By Susanne Steinem Patch
Smithsonian Institution Press
1976 ISBN 0-87474-165-3
Susanne Steinem Patch writes:
Minerals, particularly those rare and beautiful enough to be gems, have been my lifelong interest. When I was director of an educational diamond exhibit I became familiar with the stories of all the famous diamonds and found that of the Hope most fascinating because of the mystery surrounding its origin. A desire to dispel that mystery started me on my research, and the many inconsistencies in the diamond’s history spurred me on. How, for example, could one of its owners, the actress May Yohe, be pictured in a newspaper clipping supposedly wearing the Hope diamond in the mounting that was made for its subsequent owner, Evalyn Walsh Mclean?
An exciting moment in my research came when, through great good luck, I uncovered two original sketches of the Hope diamond made in 1812. These drawings document the diamond’s existence in its present form eighteen years earlier than the 1830 date usually given for its first appearance.
Just as this book was going to press, museum authorities permitted the Hope diamond to be removed from its mounting and weighed. It was found that the diamond weighs 45.52 carats (in modern metric carats). This is discussed further on page 62. The most exciting moment of all for me occurred when, placing the Hope diamond upside down on a slip of white paper, I—like the lapidary in 1812—traced (it) round the diamond with a pencil and discovered that the outline I had drawn, complete with one flattened side, was identical to the earlier drawing.
Many questions will remain unanswered; perhaps the Hope diamond, like the complex and powerful people who have been driven to possess it, can never be completely known. But if any reader has additional information to contribute about the tantalizing gaps in this diamond’s history, please write to me in care of the Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, D.C. 20560
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