The Sancy , a pale yellow diamond of 55.23 carats (11.046 g), was once reputed to have belonged to the Mughals of antiquity, but it is more likely of Indian origin owing to its cut, which is unusual by Western standards. The stone has been owned by a number of important figures in European history, such as Charles the Bold , James VI and I , and the Astor family .
36-624: The shield-shaped stone comprises two back-to-back crowns (the typical upper half of a stone) but lacks any semblance to a pavilion (the lower portion of a stone, below the girdle or midsection). The diamond now known as the Sancy began as an even larger diamond called the Balle de Flandres with a possible weight of over 100 carats (20 g). The Balle was part of the dowry of Valentina Visconti when she married Louis I, Duke of Orléans (the younger brother of King Charles VI of France ) in 1398. While
72-546: A Type IIb diamond . The diamond was certainly Indian in origin and likely sourced by Tavernier in 1666 at the Kollur mine of the Qutb Shahi dynasty's Golconda kingdom in today's Guntur district , Andhra Pradesh . The stone, only slightly finished at this time, was eventually cut to present a more diamond-like appearance, in 1775. Tavernier was a French traveler and trader who returned to France from India with many of
108-546: A devastating defeat, James took shelter under Louis XIV of France , a fickle host who tired of his exiled guest. Facing destitution, James had no choice but to sell the Sancy to Cardinal Mazarin in 1657 for the reported sum of £ 25,000. The cardinal bequeathed the diamond to the king upon his death in 1661. The Sancy was thus domiciled in France but disappeared during the French Revolution when brigands raided
144-586: A dowry the County of Vertus (which was the dowry of her own mother at the time of her marriage in 1348) and the city of Asti , with the sums of 450,000 florins in cash and 75,000 florins in jewelry. In the contract was also stipulated that in absence of male heirs, Valentina would inherit the Visconti dominions. It was because of this, that her grandson Louis XII of France claimed the Duchy of Milan and embarked on
180-475: A morning gift. Prince Demidoff died 1840 and Aurora married again 1846 with colonel Andrei Karamzin who died 1854 in Crimean war. Aurora Karamzin had to sell the Sancy in 1865 to Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy , an Indian merchant prince, for £100,000 to cover the debts of her son Paul Demidoff. Sir Jamtsetjee sold the Sancy only a year later, creating another gap in its history. It reappeared in 1867, displayed at
216-599: The Apollo Gallery , together with the likes of the Regent Diamond and the Hortensia Diamond . Valentina Visconti, Duchess of Orl%C3%A9ans Valentina Visconti (1371 – 4 December 1408) was a countess of Vertus , and duchess consort of Orléans as the wife of Louis I, Duke of Orléans , the younger brother of King Charles VI of France . As duchess of Orléans she was at court and acquired
252-601: The French Crown Jewels in 1749. The Tavernier Blue was removed from the fleece and re-cut by court jeweler Jean Pitau into the 68-carat French Blue in 1775, on the orders of Louis XV . It was then returned to the Crown Jewels. The French Blue was stolen from the French Crown Jewels in 1792 during the turbulence of the French Revolution . It is generally believed that after the theft,
288-644: The Garde Meuble (Royal Treasury). As well as the Sancy , other treasures stolen were the Regent Diamond , and the French Blue diamond which is known today as the Hope Diamond . The Sancy was in the collection of Konstantin Rudanovsky until 1828 when purchased by Prince Paul Demidoff for £80,000. Prince Demidoff gave the Sancy 1836 to his Finnish wife, Aurora Demidoff (Stjernvall) , as
324-534: The Italian Wars . The marriage by proxy was celebrated three months later, on 8 April, in both the Milanese and French courts. Valentina was only able to leave Milan for France on 23 June 1389, because of "reasons of security" given to her father: in fact, Gian Galeazzo wanted to amend the marriage contract after the pregnancy of his second wife Caterina Visconti (another Bernabò's daughter) ended. Only after
360-538: The Paris Exposition , carrying a price tag of one million francs ; the gem then vanished again for forty years. The Sancy next surfaced in 1906 when bought by William Waldorf Astor , 1st Viscount Astor, from famous Russian collector A.K. Rudanovsky . The prominent Astor family possessed it for 72 years until the 4th Viscount Astor sold it to the Louvre for $ 1 million in 1978. The Sancy now rests in
396-687: The French ambassador in London handled the sale. It was described in the Tower of London 's 1605 Inventory of Jewels as "...one fayre dyamonde, cut in fawcetts, bought of Sauncy." James had it set into the Mirror of Great Britain , with diamonds from the Great H of Scotland . The Sancy was briefly possessed by Charles I (King of England, Scotland and Ireland) and then by his third son James II . Beleaguered after
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#1732782384677432-510: The French diamond was stolen) and 1812 (when the English blue diamond appeared). Finally, according to the Museum's archives, it was Henry Philip Hope , after the death of his brother Thomas, who was the legal owner of the cut diamond until his death in 1839. It would appear that the London jewellers Eliason and Françillon acted as fronts to conceal the actual origin of the diamond, and that it
468-529: The Good of France. After her mother's death in childbirth in 1373, Valentina and her siblings were raised by their paternal grandmother Bianca of Savoy and aunt Violante Visconti . The deaths of her brothers Carlo (1374), Gian Galeazzo (1376) and Azzone (1381) left Valentina as the only surviving child of her parents' marriage and the Countess of Vertus , a title she shared with her spouse. In 1379, Valentina
504-596: The Hope Diamond was actually cut from the Crown Blue Diamond in order to conceal its French origin. As early as 1856, the jeweller Charles Barbot compared the two diamonds by consulting the work of the historian Germain Bapst, which contained the only known representation of the blue diamond at the time (two imprecise engravings by Lucien Hirtz, depicting the actual size of the jewel on both sides). However,
540-580: The Hope diamond does not ‘fit’ completely into the blue diamond. In his anthology of the Jewels of the French Crown, historian Bernard Morel attempts to reconstruct this diamond on the basis of these two engravings by Baptiste Morel. He assumes that these two engravings are approximate and has slightly but significantly stretched Hirtz's drawing of the blue diamond to Brisson's dimensions so that it can contain
576-400: The Hope diamond. Recent American studies showing that the Hope was ‘undoubtedly’ cut from the Crown Blue Diamond are therefore subject to Brisson's intrinsic errors. Kurin in 2006 points out that these inaccuracies suggest that a reliable model of the Crown Blue Diamond needs to be known in order to definitively settle this question. The one and only lead model of the French royal diamond
612-548: The birth of his son Gian Maria on 7 September 1388 did he feel secure enough to send his daughter to France. Escorted by her paternal cousin Amadeus VII, Count of Savoy and a retinue of 300 knights, Valentina was finally handed to Louis's envoys. The formal marriage took place in the city of Melun , on 17 August 1389. In June 1392 her husband exchanged the Duchy of Touraine for the Duchy of Orléans ; since then, Valentina
648-515: The body was disinterred, the jewel was found in the faithful man's stomach. Facing financial difficulties, de Sancy was forced to sell the diamond to King James VI and I in March 1605 when it is thought the Sancy acquired its name. It weighed 53 carats and cost 60,000 French crowns . De Sancy's brother, Robert de Harlay, Baron of Monglat, and his cousin Christophe de Harlay, Count of Beaumont ,
684-617: The diamond passed to his cousin King Manuel I of Portugal . When Portugal was threatened to come under Spanish rule, claimant António, Prior of Crato fled the country with the bulk of the Portuguese Crown Jewels . He spent his life trying to get allies to regain the Portuguese throne in the French and English courts, and eventually sold the diamond to Nicolas de Harlay, seigneur de Sancy . Other sources claim that
720-640: The diamond was purchased in Constantinople by de Sancy. He was popular in the French Court and was later French Ambassador to Turkey . Something of a gem connoisseur, de Sancy used his knowledge to prosperous advantage. Henry III of France suffered from premature baldness and tried to conceal this fact by wearing a cap. As diamonds were becoming increasingly fashionable at the time, Henry arranged to borrow de Sancy's diamond to decorate his cap. Henry's successor Henry IV of France also borrowed
756-517: The enmity of the Queen of France, Isabeau of Bavaria-Ingolstadt , and was subsequently banned from the court and had to leave Paris. Due to political animosity, Valentina's husband was murdered in 1407. She died on 4 December 1408. Valentina was born in Pavia as the second of the four children of Gian Galeazzo Visconti , the first Duke of Milan, and his first wife Isabelle , a daughter of King John II
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#1732782384677792-553: The largest gems of the era. He primarily sold merchandise to French royalty and the aristocracy. Tavernier sold the Tavernier Blue to Louis XIV of France for cash. He also received a Patent of Nobility as part of the sales price. The original stone was set into a cravat-pin in 1674, and became a central element in the elaborate Order of the Golden Fleece pendant in 1715. It and the fleece were placed into
828-413: The model definitively proved that the Tavernier Blue was bigger than the Hope. This latest pieces of evidence proved that the widely held suspicions about the origin of the Hope Diamond were correct. Weighing 112 3/16 old French carats, the crudely finished gem was described by the French gem dealer Jean-Baptiste Tavernier as being "violet" in color. and of perfect clarity. It is believed to have been
864-497: The new Lord of Milan opened negotiations with King Wenceslaus of Germany and Bohemia for a marriage between Valentina and his half-brother John of Görlitz ; at the same time, he also negotiated a union with Louis II of Anjou, titular King of Naples . However, Marie of Blois, Dowager Duchess of Anjou finally cancelled the negotiations, and then Gian Galeazzo turned his attention to his nephew-by-marriage Louis, Duke of Touraine , second son of King Charles V of France and brother of
900-460: The original label of the lead, which had been donated around 1850 by the Parisian jeweller Charles Achard, who provided vital information on this mould: it stated that ‘Mr Hoppe [sic] of London ’ had indeed owned the blue diamond in London. This discovery showed that the blue diamond was much better cut than previously thought. The model also shows that the Hope diamond was cut between 1792 (when
936-575: The precise path of ownership over the next 75 years is uncertain, the stone found its way to Charles the Bold , Duke of Burgundy , who lost it together with an array of other treasures – including his silver bath and the Three Brothers jewel – in the Battle of Grandson in 1476. Balfour (2009) posits that this diamond is the same stone that eventually became the Sancy . After Charles died, in 1477
972-462: The public forum, was renamed the Hope Diamond . In December 2007, the French mineralogy professor François Farges found in the reserves of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle the lead model of the Tavernier Blue. This model came around 1850, and was given by the Parisian jeweller Charles Achard, who explained that Henry Philip Hope was the owner of the original stone. Moreover, the size of
1008-477: The reigning Charles VI . King Wenceslaus became aware of the double game of Gian Galeazzo, and broke off the negotiations with a letter full of insults, leaving Louis, her first cousin, the only suitor of Valentina. Because of the close relationship between bride and groom, a papal dispensation was granted on 25 November 1386, and the marriage contract was signed on 27 January 1387 in Paris . Valentina received as
1044-525: The stone was cut into the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond and several smaller stones in an attempt to prevent its proper identification. This provenance was accepted by many historians and gemologists for years and was supported by research with 3D imaging and prototyping technology in 2005. Another large blue diamond believed to have been taken from the Tavernier was originally set in a ring for Empress Maria Feodorovna , wife of Russian Emperor Paul I . It
1080-419: The stone, but for the more practical purpose of collateral for financing an army. An apocryphal tale from the time of de Sancy's possession of the stone tells of a messenger carrying the jewel, but never reaching his destination. Nevertheless, de Sancy (by then Superintendent of Finance) was convinced that the man had remained loyal and conducted a search until the messenger was discovered robbed and murdered. When
1116-627: Was also the mother of one of France's most famous poets, Charles of Orléans . Valentina's husband's murder was orchestrated by his cousin and political rival John the Fearless, Duke of Burgundy in 1407. Valentina outlived her husband by only a little over a year, dying at Blois on 4 December 1408. Valentina was buried at the Celestins convent of the Orleans chapel in Paris. Her monument tomb
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1152-521: Was betrothed to her cousin Carlo Visconti, Lord of Parma , son of Bernabò Visconti , and a papal dispensation was even granted; however, Bernabò later annulled the betrothal and, in 1382, married his son to a French noblewoman, Beatrice of Armagnac. In 1385 Gian Galeazzo became the sole ruler over the Visconti inheritance, and with this Valentina's status changed considerably. At this point,
1188-474: Was commissioned in 1508 by her grandson Louis XII of France. It was moved to Basilica of Saint-Denis between 1817 and 1818. Valentina and Louis had: Tavernier Blue The Tavernier Blue was the precursor diamond to the Blue Diamond of the French Crown (aka the French Blue ). Subsequently, most scholars and historians believed that it was re-cut and, after a disappearance and reemergence into
1224-480: Was finally discovered in December 2007 by mineralogy professor François Farges during the cleaning of a mineralogical collection in the reserves of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle . The back of the lead shows a corolla of 7 petals characteristic of the ‘Paris rose’ cut of Tavernier's blue diamond. François Farges then carried out historical research on this lead: he found in the mineralogical collections
1260-690: Was given to the State Diamond Fund in 1860 by her daughter-in-law, the Empress Alexandra Feodorovna . Later, it was mounted into a stick pin. The 7.6-carat stone is preserved in the collection of the Alexander Palace in Tsarskoye Selo , near St Petersburg . The Russian stone's provenance as part of the Tavernier Blue is disputed. A great deal of research has been carried out to determine whether
1296-486: Was styled Duchess of Orléans . Because of intrigues at the court of Charles VI of France and the enmity of the queen, Isabeau of Bavaria-Ingolstadt , Valentina was exiled from the court and had to leave Paris. There were rumours that Isabeau was having an affair with Louis and that Valentina was very close to the King, who was in poor mental health. A patroness of Eustache Deschamps , who wrote poetry in her honour, Valentina
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