THE BLUE HOPE DIAMOND

Otago Witness, Issue 2923, 23 March 1910, Page 29

THE BLUE HOPE DIAMOND

SUPPOSED LOSS AT SINGAPORE. NEW YORK, March 18. The Herald's Singapore correspondent states that a diver explored the wreck of the French steamer Seyne, expecting to find the famous Blue Hope diamond, which it was believed Habib, a diamond merchant, who was drowned, had on board with him. ■> The diver recovered the ship's safe, but it did not contain the diamond. A TRAGIC STORY. In November a telegram was received in Pari; stating- that Senov Habib, the wealthy Spaniard who owned the famous blue Hope diamond, was among the passengers drowned in the wreck of the French mail steamer Seyne at Singapore. Senor Habib's death (says the adds another tragedy to the long list of misfortunes associated wi'.h the ownership of this historic gem. Since - the so-called' Hope diamond was first brought from the East bv Jean Baptiste Tavernier, the great traveller, in 1688, it has brought misfortune to many neople. Tavernier sold the gem to Louis XIV, with 24. other large diamonds, but his association with the diamond marked a tuin for the worse in his fortunes. Taverniet's son involved him in unfortunate speculations, and at the age of 81 the ciscoverer of- the ■ Hope diamond sold his estate to pay his debts, and started on a fresh 'voyage to the East. He died of fever before his return. Mme. de Montespa:! was the iavourite of Louis XIV when the Hope ■ diamond became part of the Grown -jewels : of France. , The King acceded to her . entreaties .to be'' alio wed td : wear the stone, but her influence declined from about this time. Fouquet, the famous financier, borrowed the diamond iov one of his costly fetes. Soon afterwards he lost the royal favour and was imprisoned. During the regency thediamond remained with the rest of the

regalia. After Marie Antoinette became Queen of France she heard of this wonderful stone and wore it at a ball at the Tuileries. She perished on the scaffold, while the Princess de Lamballe, who likewise wore the diamond occasionally, was killed by a mob. After the Revolution the diamond disappeared for 40 years. An Amsterdam diamond cutter named Fals is said to have been commissioned to cut the gem, and it was stolen from him by his son, who 'afterwards committed suicide, while the unhappy diamond cutter was ruined for life. The younger Fals is said to have given the diamond to a Frenchman named Beaulieu, who took it to London. He was in a state of destitution, and offered it for sale to a dealer named Daniel Eliason. The latter paid the price asked, and the next day Beaulieu died of starvation. Eliason sold the diamond to Henry Thomas Hope, whose name was thereafter associated with it. The stone became part of the entailed property of Lord Francis Hope, Mrs Hope's grandson. He obtained permission to sell the diamond and it was sold to Mr Weil, a London diamond merchant, in 1901. Mr Weil sold it almost immediately to Simon Frankel, a New York dealer, who became involved in financial difficulties. More than a yea* ago it passed into the possession of M. Colot, a French dealer, who sold it to Prince Kanitovski, a Russian, He lent it to Lorens Ladue an actress at the Folies Bergere, and shot her from a box the first night she wore it. The prince proved the diamond to be his property, took possession of it. and. two days later was killed by revolutionaries. The dealer Colot became insane and committed suicide a few days afterwards. Then this sinister stone came into the possession of Simon Montharides. a Greek jeweller who was afterwards thrown over a precipice, with his wife and two children, all of them being killed. "Abdul Hamid, the ex-Sultan of Turkey, is said to have been the next owner of the Hope diamond. He gave it to Abu Sabir, an expert in gems, to be polished and mounted, and the jeweller was afterwards thrown into prison. The diamond was kept in a .ault at Yildiz Kiosk and the keeper of this vault was found strangled at his post. Kulub Bey. the eunuch, who was entrusted with the stone for a time, was one of the reactionaries hanged in the streets of Constantinople. Senor Habib, whose tragic death has just occurred at Singapore, was the next owner of the diamond, having paid £BO,OOO for it. He sold it at auction c:n June 24last, but the stone only fetched £16,000, and the transaction was afterwards annulled.