It’s called Hope (Hope in English) and there are those who hope to get hold. The large gem is octagonal cutting, weighing 50.13 carats, set into jaws with round-cut diamonds. It is mounted in silver and gold, and it can be a brooch, a pendant, part of a larger jewel. Surely, however, this gem put on auction by Bonhams (September 24) it has a long history behind it. It is named after Henry Philip Hope (1774-1839), scion of a wealthy family of Anglo-Dutch merchants and bankers. Mr. Hope was a collector with a passion for precious gems. So he began to form his collection around 1800 and continued to collect precious stones until his death in 1839. His collection has grown to 700 gems and pearls, cataloged by the German jeweler Bram Hertz. The collection was dispersed after the death of mr. Hope. But some pieces, such as the spinel surrounded by diamonds (valued 230-310mila dollars) have emerged from the mists.
In any case, it is worth to tell something more. The Hope collection has been stored for years in a cabinet mahogany to 16 trays. The larger stones were placed in the drawers 14 and 16. The top drawer contained various types of pearls. The big baroque pearl eastern, known as The Hope Pearl, was the largest known natural pearl: 5 centimeters long and 11.5 centimeters in circumference, weighs 85 grams. The second and third drawer held colored diamonds included reddish orange, pink, bright blue-green hues, and a lot of yellow and brown. There were also 49 faceted diamonds from the legendary mines of Golconda (India), including a diamond briolette-cut 14.25 carat which was part of the crown jewels of Portugal. The most famous is the Hope diamond, the 45.52 carat intense blue that was in the drawer 16 and is now kept at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington. But not only: Hope had in the drawers a sapphire of 130 carats, 133 carats from an emerald which once adorned the turban Tipu Sultan (sultan of India), and one perfect 50 carat spinel. Federico Graglia
