Hello, dear friends! You, of course, have heard about destructive hurricanes with female names? As American scientists have established, they are twice as dangerous as those that bear the names of the stronger sex. An affectionate female name involuntarily lulls one’s vigilance and one treats such a natural disaster lightly, without taking proper precautions. So the Hope Diamond, which received the name of its owner (“hope” in English means “hope”), brought many of its owners to a completely hopeless situation...
Treasure of Golconda - Hope Diamond
The starting point in the history of the legendary diamond is the Indian Golconda diamond mines. It was in the Kollur mine that a rare crystal of incredibly large size was mined. The color of the stone was blue-blue, and its purity was extraordinary. He was given a worthy place - to become the punishing eye of the statue of the Hindu god Rama.
As usual, there are dishonest people in any country: the diamond was stolen.
But the thieves knew that no one would buy such a famous stone in India, fearing the terrible revenge of an angry deity. The stolen diamond was sold to a foreigner traveling in India - Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a jewelry dealer. This “stone hunter” had a cherished dream - to become a nobleman, the title of which he received from Louis XIV in exchange for an Indian diamond. So the “Blue Tavernier” (under this name the “Eye of Rama” came to Europe) became the property of the Sun King.
The stone was incredibly large. It was cut into several parts, one of which went to distant Russia and adorned the finger of Maria Feodorovna, the wife of Emperor Paul I. Louis ordered the largest part to be cut in the shape of a heart and presented it to his favorite. The weight of the diamond at that time was 69 carats.
Everyone who owned the Hope Diamond left this world. The mysterious history of the gem
It was stolen from an Indian temple, pulled out of the eye of the statue of God Rama. But the kidnappers did not know that he was cursed and if he belonged to a mere mortal, he would certainly bring him only misfortune. We are talking about the most beautiful Hope Diamond. We tell you who owned it and what troubles it doomed lovers of beauty to.
Jean-Baptiste Tavernier was eaten by lice
In 1653, the main supplier of precious stones to the French king, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, arrived on the shores of France from his long journey to India. Among the jewelry brought was a luxurious 116-carat blue diamond. It was later reduced to 45.5 carats and named Hope. Jean-Baptiste gave the stone to the French king in exchange for the title. But contrary to expectations, Tavernier's affairs were getting worse. As a result, in old age he went bankrupt and fled to Russia. But along the way, the man died of cold, and his body was eaten by lice.
Louis 14 died of gangrene
The King of France gave the diamond to his best jewelers for cutting. The stone was given the shape of a triangle and called the “Blue Eye of the King.” Louis 14 liked the diamond, but the jewel played a cruel joke on him too. While hunting, he fell from his horse and injured his leg. The injury triggered the appearance of gangrene. The man suffered from agony for several days and eventually died, leaving no direct legal heirs to the throne.
Marie Antoinette went under the guillotine
Louis 15 kept the stone locked in a box, but his son did not believe the legend and gave the jewel to his wife Marie Antoinette. The latter, as you know, ended her life tragically - she climbed the scaffold and lay under the guillotine. But the stone also took its toll on the Princess of Lamballe. Marie Antoinette gave her a diamond to wear and she was brutally killed by the crowd.
Lord Hope went broke
After the tragic incidents in France, the stone could not be found for a long time. It was discovered only at the beginning of the 18th century in England. Then, in the 30s, local banker Henry Hope purchased it from King George 4 of Great Britain for his collection. Some time later, the owner of the diamond died of an unknown disease, and his son was found poisoned. Henry Hope's grandson sold the stone to Lord Francis Hope, who subsequently went bankrupt.
Abdul Hamid 2 was dethroned
The next owner of the blue diamond was the Sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Abdul Hamid II. In 1905, an assassination attempt was organized on him, and later he was overthrown from the throne and sent into exile in the vicinity of Thessaloniki along with his wives and children.
Evelyn Walsh-McLean lost her children
In 1910, the stone came to Pierre Cartier. He gave the diamond a pear-shaped cut and sold it to the wealthy McLean family. The millionaire's wife fell in love with the jewel so much that she did not part with it even for a day. She gave a stone to her son so that he would gnaw on it when he was cutting his teeth. She decorated the dog’s collar with it and even arranged a game of hide and seek for the stone - “Find Hope.” After all, it is “hope” that translates the name of the Hope Diamond from English. Evelyn hid the decoration, and the guests looked for it.
The fate of the last owners of the stone was no less sad than that of the others. Their son was run over by a car, their daughter took too much sleeping pills and never woke up. Evelyn's husband began to abuse alcohol and lost his mind. The diamond itself went to debt to jeweler Harry Winston, who in 1958 donated it to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
Since then, the diamond has not belonged to anyone and is located in the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution. In 2010, it was modified again and a scattering of diamonds was added around. He seems to be harming no one now.
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"Blue Frenchman": further fate
However, this gift to the king's beloved did not contribute to their romance. The relationship suddenly went wrong. Soon the Sun King, who loved ballroom dancing, injured his leg on a rusty nail during classes, blood poisoning began and the monarch died.
A terrible plague epidemic hit France, for which church ministers blamed the royal diamond, which carried the curse of the Indian priests. Tavernier, who delivered it, was torn to pieces by a pack of stray dogs. And the magnificent diamond, which became one of the treasures of the French crown, was called the “Blue Frenchman”. But some even then began to call him the “Blue Devil.”
By inheritance, the “blue diamond of the crown” passed to Louis XV, followed by Louis XVI. The latter gave a magnificent diamond to his wife Marie Antoinette, whom he adored. Out of friendly feelings, the beautiful queen gave a blue stone to Princess Lamballe to wear. Both of them ended their lives tragically. Marie Antoinette was publicly executed by guillotine by the Parisians who rebelled against the monarchy, Lamballe was brutally murdered. Louis XVI himself was executed.
The “blue” Frenchman disappeared in the whirlpool of the Great French Revolution in 1792. Most likely, it was stolen from the royal treasury.
Diamond Hope
When the kings are deposed, the bankers rule the roost. It is not surprising that in 1839 the next owner of the stone was the aristocratic banker, the British Henry Hope. From that moment on, the diamond began to be known throughout the world as the Hope Diamond.
True, the handsome diamond had noticeably “lost weight” by that time: its weight was already 45.52 carats. Most likely, after the theft, the former French Blue was recut in Amsterdam.
The new owner was extremely proud of the treasure and showed it off at every opportunity. As a result, Henry Hope died of an unknown illness, his son died at the hands of rival poisoners. The grandson, who suffered ruin and poverty, was also unlucky.
From the Hope family, the Nadezhda diamond comes to the East. It was bought by a wealthy Turkish collector, who soon died in a stormy sea. Next, the diamond turns out to be the property of the Turkish Sultan Abdul Hamid II and flaunts on the chest of his beloved concubine, but again for a very short time. The beauty was killed, and the Sultan was deposed and died in prison.
In the further history of the stone, there is a certain Russian prince named Kandovitsky, who gave the jewel to the famous dancer Ledoux. Apparently, the flighty Parisian woman gave rise to jealousy and was killed by the prince. He survived her very briefly, falling at the hands of a killer hired by the dancer’s relatives.
Probably, the bohemian environment “disliked” the stone, and at the end of the 19th century it returned to the bosom of the Hope family, or rather, its direct heirs. We are talking about the Earls of Lincoln from America. However, Pelham-Clinton-Hope - that was the name of the last owner of the diamond from the Hope family - was soon ruined. His wife, without thinking twice, ran away from impending poverty to the son of the New York mayor. The unfortunate lord had only one thing left to do: sell the stone.
Then the owners of the ill-fated diamond changed one after another. The sinking of the Titanic is associated with it. It was carried by a married couple who at the time owned the Hope Diamond. Both spouses died in the plane crash.
The founder of the global brand Cartier, Pierre Cartier, played a major role in the further fate of the legendary diamond. It was he who opened the company's first store in New York on Fifth Avenue in 1909. Wealthy Americans very quickly fell in love with the Cartier brand, whose products had style and chic.
Pierre Cartier appreciated the potential of the Hope Diamond and purchased it for an unheard of high price - 550,000 francs. He decided that the diamond would look better in a necklace. The jeweler gave it a new cushion cut and emphasized the blue color of the stone with a frame of sixteen white diamonds.
Pierre Cartier was not only a talented jeweler, but also a pragmatic businessman. Having rightly considered that additional advertising would not hurt, he skillfully “stuffed information” about the mystical halo of the diamond. All that was left was to wait for the big fish to bite.
Evelyn McLean - owned the cursed Hope Diamond
Evelyn Walsh McLean (1886-1947) - American millionaire, one of the last owners of the famous Hope Diamond (a large diamond weighing 45.52 carats). Perhaps the most famous of the New World diamonds. According to legend, this ancient Indian diamond is cursed and brings misfortune to all its owners. In addition, Evelyn’s equally high-profile acquisition was the magnificent 94.85-carat pear-shaped “Star of the East” diamond.
“Diamonds are my true friends,” said the extravagant American millionaire Evelyn McLean, decorating herself before going to the next reception with sparkling necklaces and six bracelets sprinkled with diamonds (which required the presence of fifteen security guards). Among her diamonds was “Hope” - huge in size and completely unique in color: sky blue, shimmering in every imaginable shade. Three hundred years ago, the stone was stolen from a temple in India, where it served as the eye of a statue of one of the goddesses, and soon became famous for bringing... misfortune to anyone who possessed it.
The thief knew nothing about the curse hanging over the stone, and nothing is known about its fate. But the French merchant Baptiste Tavernier, who bought this diamond and then sold it to King Louis XIV, was torn to pieces by wild dogs.
The Sun King himself, the embodiment of love of life and health, while dancing, injured his leg (so, a mere trifle) and died of gangrene. Louis XVI, who inherited the stone, naturally wanted such a magnificent diamond to adorn the swan neck of his wife, Marie Antoinette. We all know what a tragic fate befell this royal couple.
In 1772, the jewelry of the executed monarchs was stolen in the turmoil of revolutionary events, “as it should be.” And the blue diamond, having changed several unknown hands, ended up in the possession of Henry Hope, a British financier who soon died of some suspicious illness. His heir, Francis Hope, hastened to get rid of the stone and used the proceeds to pay off his debts.
Already in the last century, the diamond, which took the name “Hope” as if in mockery, was bought by a Turkish collector who, by the way, did not admire this miracle of nature for long, as he died on a ship during a storm. However, the stone, as expected, survived and soon “surfaced” in the harem of the Turkish Sultan, where Evelyn McLean, who became the penultimate owner of the wonderful diamond, saw it for the first time. This is what we will talk about.
Her father, Thomas Walsh, arrived in the United States in 1869 in the muddy stream of many thousands of peasants who fled from Ireland to the New World from famine. He was 19 years old. Not a single coin was lost in the pockets of his torn jacket, and all he could rely on was himself and his pair of hands, which were not afraid of any work. And in America in those years the “gold rush” was raging. Deciding that he was no worse than others, the young Irishman risked trying his luck. Twenty years of backbreaking work and persistent search were crowned with success. Walsh married a schoolteacher, and in 1886 the couple had a daughter, Evelyn, and two years later a son, Vinson. The gold mines brought in more than five thousand dollars a day. The family moved to Washington, where lively journalists dubbed Walsh “Monte Cristo from Colorado,” and lived the life of the newly rich: balls, trips to Europe, construction of luxurious mansions...
The Walsh children grew up in indescribable luxury, in the confidence that the whole world belonged to them, and nothing was prohibited for them. But were they wrong? My father was on friendly terms with the President of the United States. King Leopold II of Belgium considered Walsh his loyal friend. And only one thing was missing in the life of Evelyn and her brother - real upbringing and serious education.
Life flowed with endless pleasure. But, alas, nothing good lasts forever. In 1905, Evelyn and Vinson, while driving around Newport, were involved in an accident. The new Mercedes, driven by a driver, fell off the bridge. Vinson died, Evelyn, who had been in the hospital for several months, agreed to marry Edward Bill McLean, a scion of an equally wealthy family. Like his bride, he was completely unsuited to life or to any business. Plus, he was a complete alcoholic. His grandfather owned two newspapers and dreamed of integrating his grandson into the family publishing business. But nothing came of this idea.
However, was this really necessary? Both families paid the newlyweds 100 thousand dollars for their honeymoon (this was in those days!), and they went on a trip around the world. Their path lay to the Middle East and Turkey, where the young Americans were received by the Turkish Sultan in his palace. Let's give the floor to Evelyn McLean, who spoke with American journalist Boyden Sparks.
“We arrived in Constantinople in those days when the Young Turks were once again trying to overthrow the Sultan. There was deafening gunfire in the streets. But the Sultan, as if nothing had happened, invited us to his palace for a cup of coffee. He had a long beard, dyed red, and on his head was a red fez embroidered with emeralds. The coffee cups were decorated with the finest gold filigree, studded with precious stones. I thought, “There are so many of these amazing cups on the table. Well, what happens if I slowly take one of them and hide it in my muff?” I did so. And then my eyes met the eyes of a huge black security guard. He stood behind the Sultan's chair and kept looking at me. I got scared and took the cup out of the muff. Then we were taken to the harem - a large building with many rooms. Women sat and lay on magnificent couches. Maybe several dozen. Beautiful... But they were all terribly fat - 200, 300 and even 400 pounds - and they ate sweets. In one of the rooms we saw a very young woman. We were told that this was the Sultan's new wife. And she was wearing the Hope Diamond. Then this famous diamond did not make any impression on me.”
The real meeting with “Hope” took place a few years later in Paris with the jeweler Pierre Cartier, who was beginning to rise to fame. He showed Evelyn the stone and frankly said that the diamond brings bad luck. But Evelyn was so fascinated by “Hope” that she could not refuse it. For “Hope”, framed with smaller diamonds, the jeweler asked only (?!) 187 thousand dollars. A fabulous sum in those years. But what can you do if you really want to?..
The first thing the new owner of the stone did was take it to the Catholic cathedral to remove the curse from it. Monsignor Russell agreed to carry out this unusual procedure. As Evelyn later said, it was a wonderful summer day. Not a single cloud in the blue sky, not the slightest breeze. But as soon as the monsignor took “Hope” in his hands, everything around went dark, and lightning that came from out of nowhere split the tree standing by the window in half. When Evelyn left the cathedral, the sun was shining in the sky again.
Apparently, the manipulations of the Catholic priest had no effect on the cruel nature of the stone from the Indian temple. His next victim was his beloved mother-in-law, a fierce opponent of the purchase of Hope, who insisted that her daughter-in-law return the diamond to the jeweler. She sneezed twice, coughed twice and... died. As it turned out, from lobar pneumonia.
Having grieved for his wife, his father-in-law, who was over 60, suddenly suggested that Evelyn divorce his son and marry him: then after his death she would inherit the entire fortune. To Edward, this spender and drunkard, he still does not bequeath anything. Evelyn refused, citing the fact that she was “somehow married.” Soon the father-in-law followed his wife, and McLean Jr. did not receive any of the seven million dollars due to him.
If we consider all this to be the tricks of a ruthless diamond, then we must admit that these were mere trifles compared to what happened next.
The McLeans had their first child, who was named Vinson in memory of Evelyn's deceased brother. On a quiet street in Palm Beach, Florida, right next to the gates of an estate, a four-year-old child was hit by a car moving at a speed of... seven miles per hour. The boy got up and walked home on his own. Nothing was broken, nothing hurt. And in the evening the baby died from internal hemorrhage.
Evelyn and Edward had three more children - two sons and a daughter, but the mother did not show much (it would be more correct to say, no) interest in them. All life was concentrated around techniques and “parties” that went on in an endless series. The family became famous for their grandeur. On the least crowded evenings there were 200-300 guests. And there were “parties” where up to a thousand people showed up. Orchestras played in three guest rooms, and Hungarian gypsies walked between the tables with sobbing violins. The McLeans spent the winter in Palm Beach, the summer in Newport, and the spring and fall in Washington. Friends, balls, derbies...
In 1916, this “monotony” of the couple’s life was broken by the acquaintance and sudden spiritual friendship with the new senator Warren Harding and his wife Florence, who arrived in Washington from Ohio, where Harding, before being elected to the Senate, was the publisher of the Marion News newspaper. Imposing, with refined manners, Harding made a charming impression, especially on the ladies (who, as always and everywhere, make the difference in big-time politics). In 1920, Harding was nominated as the Republican presidential candidate and won the election. Evelyn and Edward provided their new friend with a wide variety of (sometimes very expensive) services. They, as Evelyn later claimed, helped him during the election campaign to reliably hide two (!) permanent mistresses from nimble journalists, with one of whom he had an illegitimate child.
When Harding became president, Ed gave him his house, located behind the McLean mansion. “Little White House,” as the president’s friends jokingly dubbed it. There, Harding could meet his lovers in an extremely comfortable atmosphere, play poker with friends, and drink a glass or two of alcohol, which was a forbidden pleasure, because the country was ruled by “prohibition.”
But one day an extremely unpleasant incident took place in this house. The President and his close friends organized a sabantuy party with the participation of a certain girl of not very strict morals. Having pretty much accepted, Mr. President and his comrades (just like Russian merchants) began to throw bottles at the walls covered with mirrors. Several bottles hit the girl, and she had to be sent to the hospital, where she died from loss of blood. The scandal had to be hushed up urgently. But the girl had a brother who began to threaten President Harding with not very pleasant revelations. And then the guy, who did not calculate the balance of forces, was locked up in a psychiatric hospital. It is unknown how this presidency would have ended, but in 1923 Harding died suddenly...
And misfortunes fell on Evelyn as if from a cornucopia. The Macleans' extravagant spending habits undermined even their enormous fortune. True, Evelyn also had good deeds. She, for example, spent a lot of money trying to find Lindbergh's kidnapped son. During World War II, she donated her home in Washington to the Red Cross. But overall, her senseless spending bore fruit.
A couple of estates and several paintings had to be sold. Edward drank continuously. Once, being invited to a reception at the White House, in front of everyone he went to the fireplace and allowed himself something, while soaking the foot of the English ambassador. Evelyn could no longer bear her husband's outrages and left him. He immediately started a romance (who could be tempted?) and demanded a divorce. Evelyn said a decisive “no” and put her husband in an insane asylum, where he died in 1937. Following him, his daughter went to another world, having taken sleeping pills.
With invincible stubbornness, Evelyn continued to put on “Hope” every morning, and therefore received permission to carry weapons. So, never recovering from the death of her daughter, she died in 1947.
The sons sold the diamond to jeweler Harry Winston for $176,000. And he donated the stone to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington.
Moreover, the messenger who delivered the ill-fated stone soon fell under a truck (!), but did not die, but escaped with a serious head injury. However, his house soon burned down, and his wife and dog died in the fire. When this became known, letters poured in to the institute. Their authors demanded that the stone be disposed of, since it could cause harm to its new owner, who became... the United States... The demand was ignored.
Source: www.chayka.org
Number 12 (23), Victims of the Hope Diamond
Author: Lyudmila Kafanova
Evelyn McLean mascot
The new owner of the stone was Evelyn McLean, who adored diamonds. The blue stone of “royal blood” sank into her heart and she made it her talisman. The sinister history of the diamond both attracted and frightened Hope. Having made the purchase, she still blessed the necklace in the church.
But that didn't stop her from becoming obsessed with the diamond's magnetism. In numerous photographs, Evelyn is invariably captured with the Nadezhda diamond around her neck. Soon, things began to go wrong in the millionaire’s family. The husband died in a mental hospital, the young son was killed by a car, and the daughter committed suicide. The death of her daughter was the final blow for Evelyn herself.
