THE BLING BLOG: Weekend Reading - Hope Diamond By Richard Kurin

July 21, 2006

Weekend Reading - Hope Diamond By Richard Kurin

This weekend's reading nibbles will include Hope Diamond - The Legendary History Of A Cursed Gem by Richard Kurin.

I've been looking forward to this one for some time as it promises to weigh the facts against the legend and get to the root of many of the ancillary rumors and tall tales surrounding the blue diamond. Is it cursed? Did its owners suffer tragedy? Was its provenance murky and questionable?

Answer these to some degree of satisfaction and I will be an instant fan.

As you know, so much about diamonds and gemstones are wrapped up in the myth of rarity and exclusivity. The Hope Diamond is rare, to be sure. But are all diamonds so very rare? Of course the good people at deBeers would like us to think so.

Let's hope that by Kurin helping to demystify some of the process of the changing of hands, the trading, the hawking, the swapping, the stealing, the dropping, that goes on before a diamond gets into the hands of Mrs. Harry Winston (and then finally the Smithsonian, its final resting place), maybe the rest of us will begin to understand that the very same process goes on with each and every diamond in the window of the jewelry store.

That's right, every single one. Even mine. Even yours.

July 21, 2006 in Basic Knowledge, History | Permalink

Comments

I saw the Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian back in 1985. At that time, it was in a case in the wall just like all the other gems. (I think now it's out in a stand-alone case.)

I was shocked at how small it was, honestly. Not that I thought it would be as big as my fist or anything, but it's smaller than it looks on TV or in print.

Posted by: Lisa | July 21, 2006 at 09:35 AM

I watched a really good documentary on the diamond once. Apparently Evalyn Walsh McLean would have her dog wear it from time to time! There's a lot of interesting stuff to the "curse" stories, but I don't really believe in that kind of stuff.

Posted by: Emily | July 21, 2006 at 10:46 AM

Or perhaps, it's cursed because of all the slave labour that goes behind those diamonds?

Posted by: G | July 21, 2006 at 01:14 PM

Lisa... It is a bit small, sort of. You're expecting its physical presence to be measure into something much, much larger. 45.52 carats is big, VERY big for a blue diamond (very big for any diamond) but at 1" wide and 1/2" deep, it isn't the massive chunk of carbon you're anticipating when you enter the hall. Its reputation precedes it. Its legend has far greater proportions than its physical size.

Emily... I have heard that, too, and I will let you know if Kurin says it's fact or fiction after I read the book. McLean was at odds with Cartier (who was doing the selling at the time) and so I wouldn't be a bit surprised. I let Linus & Nixon wear pearls. Nixon likes the 11mm black ones. Linus likes a double strand of twisted multicolor freshwater baroque pearls, 10-11mm. Trey HATES it when I put pearls on them. But a Pug dog has such a nice neck for pearls...

Oh, G... it's just not that simple. If it were that simple, then all of the clothing from the Gap and every pair of Nike trainers (and all of their wearers) would also be cursed. It's not that simple. No way.

Posted by: Susanna | July 21, 2006 at 05:18 PM

Totally off-topic here, but I heard this story on NPR as I was driving through Indiana yesterday.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5570666

Yes, more thoughts on the synthesized diamond industry. The process actually sounds really cool (plasma clouds!). I think one commentator in the article got the future of lab-grown stones correct -- that they will be a niche market and won't affect the selling power of natural stones. I guess, as always, perfection is the real rarity, and not the object itself.

[I think I saw the Hope Diamond at the Smithsonian when I was a child. I just remember the gem hall being dark and smelling like sweaty tourists.]

Posted by: henri-v | July 21, 2006 at 09:49 PM