Did the Ocean Heart diamond exist and what is its history?

Fig 1. Diamond Heart of the Ocean

Competent Hollywood screenwriters are good at making inanimate things full-fledged characters in a story. In the future, the viewer invariably associates these objects with the movie where they shone. For example, what movie brings to mind a glove with long iron claws-blades? “Wolverine,” of course! Well, or “A Nightmare on Elm Street” – depending on the length of the blades. A gold ring with a glowing ligature? “Lord of the Rings,” of course. The red and blue pills are from “The Matrix,” and so on.

And how about a pendant with a blue stone cut in a heart shape and framed by diamonds? Yes, that’s right – it’s the blue “Heart of the Ocean” diamond from the touching story of the love of a young aristocrat Rose and a penniless artist Jack that erupted aboard the doomed Titanic.

What is true and what is fiction in this story? Does the “Heart of the Ocean” diamond really exist or is it a figment of the imagination of the authors of the picture? And if the jewel is not fictional, where is the “Heart of the Ocean” – the diamond that witnessed one of the most tragic events of the beginning of the last century? Read the true story of the Heart of the Ocean diamond. And at the very end of the article you will learn how to become the owner of a piece of jewelry that is completely identical to the necklace Rose gave her fiancé on the Titanic.

The price of the question

Let’s start with money. In our pragmatic times, many people are interested in how much the Heart of the Ocean diamond cost, and how much it could cost now. Blue diamonds are among the rarest in the world and are mined only at the Cullinan mine in South Africa. The market value of a natural diamond of such a fancy color is from $150,000 to $700,000 per carat.

According to experts’ estimates, the real stone that adorned Rose’s neck on the Titanic would have weighed about 350 carats – 70 grams! For comparison, the construction of the Titanic itself cost the owners $7.3 million. Now, adjusted for inflation, it is approximately $200 million, which means that if there really was a diamond “Heart of the Ocean,” the price of the original would be comparable to the cost of building the liner itself, which, by the way, was the most luxurious for its time!

Reality and fantasy

James Cameron, whose star burned so brightly just after the release of “Titanic”, was very meticulous about details. It is rumored that before taking up the script, he dived several times to the sunken liner, so as not to miss a single nuance. And the appearance of the “blue crown diamond” in the first scenes of the movie should have alerted the attentive viewer and prepare him for the fact that the story will end tragically.

Hope’s diamond

Fig 2. Diamond Hope

The most famous large blue diamond, said to be the prototype for the Heart of the Ocean, is an Indian diamond given to Louis XIV by traveler Jean Tavernier. Legend has it that the roughly cut 115-carat triangular stone originally served as a decoration for the statue of an Indian deity for four centuries. During religious rituals, it was sprinkled with the blood of victims, and after being stolen from the temple, it was cursed.

The French king considered the diamond insufficiently perfect, and on his orders the stone was split into several pieces. The 69-carat fragment that adorned the royal personage (Louis XIV wore the stone set in gold as a pendant, and his follower – as a pendant for the order) and called the “Blue Frenchman” became the prototype of the “Heart of the Ocean”.

It is said that the curse punished both Louis and the jeweler-giver – both died. True historians with a chuckle recall that at the time of his death Tavernier was 83 years old, and Louis – 78. Quite a respectable age to pass away from old age. The next owner of the “Frenchman” was Marie Antoinette. And, of course, all the misfortunes that befell her, attributed not to wastefulness and shortsightedness of the royal family, and the “cursed diamond”.

Then for half a century, the trace of the blue diamond of the French crown is lost, and found only in the 30-ies of the XIX century – now the stone is part of the collection of English banker Henry Hope. Hope re-set the stone, reducing its mass to 45 carats, and set it in a necklace. After the banker’s death, the diamond was sold to a Turkish ruler and then fell into the hands of the legendary Pierre Cartier. It was the latter who gave it the shape of a heart. Further the diamond “Hope” (the banker gave it a generic name) changed several owners and possessors, after which it became a part of the exposition of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington.

The fate of the “movie diamond”

By the way, the gold necklace of actress Kate Winsleigh was not a diamond at all, but a tanzanite framed with zirconium. The prop necklace, made by jewelers Asprey & Garrad, cost the studio about $10,000. After the success of the movie, the first luxury replicas appeared. The first one adorned Celine Dion at the Oscars. It was made of a huge sapphire weighing 171 carats, surrounded by 103 diamonds. The second one appeared at the same ceremony. Jewelry with a real 15-carat blue diamond was noticed on the neck of Gloria Stuart, who played the role of the elderly Rose in the film.

Romantic jewelry for romantic ladies

Fig 3. Custom Heart of the Ocean diamond pendant

The necklace and the lyrical story of Rose and Jack impressed female viewers so much that many of them rushed to order or buy replicas of Ocean Hearts. Only jewelry similar to Rose’s jewel was sold in the world for $160 million. And if you, too, while watching “Titanic” at least once tried on Rose’s necklace mentally, now you have the opportunity to do it in reality.

The jewelers of our company will carefully and with great attention to detail make for you an exact copy of the “Heart of the Ocean” pendant, not distinguishable from the real jewelry. You can order it in the section “Pendants with diamonds to order”. And let this magnificent jewel mark the beginning of your own romantic story, which is sure to be a happy one.