New year, new jewellery business goals!
Happy new year! Is it still OK to say that 12 days in? Have you set any intentions or resolutions for 2025? Historically, I’ve found
Sam Self
12/01/2025
I bet you’ve just launched into the Shirley Bassey song, right? 😂
With Valentine’s Day fast approaching, I’ve been seeing these sparkly gemstones everywhere and I’m fascinated by them. They also happen to be my birthstone (April) so of course I’m obsessed.
But who wouldn’t be? They are simply timeless, gorgeous stones. Immortalised in songs by Shirley and Marilyn Monroe, the diamond is truly forever. Read on for curses, myths and facts about these gorgeous gemstones.
But where did that phrase come from?
The slogan “A Diamond Is Forever” was written by Mary Frances Gerety in 1947 for the diamond company De Beers. The slogan has been used in De Beers ads ever since.
Of course, Marilyn sang that ‘Diamonds are a girl’s best friend’ as they can outlast anything (including terrible relationships, jobs, etc.) due to their durability.
How do you measure durability though? The Mohs Scale of Hardness is a 10-point scale that measures the hardness of minerals and gems created by Friedrich Mohs in 1822. At 10 the diamond is officially the hardest you can get.
I was listening to a new podcast recently (check out my fav podcasts blog if you haven’t already) by Laura Whitmore and Iain Sterling called ‘Murder They Wrote’. They had an episode on the Millenium Dome Diamond Heist which I vaguely remember. I was interested to hear how this doomed heist went down. I do love true crime! Check out the episode if you want to know more.
For Christmas I was given a book by my father-in-law called ‘If Jewels Could Talk’ by Carol Woolton and I found out she also has a podcast of the same name. Whilst scrolling through the episodes I found one on cursed stones! This sparked my interest and I found the following stories.
The Hope Diamond
The Hope Diamond is a 45.52-carat blue diamond whose owners were plagued with financial ruin, suicide, and even beheadings.
This beautiful stone has an amazing 350-year history. Discovered in India in 1673, it was originally a 115-carat blue diamond.
Its previous owners have included luminaries such as King Louise XVI and Marie Antoinette.
But it wasn’t called the Hope Diamond until 1839 when it was named after Henry Hope. He died an ultimately death and it was auctioned off to pay his gambling debts. The next owner was killed by their son and then they in turn committed suicide.
Eventually heiress Evelyn Walsh purchased it, presumably ignoring the previous owners’ woes, and even she suffered unimaginable loss: the deaths of her son and daughter and after her husband left her, he went mad and died.
Eventually Harry Winston purchased the stone but then donated it to the Smithsonian where it currently resides, presumably not cursing anyone else since.
Harry Winston famously mailed the priceless diamond to the museum via U.S. mail for $2.44 postage!
The Koh-I-Noor DiamoND
‘Koh-I-Noor’ translates as ‘the mountain of light’ and was discovered in the 14th century. This beautiful diamond passed through the hands of several Indian Maharajahs until it came into the possession of Shah Jahan, the builder of the Taj Mahal. He had the 186-carat diamond placed into his famous Peacock Throne, but he was overthrown by his own son before he could enjoy it.
When Britain took control of Indian trading posts it was given (or taken?!) to Queen Victoria. She had it set it into the Imperial Crown in 1911 and the curse says that only female royals can wear it.
There is a Hindu text dated to 1306 about the diamond stating “Only God or a woman can wear it with impunity”. I wonder if Charles III will worry about this supposed curse?
The Moon of Baroda - Marilyn’s cursed diamond
The story goes if this diamond crosses the sea or ocean, it will bring bad luck to its owner.
Discovered in India’s Golconda region around 500 years ago this lovely yellow diamond was cut into a pear shaped 24.04 carat stone. The Gaekwads of Baroda, a royal Indian dynasty, held it for hundreds of years.
In the mid 1700 Marie Antoinette’s mother, Marie Thérèse of Austria, briefly owned it but it was swiftly returned to the Gaekwads as it was said the curse took effect after it travelled across the sea to get to her.
Centuries later the jewellery Meyer Rosenbaum of Meyer Jewellery Company in Detroit bought the stone and put it on a leather cord and gave it to Marilyn Monroe to wear in the film ‘Gentleman Prefer Blondes’. It is said that shortly after this Marilyn’s career and personal life took a downwards spiral.
We don’t know where it currently is, but I hope no one else has succumbed to its fate.
Of course, these are all stories, and nothing is based in fact. It’s just interesting to wonder whether there is a connection between owning these stones and bad luck.
Find out more stories at the links bottom of the blog.
Not all diamonds are clear!
It’s true some of the most famous and expensive diamonds are not white. Diamonds can be blue, pink, yellow or even grey which are known as salt and pepper diamonds. The grey colour is caused by ‘inclusions’ in the stone. Inclusions are small imperfections that form during the diamond’s growth process. It is said that these diamonds symbolize embracing imperfections in life and relationships which I love the idea of. I even made myself a special one-off memento mori skull ring.
The 4 C''s
It’s not just colour that indicates the cost of a diamond. The four C’s are the internationally accepted standard for evaluating a diamond’s quality as follows
- Cut: the cut of a diamond affects its brilliance and sparkle.
- Colour: the grading scale begins at D, representing an exceptionally white diamond, and progresses alphabetically up to J, indicating stones with more noticeable colour.
- Clarity: refers to the presence/absence of imperfections within a diamond
- Carat weight: the weight of a diamond is measured in carats. The bigger the diamond the bigger the carat.
All diamonds are assessed against the 4 Cs to estimate their value but often stones can be priceless like the Koh-I-Noor Diamond.
The Pumpkin Diamond
When I heard about the Pumpkin Diamond, I knew I had to mention it, what with my love of the pumpkins.
This 5.54 carat diamond is linked to the Hope Diamond in that Ronald Winston, son of Harry who owned the Hope Diamond, bought this one in auction in 1997 for around $1.3m.
A naturally vivid orange colour, this gorgeous diamond was the largest one graded at that time and was named the Pumpkin Diamond due to its colour and the fact he bought it on Halloween eve.
William Goldberg originally cut the orangey brown diamond in his studios in New York City after it was discovered in the Central Africa Republic in 1997 turning it into a vivid orange beauty.
In 2002, actress Halle Berry wore a ring featuring “The Pumpkin Diamond” to the 74th Annual Oscars where she won ‘Best Actress in a Leading Role’ for ‘Monster’s Ball’. After this it appeared with, amongst others, the aforementioned Millennium Star (of the Millennium Dome Heist Fame) in a 2003 exhibition at the Smithsonian Museum.
Wish I’d been to that exhibition!
“What makes this orange diamond so special is that the majority of orange diamonds manifest with a brown undertone. The Pumpkin Diamond does no such thing. It is pure, vivid orange, catapulting it into diamond history as one of the largest fancy vivid natural orange diamonds in the world.”
Quote from the Smithsonian
Are you a diamond fan? Is it your birthstone?
If diamonds aren’t your thing, I have a new collection of gemstone rings being released soon so sign up to my mailing list for their release date.
Sam Self
Author
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