society darling wife, Evalyn Walsh McLean in 1911. By this point the stone had gathered such a trail of destruction behind it that there was a clause in the sale contract that ensured the couple could swap the jewel for another of equal value if fatalities affected the family within six months of its purchase.
Even though she loved her diamond, even attaching it to her dog’s collars at times, poor Evalyn was beset with horrendously bad luck in the following years. Her mother-in-law died, her husband left her for another woman and then died fairly young in a psychiatric hospital, her son died aged nine, and her daughter died at 25 from a drug overdose. She was also besieged with money problems and had to sell the family newspaper, The Washington Post, before dying heavily in debt in 1947.
Unsurprisingly, her surviving children sold off her jewel collection, including the evil rock, to jeweller Harry Winston, who gifted it to the Smithsonian Institute’s National Museum of Natural History. Winston, it seems, was unaffected by the curse and lived happily to the ripe old age of 82.
Just one more thing!
The stone still decided to claim another victim before it began its new life being admired from behind glass. James Todd, who delivered the diamond to the museum, suffered an automobile accident shortly after in which his leg was crushed. His house also burnt down.
The curse of the Hope Diamond is now seemingly spent, or maybe it is merely lying dormant? Who knows?
The Edit
Historical find
A rare gold coin minted in the reign of Edward III has been found in Norfolk by a metal detectorist, according to this article in The Times. The ‘Leopard’ coin is 23-carat gold and is so incredibly rare because they were withdrawn almost as soon as they were minted in 1344. However, this process was interrupted by the Black Death.
Insta-who?
Check out the squares of this insanely good artist on Instagram. Amy Elizabeth is a Suffolk-based printmaker whose work is inspired by folklore, medieval motifs, and Mother Nature. I bought two of her prints recently, which can be seen below, and they came beautifully packaged. The Souling Tree (middle right) is destined for the dining room and the Sleeping Gargoyle (bottom centre) is heading for the office.
Marvellous stuff.
Hope you enjoyed this edition of The History Edit. Do you believe in the curse of the Hope Diamond or do you think it’s all coincidence?
As always, you can contact me on here or find me on Instagram!
See you soon!