Camels, Courts and Financing the French Blue Diamond: Tavernier's Sixth Voyage (original) (raw)

The Journal of Gemmology, 2017

Abstract

The memoirs of the French gem merchant and traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605–1689) are well known and shed much light on the European gem trade with India during the 17th century. A surviving factum (a submitted summary of a legal case) provides some supplementary information, as it details a claim made by Tavernier against the children and heirs of Parisian jeweller Daniel Chardin following his sixth trip to the East. We learn something of Tavernier’s practical problems regarding extortionate Ottoman customs-duty demands and how he financed his trade. The diamonds he purchased in India were bought and sold by him on behalf of a syndicate of French merchants and investors, all of whom received a share of the profits. The royal goldsmith Jean Pitan (or Pitau), who received a brokerage fee for their sale, was a close relative by marriage to Tavernier. One of the stones brought back to France by Tavernier on this sixth and final voyage was a large blue diamond of slightly over 115 metric carats, which he sold to King Louis XIV in 1669. It was recut in 1673 as ‘the blue diamond of the crown’ or French Blue, and ultimately became what we know as the Hope Diamond in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington DC, USA. A letter dated early 1668 between British diplomats in the region provides a tantalizing hint that Tavernier might have purchased this large blue diamond in Isfahan, Persia, for the equivalent then of £7,000, and also sheds some light on Tavernier’s competitor, David Bazu.

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