Just back from Washington. Always fun to see the #hopediamond @smithsonian. Was briefly in my family a few generations back when Pierre Cartier bought it and had it reset into a necklace that delighted Evalyn Walsh McLean. One of those stories I researched for my book where reality seemed more like fiction…involving this enormous supposedly cursed blue diamond with a notorious past, the unusual sales techniques Pierre had to employ to sell the necklace, a Great Dane dog who wore it around its neck, a lawsuit that was terrible for Cartier and a tale of dramatic lightening marking the moment when the stone was blessed in church.
As always, wonderful to see it close up, as well as so many other glorious jewels in the @smithsoniannmnh
