Tavernier Blue Diamond
French merchant adventurer Jean Baptiste Tavernier started the Travernier Blue saga when he bought the diamond in India and brought it back to France, probably in 1668. That is the date cited when Tavernier sold a package of diamonds to King Louis XIV. The package consisted of 15 large diamonds, one of which was a crudely cut triangular shape. Tavernier described the color as "un beau violet", or "beautiful violet".
Sieur Pitau, the court jeweler, recut the diamond. A 67 1/8-carat stone resulted. Royal inventories described the color as "intense steely-blue" and the stone became the "Blue Diamond of the Crown" aka "French Blue". Pitau set the French Blue in gold and suspended it on a neck ribbon for the king wore on ceremonial occasions.
In 1749 King Louis XV had the stone reset by court jeweler Andre Jacquemin. The piece of ceremonial jewelry was for the Order of the Golden Fleece (Toison D'Or). Louis XVI Marie Antoinette attempted to leave France in 1791. Jewels of the French Royal Treasury were turned over to the government. In 1792 after a binge of looting the French Blue diamond was stolen.
In 1812 John Francillion described a deep blue diamond weighing 177 grains being in the possession of Daniel Eliason, a London diamond merchant. Strong evidence suggested that Eliason's stone was the recut French Blue .. and the same stone we know as the Hope Diamond. Numerous references claim that King George IV acquired the blue diamond. Many believe that the King had amassed such debt that the blue diamond was sold privately.
The diamond surfaced again in 1839. A gem collection catalog of a well-known gem collector, Henry Philip Hope, showed the diamond. But the catalog did not reveal who sold the diamond to Hope nor the price. Thus the Blue Tavernier becomes the Hope Diamond
