Jillian went to the Smithsonian Institution on a field trip for school. As the students were walking through, something beautiful caught Jillian's eye, the Hope Diamond. She fell in love with the blue color and the shape of the diamond and became interested in its past. She did not want to leave the soothing background music, as she admired the diamond. The time came when she had to leave. Reluctantly she left. After telling all her friends about the Hope Diamond, she went on the Internet and looked it up. What she found was very interesting. She found out that the Hope Diamond had a great deal of historical significance and has had a long history, has been resized reshaped, stolen and lost.
The beginning of the Hope Diamond's discovery was hundreds of years ago in a mine. By the time it was famous, it was already sold to a king. According to the Smithsonian Institution's website, www.si.edu/resource/faq/nmnh/hope.htm, " A French merchant, Jean Baptist Tavernier, purchased a 112 carat diamond, which came from the Kollur mine in Golconda, India. The diamond was somewhat triangular in shape and crudely cut". Jean Baptist Tavernier sold this rare diamond to King Louis XIV along with other smaller diamonds, in the year 1668. According to Miriam Fowler, the author of Adventures of a Diamond, "In 1673 the stone was recut by Sir Pitau, the court jeweler, resulting in a 67 carat- stone. In royal inventories, its color was described as an intense steely - blue and the stone became known as the "French Blue" or "Blue Diamond of the Crown". .
It was then set in gold and suspended on a neck ribbon which the king wore on ceremonial occasions"(58).
