The Tavernier Blue was the precursor diamond to the Blue Diamond of the French Crown (aka the French Blue). Subsequently, most scholars and historians believed that it was re-cut and, after a disappearance and reemergence into the public forum, was renamed the Hope Diamond.[1][2]
In December 2007, the French mineralogy professor François Farges [fr] found in the reserves of the Muséum national d'histoire naturelle the lead model of the Tavernier Blue. This model came around 1850, and was given by the Parisian jeweller Charles Achard, who explained that Henry Philip Hope was the owner of the original stone. Moreover, the size of the model definitively proved that the Tavernier Blue was bigger that the Hope. This latest pieces of evidence proved that the widely held suspicions about the origin of the Hope Diamond were correct.
- ^ T. Edgar Willson (February 7, 1911). "Editor Jewelers' Circular Writes of the Stories of Misfortunes". The New York Times. Retrieved July 9, 2011.
..as far as he can learn, the authentic history of this gem goes back only to 1830...
- ^ Agence France-Presse (November 18, 2008). "U.S. has Sun King's stolen gem, say French experts". Canada.com. Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved July 9, 2011.
...new evidence unearthed in France's National Museum of Natural History shows beyond reasonable doubt that the Hope Diamond is the same steely-blue stone once sported by the Sun King...