THE HOPE DIAMOND

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 77, 28 September 1938, Page 18

THE HOPE DIAMOND

SUPERSTITION PERSISTS

(From "The Post's" Representative.)

LONDON, September 1

When May Yohe, ex-actress, died at the weekend, newspapers all over the world recalled that "she wore the Hope diamond." The Duke of Newcasttle, who or.cc owned the diamond, told, the "News Chronicle" that he never had any qualms about ill-luck when he had it. ■ ■: \ "As far as I know no ill-luck came to my family^. Superstitious, people may believe*tlle^te^y of the curse,-" Certain people do believe in superstition. Ido not, and there you are. "The stone was a French Crown jewel before the "Revolution. , It disappeared, and then it turned up agaia with the Hopes of Amsterdam, who were bankers. My grandmother, a Hope, left it to me, and I sold it at the beginning of this century. It oval, roughly the size of a golf ball. Its colour was a curious slate blue, and it was set in a brooch. My.grandmother lent it to my mother at different times to wear at State functions, but during the whole of the time I had it it never left the safe at the bank." .

The duke was the first husband of Miss May Yohe. She attributed many of her troubles to the diamond.. It has been said she had worn it on the stage, but "Nobody wore it while I had it," said the duke. "It was unsuitable for wear."