Regent Diamond: Difference between revisions

{{Short description|Diamond140.64-carat (28.128 g) diamond owned by the French state}}

| country = {{flag|[[India}}]]

The '''Regent Diamond''' is a {{convert|140.64|carat|g|adj=on}} [[diamond]] owned by the French state and on display in the [[Louvre]], worth £48,000,000 {{asofas of|2015|lc=y}} £48,000,000. It isMined widelyin consideredIndia theand mostcut beautifulin andLondon, theit purestwas diamondpurchased inby the world.<ref[[Régence|regent name="Louvre">{{citeof web|title=Diamond,France]] known asin the "Regent"|url=http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/diamond-known-regent|publisher=Louvreearly Museum|access-date=518th April 2018|language=en}}</ref>century.

In a letter to his London agent dated 6{{nbsp}}November 1701, [[Thomas Pitt]], the Governor of [[Fort St. George, India|Fort St. George]], writes:<{{blockquote>|"... This accompanies the model of a Stone I have lately seene; it weighs [[wikt:mangelin|Mang.]] 303 and [[carat (mass)|carr^tts]] 426. It is of an excellent christaline water without any fowles, only att{sic} one end in the flat part there is one or two little flaws which will come out in cutting, they lying on the surface of the Stone, the price they ask for it is prodigious being two hundred thousand [[pagoda (coin)|pag.]] tho I believe less than one (hundred thousand) would buy it"{{sfn|Hedges|1889|page=cxxvi}}</blockquote>}}

Pitt claimed he acquired the diamond from the eminent Indian diamond merchant JamchundJamchand for 48,000 [[pagoda (coin)|pagodas]]{{sfn|Hedges|1889|page=cxxxviii}} in the same year, so it is sometimes also known as the '''Pitt Diamond'''.<ref>Brown p.15</ref><ref>Shipley, Robert M. (1946) ''Diamond Glossary'', pp.&nbsp; 315 (PDF page 23) [[Gemological Institute of America]], USA, Vol. 5, No. 5 (Spring 1946)</ref> He dispatched the stone to London hidden in the heel of his son [[Robert Pitt|Robert]]'s shoe<ref>{{cite book|author=Edward Pearce|title=Pitt the Elder: Man of War|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XfImNwMXDdoC&pg=PA6|year=2010|publisher=Random House|isbn=978-1-4090-8908-7|page=6}}</ref> aboard the [[East Indiaman]] ''Loyal Cooke'', which left [[Madras]] on 9{{nbsp}}October 1702.{{sfn|Hedges|1889|page=cxxvi}} It was later cut in London by the diamond cutter Harris, between 1704 and 1706. The cutting took two years and cost about £5,000<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.internetstones.com/regent-diamond-famous-jewelry.html|title=Regent Diamond|publisher=Internet Stones.COM}}</ref>

Rumours circulated that Pitt had fraudulently acquired the diamond,{{sfn|Hedges|1889|page=cxxxv}}<ref>{{cite book|first=Colin|last=Nicholson|title=Writing and the Rise of Finance: Capital Satires of the Early Eighteenth Century|url=https://archive.org/details/writingriseoffin0000nich|url-access=registration|year=1994|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0-521-45323-3|page=[https://archive.org/details/writingriseoffin0000nich/page/149 149]}}</ref> leading satirist [[Alexander Pope]] to pen the following lines in his ''[[Moral Essays]]''<{{blockquote>|

So kept the diamond, and the rogue was bit."</blockquote>}}

After many attempts to sell it to various Membersmembers of European royalty, including [[Louis XIV]] of France, it was purchased for the French Crown by the French [[Regent]], [[Philippe II, Duke of Orléans]], in 1717 for £135,000 ({{Inflation|UK|135000|1717|r=-4|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}),{{Inflation-fn|UK}} at the urging of his close friend and famed memoirist [[Louis de Rouvroy, duc de Saint-Simon]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r0pAAAAAYAAJ|title=Memoirs of the Duc de Saint-Simon on the Times of Louis XIV, and the Regency|first=Louis de Rouvroy duc de|last=Saint-Simon|date=1 January 1899|publisher=Hardy, Pratt|via=Google Books}}</ref> The stone was set into the crown of [[Louis XV]] for his [[Coronation of Louis XV|coronation in 1722]] and then into a new crown for the coronation[[Coronation of [[Louis XVI]] in 1775. It was also used to adorn a hat belonging to [[Marie Antoinette]]. In 1791, its appraised value was £480,000 ({{Inflation|UK|480000|1791|r=-4|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}).{{Inflation-fn|UK}}.

In 1792, during the revolutionary furore in [[Paris]], "Le Régent", or the regent diamond, was stolen along with other [[French Crown Jewels|crown jewels of France]], but was later recovered. It was found in some roof timbers in an attic in Paris. The diamond was used as security or collateral on several occasions by the [[Directoire]] and later the [[Consulat]] to finance the military expenses: 1797-1798 it was pledged to the Berlin Entrepreneur [[Sigmund Otto Joseph von Treskow]] and 1798-18011798–1801 to the Dutch Banker Vandenberg in Amsterdam. In 1801 the gem was permanently redeemed by [[Napoleon I|Napoleon Bonaparte]].

[[File:Charles X of France by François Pascal Simon Gérard.jpg|left|thumb|upright=1.22|Portrait of [[Charles X of France|Charles X]] by [[François Gérard]]. Note the Regent Diamond set in the [[Fleur-de-lis]] at the top of the crown at left.]]

Napoleon used it for the guard of his sword, designed by the goldsmiths Odiot, Boutet and [[Marie-Etienne Nitot]]. In 1812 it appeared on the Emperor's two-edged sword, which was a work of Nitot. Napoleon's second wife, [[Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria]], carried the Régent back to the [[AustriaAustrian Empire]] upon his exile. Later her father returned it to the [[French Crown Jewels]]. The diamond was mounted successively on the crowns of [[Louis XVIII]], [[Charles X of France|Charles X]] and [[Napoleon III]].

Today, mounted in a Greek diadem designed for [[Empress Eugenie]], it remains in the French Royal Treasury at the [[Louvre]]. It has been on display there since 1887. Experts in the early21st century have estimated the Regent Diamond value to be near £48,000,000. At the current 2016 exchange rate of $1.28 USD / £1, the Regent Diamond value is estimated at $61,440,000 USD.<ref>{{cite web|title=The Regent Diamond|url=https://www.worthy.com/famous-diamonds/the-regent-diamond|publisher=Worthy.com|access-date=21 April 2015}}</ref>

[[Category:Objets1701 d'artestablishments ofin the LouvreIndia]]