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The Hope Diamond, the biggest blue diamond ever found, was formed over a billion years ago in southern India. Variously described as the colour of the sky just before night, the ocean at its deepest and the hour before dawn, its discovery and history have become shrouded in interweaving layers of legend and for many years it is thought to have adorned a divine statue of a Hindu deity. But it has changed ownership many times since the French merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier first procured it. From its early mystical setting it passed into the political and material world of the court of the Sun King, Louis XIV of France, and there it stayed until the French Revolution brought an end to that monarchy.
Softcover. English. Pocket. 2004. ISBN: 9780743450829. 396 pp. Good. Book No: 2504559
