THE HOPE DIAMOND.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XXXIII, Issue 973, 30 March 1911, Page 4

THE HOPE DIAMOND.

Mr Edward M‘Lean, of Washington, has purchased the famous Hope diamond for ,£60,000 for his wife, who was formerly Evelyn Walsh. She is a daughter of the late Thomas F. Walsh, a mining millionaire.

The Hope diamond has a history among gems, unrivalled in tragedy. Murder, suicide, and insanity have all been associated with its possession. It was brought from the East by the great French traveller, Tavernier, who sold it to Louis XIV. on his return to France. Tavernier’s son by his speculations overwhelmed his father with debts, and compelled him, when over So. to start again for the East, where he died of fever. Fouquet, the famous Minister of Louis XIV., borrowed it and came to disaster. It was given later to Made Antoinette, who died on the scaffold. Her friend, the Priucesse de Lamballa, who occasionally borrowed it, was torn to pieces by a Paris mob. Later, it is said, the diamond was entrusted to a Amsterdam diamond-cutter, whose sou stole the gem and afterwards committed suicide. The man to whom he gave the diamond reached Loudon destitute, sold the diamond to a dealer named Eliason, and died of starvation the next day. It is certain that Mr Henry Thomas Hope (from whom the diamond is named) bought the diamond about the year 1830 for £IB,OOO. and it is remarkable that he owned it with impunity. Mrs Hope’s grandson, Lord Henry Francis Hope, sold the diamond in 1901, and it passed into the hands of Mr Weil, the Loudon diamond merchant, who immediately sold it to a New York jeweller. Then a fresh crop of disasters followed. The jeweller would not sell it, and fell into financial difficulties. In 1908 it was sold to a French broker for £60,000, and passed on to a Russian Prince, who lent if to a beautiful actress. He shot her from a box the first night she wore it, and was himself assassinated by revolutionists immediately afterwards. The broker went mad, and killed himself within a few days of these horrors.

The next owner, a Greek, is said to have met a violent death with his wife and two children. But he found time to sell it to the ex-Sultan of Turkey, Abdul Hamid, who very soon lost his throne, and those who came into contact with the gem suffered tragic deaths. In 1908 the diamond was purchased by Mr Habib tor £BO,OOO. It was sold again in June, 1909, for £16,000 to M. Rosenau in Paris, and then sold by him to an American.