Misplaced Pages

#690309

61-450: The study of the forms of curses comprises a significant proportion of the study of both folk religion and folklore . The deliberate attempt to levy curses is often part of the practice of magic . In Hindu culture , the Sage or Rishi is believed to have the power to bless ( Āshirvada or Vara ) and curse ( Shaapa ). Examples include the curse placed by Rishi Bhrigu on king Nahusha and

122-501: A dragon breathing "covetous flames," as well as 83 red-painted diamonds and 112 yellow-painted diamonds to suggest a fleece shape. The piece fell into disuse after the death of Louis XV. The diamond became the property of his grandson Louis XVI . whose wife, queen Marie Antoinette , used many of the French Crown Jewels for personal adornment by having the individual gems placed in new settings and combinations, but

183-481: A bed of white silk and surrounded by many small white diamonds cut pear shaped". The new setting was the current platinum framework surrounded by a row of sixteen diamonds which alternated between old mine cut and pear-shaped variants. Mrs. McLean wore it to a "brilliant reception" in February 1912 when it was reported that it was the first time it had been worn in public since it had "changed owners." She would "sport

244-613: A curse on the Anglo-Scottish Border reivers and caused it to be read out in all churches in the border area. It comprehensively cursed the reivers and their families from head to toe and in every way. In 2003 a 371-word extract from the curse was carved into a 14-ton granite boulder as part of an art work by Gordon Young which was installed in Carlisle ; some local people believed that a series of misfortunes (floods, factory closure, footballing defeats etc.) were caused by

305-534: A gentleman friend named Putnam Strong, who was a son of the former New York City mayor William L. Strong . Francis Hope and May Yohé were divorced in 1902. Francis sold the diamond for £29,000 (£3.98 million today), to Adolph Weil, a London jewel merchant. Weil sold the stone in 1901 to the diamond dealer Simon Frankel, based in New York and/or London who took it to New York. One report stated that he had paid $ 250,000 ($ 9.2 million today). However, in New York it

366-699: A pendant Toison d ’or . It is a dark greyish-blue color under ordinary light due to trace amounts of boron within its crystal structure, and it exhibits a red phosphorescence under exposure to ultraviolet light. It is classified as a type IIb diamond . The Hope Diamond is currently housed in the National Gem and Mineral collection at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. It has changed hands numerous times on its way from Hyderabad , India, to France, Great Britain, and

427-400: A piece to remember", and Pitau worked for two years, resulting in a "triangular-shaped 69-carat (13.8 g; 0.49 oz) gem the size of a pigeon 's egg that took the breath away as it snared the light, reflecting it back in bluish-grey rays." It was set in gold and was supported by a ribbon for the neck which was worn by the king during ceremonies. At the diamond's dazzling heart was

488-555: A second, less definitive report claims that the Hope Diamond's "authentic history" can only be traced back to 1830. The jewel was a "massive blue stone of 45.54-carat (9.108 g; 0.3213 oz)" and weighed 177 gr (11.5 g) (4 gr (0.26 g) = 1 carat). The 1812 date was just days after 20 years since the theft of the French Blue, just as the statute of limitations for the crime had taken effect. While

549-557: A sun with seven facets—the sun being Louis' emblem, and seven being a number rich in meaning in biblical cosmology, indicating divinity and spirituality. In 1749, Louis XIV's great-grandson, Louis XV , had the French Blue set into a more elaborate jeweled pendant for the Order of the Golden Fleece by court jeweler André Jacquemin. The assembled piece included a red spinel of 107-carat (21.4 g; 0.75 oz) carats shaped as

610-503: A three-dimensional leaden model of the latter was rediscovered in the archives of the Paris National Museum of Natural History in 2005. Previously, the dimensions of the French Blue had been known only from two drawings made in 1749 and 1789; although the model differs slightly from the drawings in some details, these details are identical to features of the Hope Diamond, allowing CAD technology to digitally reconstruct

671-517: Is a 45.52 carats (9.104 g; 0.3211 oz) diamond that has been famed for its great size since the 18th century. Extracted in the 17th century from the Kollur Mine in Guntur , India , the Hope Diamond is a blue diamond . Its exceptional size has revealed new information about the formation of diamonds. The Hope Diamond is a Golconda diamond . Its recorded history begins in 1666, when

SECTION 10

#1732790191691

732-486: The Earth approximately 1.1 billion years ago. Like all diamonds , it was formed when carbon atoms formed strong bonds with each other. The Hope Diamond was originally embedded in kimberlite and was later extracted and refined to form the current gem. The Hope Diamond contains trace amounts of boron atoms intermixed with the carbon structure, which results in the rare blue color of the diamond. People typically think of

793-630: The court jeweler Jean Pitau to recut the Tavernier Blue, resulting in a 67.125-carat (13.4250 g; 0.47355 oz) stone which royal inventories thereafter listed as the Blue Diamond of the Crown of France ( French : diamant bleu de la Couronne de France ). Later English-speaking historians have simply called it the French Blue. The king had the stone set on a cravat -pin. According to one report, Louis ordered Pitau to "make him

854-591: The American concert hall singer May Yohé , who has been described as "the sensation of two continents", and they were married the same year; one account suggests that Yohé wore the Hope Diamond on at least one occasion. She later claimed that she had worn it at social gatherings and had an exact replica made for her performances, but her husband claimed otherwise. Lord Francis lived beyond his means, and this eventually caught up with him, leading to marriage troubles and financial reverses, and he found that he had to sell

915-522: The Crown Jewels in a five-day looting spree. While many jewels were later recovered, including other pieces of the Order of the Golden Fleece , the French Blue was not among them and it disappeared from history. On January 21, 1793, Louis XVI was guillotined ; Marie Antoinette was guillotined on October 16 of the same year. These beheadings are commonly cited as a result of the diamond's "curse," but

976-532: The French Blue and the Côte-de-Bretagne spinel , to Le Havre and then to London , where the French Blue was cut in two pieces. Morel adds that in 1796, Guillot attempted to resell the Côte-de-Bretagne in France but was forced to relinquish it to fellow thief Lancry de la Loyelle, who put Guillot into debtors' prison . In a contrasting report, historian Richard Kurin speculated that the "theft" of

1037-460: The French Blue around the recut stone. The leaden model revealed 20 unknown facets on the back of the French Blue. It also confirmed the diamond underwent a rather rough recut that removed the three points and reduced the thickness by a few millimeters. The Sun King 's blue diamond became unrecognizable and the baroque style of the original cut was definitely lost. Historians suggested that one burglar, Cadet Guillot, took several jewels, including

1098-716: The French Blue remained in this pendant (except for a brief time in 1787, when the stone was removed for scientific study by Mathurin Jacques Brisson ). On September 11, 1792, while Louis XVI and his family were imprisoned in the Square du Temple during the early stages of the French Revolution's Reign of Terror , a group of thieves broke into the Royal Storehouse—the Hôtel du Garde-Meuble de la Couronne (now Hôtel de la Marine )—stealing most of

1159-528: The French Crown Jewels was in fact engineered by the revolutionary leader Georges Danton as part of a plan to bribe an opposing military commander, Duke Karl Wilhelm of Brunswick . When under attack by Napoleon in 1805, Karl Wilhelm may have had the French Blue recut to disguise its identity; in this form, the stone could have come to Great Britain in 1806, when his family fled there to join his daughter Caroline of Brunswick . Although Caroline

1220-671: The French gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier purchased it in India in uncut form. After cutting the gem and renaming it "the French Blue" ( Le bleu de France ), Tavernier sold it to King Louis XIV of France in 1668. It was stolen in 1792 and re-cut, with the largest section of the diamond appearing under the Hope name in an 1839 gem catalogue from the Hope banking family , from whom the diamond's name derives. The Hope Diamond's last private owner

1281-472: The Hope Diamond appeared in a published catalog of the gem collection of his brother Henry Philip Hope , members of the Anglo-Dutch banking family Hope & Co. The stone was set in a fairly simple medallion surrounded by many smaller white diamonds, which he sometimes lent to Louisa de la Poer Beresford, the widow of his brother, Thomas Hope, for society balls . After falling into the ownership of

SECTION 20

#1732790191691

1342-553: The Hope Diamond as a historic gem, but... it's [important] as a rare scientific specimen that can provide vital insights into our knowledge of diamonds and how they are formed in the earth. Several accounts, based on remarks written by French gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier , who obtained the gem in India in 1666, suggest that the gemstone originated in India , in the Kollur mine in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh (which, at

1403-565: The Hope Diamond. It was displayed in the Great Exhibition of London in 1851 and at the 1855 Exposition Universelle in Paris , but was usually kept in a bank vault. In 1861, Henry Thomas Hope's only child, Henrietta, married Henry Pelham-Clinton (and later Duke of Newcastle ). When Hope died on December 4, 1862, his wife Anne Adele inherited the gem, but she feared that the profligate lifestyle of her son-in-law might cause him to sell

1464-399: The Hope family, the stone came to be known as the "Hope Diamond". Henry Philip Hope died in 1839, the same year as the publication of his collection catalog. His three nephews, the sons of Thomas and Louisa, fought in court for ten years over his inheritance, and ultimately the collection was split up. The oldest nephew, Henry Thomas Hope , received eight of the most valuable gems, including

1525-516: The Hope properties. Upon Adele's death in 1884, the entire Hope estate, including the Hope Diamond, was entrusted to Henrietta's younger son, Henry Francis Pelham-Clinton , on the condition that he add the name of "Hope" to his own surnames when he reached the age of legal majority. As Lord Francis Hope, this grandson received his legacy in 1887. However, he had only a life interest in his inheritance, meaning that he could not sell any part of it without court permission. In 1894, Lord Francis Hope met

1586-462: The Hope", and times when she hid the diamond somewhere on her estate during the "lavish parties she threw and invite guests to find it." The stone prompted elaborate security precautions: William Schindele, a former Secret Service man, has been engaged to guard the stone. He in turn will be guarded by Leo Costello and Simeon Blake, private detectives. The stone will be kept at the McLean mansion during

1647-711: The Iceman ". While such curses are generally considered to have been popularized and sensationalized by British journalists of the 19th century, ancient Egyptians were, in fact, known to place curse inscriptions on markers protecting temple or tomb goods or property. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia article Cursing , the Bible depicts God cursing the serpent , the earth, and Cain ( Genesis 3:14 , 3:17 , 4:11 ). Similarly, Noah curses Canaan ( Genesis 9:25 ), and Joshua curses any man who should [re]build

1708-455: The McLeans, but finally, in 1911, the couple bought the gem for over $ 300,000 (over $ 9.8 million today), although there are differing estimates of the sales price at $ 150,000 and $ 180,000. An alternative scenario is that the McLeans may have fabricated concern about the supposed "curse" to generate publicity to increase the value of their investment. A description was that the gemstone "lay on

1769-453: The Sultan. A contrary report, however, suggested that Sultan Abdul Hamid did own the gem but ordered Habib to sell it when his throne "began to totter." Habib reportedly sold the stone in Paris in 1909 for $ 80,000 ($ 2.71 million today). The Parisian jewel merchant Simon Rosenau bought the Hope Diamond for 400,000 francs and resold it in 1910 to Pierre Cartier for 550,000 francs. In 1910, it

1830-710: The United Kingdom , possibly through Caroline of Brunswick ; however, there is no record of the ownership in the Royal Archives at Windsor, although some secondary evidence exists in the form of contemporary writings and artwork, and George IV tended to mix up the Crown property of the Crown jewels with family heirlooms and his own personal property. A source at the Smithsonian suggested there were "several references" suggesting that George had indeed owned

1891-467: The United States, where it is on public display. It has been described as the "most famous diamond in the world". You cradle the 45.5-carat stone—about the size of a walnut and heavier than its translucence makes it appear—turning it from side to side as the light flashes from its facets, knowing it's the hardest natural material yet fearful of dropping it. The Hope Diamond was formed deep within

Curse - Misplaced Pages Continue

1952-458: The blue diamond was not retained by the British royal family. The stone was later reported to have been acquired by a rich London banker named Thomas Hope , for either $ 65,000 or $ 90,000. It has been suggested that Eliason may have been a "front" for Hope, acting not as a diamond merchant venturing money on his own account, but rather as an agent to acquire the diamond for the banker. In 1839,

2013-576: The city of Jericho ( Joshua 6:26–27 ). In various books of the Hebrew Bible , there are long lists of curses against transgressors of the Law ( Leviticus 26:14–25 , Deuteronomy 27:15 , etc.). The 10 Plagues of Egypt , preceding the 10 Commandments , can be seen as curses cast from the rods of Aaron and Moses acting on instruction from the God of Israel, in order to enable the enthralled to come free from

2074-422: The curse, and campaigned unsuccessfully for the destruction of the stone. Curses have also been used as plot devices in literature and theater. When used as a plot device, they involve one character placing a curse or hex over another character. This is distinguished from adverse spells and premonitions and other such plot devices. Examples of the curse as a plot device: A number of curses are used to explain

2135-403: The diamond at social events" and wore it to numerous social occasions that she had organized. The Hope Diamond in its original pendant must have looked fantastic at parties circa the 1920s, when it hung around the neck of owner Evalyn Walsh McLean's Great Dane, Mike. There were reports that she misplaced it at parties, deliberately and frequently, and then make a children's game out of "finding

2196-423: The diamond for $ 400,000 ($ 13.56 million today) to a Salomon or Selim Habib, a wealthy Turkish diamond collector, reportedly on behalf of Sultan Abdulhamid of Ottoman Empire; however, on June 24, 1909, the stone was included in an auction of Habib's assets to settle his own debts, and the auction catalog explicitly stated that the Hope Diamond was one of only two gems in the collection which had never been owned by

2257-541: The diamond had disappeared for two decades, there were questions whether this diamond now in Great Britain was exactly the same one as had belonged to the French kings. Scientific investigation in 2008 confirmed "beyond reasonable doubt" that the Hope Diamond and that owned by the kings of France were, indeed, the same gemstone. There are conflicting reports about what happened to the diamond during these years. Eliason's diamond may have been acquired by George IV of

2318-474: The diamond's supposed "ill luck" prompted a worried editor of The Jewelers' Circular-Weekly to write: No mention of any ill luck having befallen Eliason, Hope, or any of their descendants was ever made. The Frankels surely were very prosperous while the stone was in their possession, as were the dealers who held it in Europe. Habib's misfortune referred to in the newspaper accounts occurred long after he had sold

2379-571: The diamond, but after having learned about its unfortunate supposed history, the couple had wanted to back out of the deal since they knew nothing of the "history of misfortunes that have beset its various owners." Both Ned McLean and his pretty wife are quite young, and in a way unsophisticated, although they were born and reared in an atmosphere of wealth and luxury. All their lives they have known more of jewelry, finery, banquets, automobiles, horses, and other articles of pleasure than they have of books, with their wealth of knowledge. The brouhaha over

2440-528: The diamond. In 1896, his bankruptcy was discharged, but, as he could not sell the Hope Diamond without the court's permission, he was supported financially by his wife during these intervening years. In 1901, the financial situation had changed, and after a "long legal fight," he was given permission to sell the Hope Diamond by an order of the Master in Chancery to "pay off debts". But May Yohé ran off with

2501-405: The diamond. After his death in 1830, it has been alleged that some of this mixed collection was stolen by George's last mistress, Elizabeth Conyngham , and some of his personal effects were discreetly liquidated to cover the many debts he had left behind him. Another report states that the king's debts were "so enormous" that the diamond was probably sold through "private channels". In either case,

Curse - Misplaced Pages Continue

2562-648: The failures or misfortunes of specific sports teams, players, or even cities. For example: Folk religion Too Many Requests If you report this error to the Wikimedia System Administrators, please include the details below. Request from 172.68.168.226 via cp1108 cp1108, Varnish XID 215137520 Upstream caches: cp1108 int Error: 429, Too Many Requests at Thu, 28 Nov 2024 10:36:31 GMT Hope Diamond 38°53′27″N 77°01′33″W  /  38.89094°N 77.02573°W  / 38.89094; -77.02573 The Hope Diamond

2623-480: The gem, perhaps who had bought it from Frankel and owned it temporarily who met with ill-fortune, but this report conflicts with the more likely possibility that the gem remained in the hands of the Frankel jewelry firm during these years. Like many jewelry firms, the Frankel business ran into financial difficulties during the depression of 1907 and referred to the gem as the "hoodoo diamond." In 1908, Frankel sold

2684-505: The historical novel, The French Blue , gemologist and historian Richard W. Wise proposes that the patent of nobility granted to Tavernier by Louis XIV was part of the payment for the Tavernier Blue. According to the theory, Jean-Baptiste Colbert (the King's Finance Minister at the time) regularly sold noble offices and titles for cash; an outright patent of nobility , according to Wise, was worth approximately 500,000 livres. That amount, plus

2745-473: The historical record suggests that Marie Antoinette had never worn the Golden Fleece pendant because it had been reserved for the exclusive use of the King. A likely scenario is that the French Blue, sometimes also known as the Blue Diamond, was "swiftly smuggled to London " after being seized in 1792 in Paris. But, the exact rock known as the French Blue was never seen again, since it almost certainly

2806-438: The one placed by Rishi Devala. Special names for specific types of curses can be found in various cultures: There is a broad popular belief in curses being associated with the violation of the tombs of mummified corpses, or of the mummies themselves. The idea became so widespread as to become a pop-culture mainstay, especially in horror films (though originally the curse was invisible, a series of mysterious deaths, rather than

2867-480: The point where she suddenly requested to see the stone. She recalled later that Cartier "held before our eyes the Hope Diamond." Nevertheless, she initially rejected the offer. Cartier had it reset. She found the stone much more appealing in this new modern style. There were conflicting reports about the sale in The New York Times ; one account suggested that the young McLean couple had agreed to purchase

2928-548: The recent CAD reconstruction of the French Blue fits too tightly around the Hope Diamond to allow for the existence of a sister stone of that size. A blue diamond with the same shape, size, and color as the Hope Diamond was recorded by John Francillon as in the possession of the London diamond merchant Daniel Eliason in September 1812, the earliest point when the history of the Hope Diamond can be definitively fixed, although

2989-456: The reported sale to the King, would have totaled about 720,000 livres, half the price of Tavernier's initial estimate for the gem. There has been controversy regarding the actual weight of the stone: Morel believed that the 112.1875-carat (22.43750 g; 0.791460 oz) stated in Tavernier's invoice would be in old French carats, thus 115.28 metric carats. In 1678, Louis XIV commissioned

3050-644: The stone is made. Historian Richard Kurin has built a highly speculative case for 1653 as the year of acquisition, but the most that can be said with certainty is that Tavernier obtained the blue diamond during one of his five voyages to India between the years 1640 and 1667. One report suggests he took 25 diamonds to Paris , including the large rock which became the Hope, and sold all of them to King Louis XIV. Another report suggested that in 1669, Tavernier sold this large blue diamond along with approximately one thousand other diamonds to King Louis XIV for 220,000 livres —the equivalent of 147 kilograms of pure gold. In

3111-465: The stone... As Francis Hope never had the stone and May Yohe probably never saw it ... the newspaper accounts at the time mentioned were laughed at, but since then it has been the custom not only to revive these stories every time mention of the stone appears in the public press, but to add to them fictitious incidents of misfortune as to alleged possessors of the stone at various times. The tenuous deal involved wrangling among attorneys for both Cartier and

SECTION 50

#1732790191691

3172-600: The time, was part of the Golconda kingdom of the Qutb Shahi dynasty ). Tavernier's book, the Six Voyages (French: Les Six Voyages de J. B. Tavernier ), contains sketches of several large diamonds that he sold to King Louis XIV , possibly in 1668 or 1669; a blue diamond is shown among these, and Tavernier mentions the mines at "Gani Coulour" (Kollur Mine) as a source of colored diamonds, but no direct mention of

3233-503: The victim of expiation for sin ( Galatians 3:13 ), to sins temporal and eternal ( Genesis 2:17 ; Matthew 25:41 ). Cursed objects are generally supposed to have been stolen from their rightful owners or looted from a sanctuary. The Hope Diamond is supposed to bear such a curse, and bring misfortune to its owner. The stories behind why these items are cursed vary, but they usually are said to bring bad luck or to manifest unusual phenomena related to their presence. Busby's stoop chair

3294-493: The walking-dead mummies of later fiction). The " Curse of the Pharaohs " is supposed to have haunted the archeologists who excavated the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun , whereby an imprecation was supposedly pronounced from the grave by the ancient Egyptian priests, on anyone who violated its precincts. Similar dubious suspicions have surrounded the excavation and examination of the (natural, not embalmed) Alpine mummy, " Ötzi

3355-529: The yoke of enforced serfdom , slavery and the like. In the New Testament , Christ curses the barren fig tree ( Mark 11:14 ), pronounces his denunciation of woe against the incredulous cities ( Matthew 11:21 ), against the rich , the worldly, the scribes, and the Pharisees , and foretells the awful malediction that is to come upon the damned ( Matthew 25:41 ). The word curse is also applied to

3416-602: Was evaluated to be worth $ 141,032 ($ 5.17 million today). Accounts vary about what happened to the diamond during the years 1902–1907; one account suggested that it lay in the William & Theodore safe during these years while the jewelers took it out periodically to show it to wealthy Americans; a rival account, probably invented to help add "mystery" to the Hope Diamond story, suggested that some persons had bought it but apparently sold it back to Frankel. There were reports in one story in The New York Times of several owners of

3477-457: Was offered for $ 150,000 ($ 4.91 million today), according to one report. Pierre Cartier tried to sell the Hope Diamond to Washington, D.C. socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean and her husband in 1910. Cartier was a consummate salesman who used an understated presentation to entice Mrs. McLean. He described the gem's illustrious history to her while keeping it concealed underneath special wrapping paper. The suspense worked: McLean became impatient to

3538-407: Was recut during this decades-long period of anonymity, with the largest remaining piece becoming the Hope Diamond. One report suggested that the cut was a "butchered job" because it sheared off 23.5-carat (4.70 g; 0.166 oz) from the larger rock as well as hurting its "extraordinary luster." It was long believed that the Hope Diamond was cut from the French Blue, but confirmation came when

3599-517: Was reportedly cursed by the murderer Thomas Busby shortly before his execution so that everyone who would sit in it would die. According to the Bible, cursed objects are those which are used in idolatry whether that idolatry is indirectly or directly connected to the devil. A list of those Bible references along with a comprehensive list of occult and cursed objects can be found online. In 1525 Gavin Dunbar , archbishop of Glasgow , Scotland, pronounced

3660-604: Was the American jeweler Harry Winston , who bought it in 1949 from the estate of the mining heiress and socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean . After exhibiting the diamond on tour for several years, Winston donated it in 1958 to the Smithsonian Institution 's National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. , where it remains on permanent exhibition. The Hope Diamond is a large, 45.52-carat (9.104 g; 0.3211 oz), deep-blue diamond , studded in

3721-527: Was the wife of the Prince Regent (later George IV of the United Kingdom ), she lived apart from her husband, and financial straits sometimes forced her to quietly sell her own jewels to support her household. Caroline's nephew, Duke Karl Friedrich , was later known to possess a 13.75-carat (2.750 g; 0.0970 oz) blue diamond which was widely thought to be another piece of the French Blue. This smaller diamond's present whereabouts are unknown, and

SECTION 60

#1732790191691
#690309