This precious jewel has quite the thrilling history!

After traveling to India Jean Baptiste Tavernier sold King Louis XIV of France this incomparable 20 carat pale pink-orange diamond.

The diamond was named a few hundred years later after Hortense de Beauharnais, Queen of Holland. She was the daughter of Empress Josephine, who was the step-daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte and mother of Napoleon III.

The breathtaking Hortensia Diamond first appeared in the history books in 1691. It was then that inventory logs of the Crown Jewels of France identified it as the third of nineteen floral buttonholes. It has a significant crack reaching from the girdle all the way to the culet.

During the French Revolution in September of 1792, the diamond was stolen or lost along with the rest of Marie Antoinette’s collection.  A man confessed to the secret location of the gem while on the chopping block facing execution.  One year after a man confessed to it’s secret location when facing execution, the diamond was found. They were discovered deep in an attic in a Paris home among other notable diamonds including the Regent Diamond.

Introduced again in France during the First Empire it was fastened to Napoleon’s epaulette braid.  In 1856, it was set in the center of the headband of the staggering diamond-encrusted comb fashioned for Empress Eugenie by the French court jeweler, Bapst.

The Hortensia Diamond was not included when the French Crown Jewels were sold in 1887 due to it’s artistic, historic value and significance. This wondrous piece is now preserved in the collection kept in the Apollo Gallery collection kept in the Louvre.

Check back here tomorrow for our HIGH GRADE GEM ORE BAGS sale!!

Images and information courtesy of Famous Diamonds by Ian Balfour and Diamond Cuts in Historic Jewelry 1381 – 1910 by Herbert Tillander.