Editing Hope Diamond (section)

==Replicas==
{{More citations needed|section|date=January 2022}}
In 2007,<ref name="Farges et al., 2009"/> a lead cast of the French Blue diamond was discovered in the gemological collections of the [[Muséum national d'histoire naturelle|National Museum of Natural History]] in [[Paris, France|Paris]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Redécouverte d'une rélique historique |url=http://foifoif.free.fr/41AE1384-2E13-4BB9-93CB-4202C2C16DAC_files/presse.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110720221321/http://foifoif.free.fr/41AE1384-2E13-4BB9-93CB-4202C2C16DAC_files/presse.pdf |archive-date=July 20, 2011 |access-date=2020-03-19}}</ref> This triggered an investigation by an international team of researchers into the stone's history, which previously had to rely on [[two-dimensional]] sketches of the diamond. The [[Three-dimensional space|three-dimensional]] structure allowed researchers to apply techniques such as [[Computer-aided design|computer-aided drawing]] analysis.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

The methods for digitally-reconstructing the gem are reviewed in this article's "Theft and Disappearance" section. The emblem of the Golden Fleece of Louis XV was reconstructed around the French Blue, including the "Côte de Bretagne" [[spinel]] of {{convert|107|carat|g oz}}, the "Bazu" diamond of {{convert|32.62|carat|g oz}}, 3 oriental topazes (yellow sapphires), five [[brilliant (diamond cut)|brilliant]]s of up to {{convert|5|carat|mg oz}} and nearly 300 smaller diamonds.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

As part of the investigation, the "Tavernier Blue" diamond was reconstructed from the original French edition of Tavernier's ''Voyages'' (rather than the later London edition, which had distorted and modified Tavernier's original figures). The Smithsonian Institution provided [[Ray tracing (physics)|ray-tracing]] and [[optical spectroscopy|optical spectroscopic]] data about the Hope diamond.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

The lead cast had been catalogued at the French museum in 1850 and was provided by a prominent Parisian jeweler named Charles Archard who lived during the same generation as [[René Just Haüy]], who died in 1822. Most likely, the lead cast was made near 1815, because that was the year that similar entries from the 1850 catalogue had been made. The model was accompanied by a label stating that the ''French Blue'' was in the possession of a person known as "Mr. Hope of London". Other archives at the Muséum suggests that Hope was a customer of Achard for many years, particularly for blue gems.<ref name="ReferenceA">Farges et al.  ''Revue de Gemmologie'' 165, 17–24.</ref>

These findings have helped investigators piece together what may have happened during the rock's anonymous years during the several decades following 1792. According to one line of reasoning, the first "Hope" to have the "Hope Diamond"—Henry Phillip Hope—might have possessed the ''French Blue'' that he had acquired some time after the 1792 robbery in Paris, perhaps around 1794–1795, when the Hopes were believed to have left Holland for London to escape Napoleon's armies.<ref name="Buist, M.G. 1974"/> At about the same time, Cadet Guillot, who may have been one of the thieves to have stolen the ''Golden Fleece'', arrived in London.<ref>Bapst G. (1889) Les joyaux de la Couronne. Hachette.</ref> This places Mr. Hope and Mr. Guillot in London at the same time. According to a late nineteenth century historian named Bapts, a contract was made between Cadet Guillot and a French aristocrat named Lancry de la Loyelle, in 1796, to sell the {{convert|107|carat|g oz|adj=on}} [[spinel]]-dragon of the Golden Fleece. According to this line of reasoning, in 1802 Hope sold his assets, and the continental blockade by Napoleon led the Hope's bank into a serious financial crisis by 1808, and the crisis peaked during the winter of 1811–1812<ref>Balfour, Famous diamonds. Antique Collectors' Club Ltd; 6th Revised edition (Dec. 2009)</ref> This put Mr. Hope in a financial bind. There is a possibility that, given his financial predicament, Hope pawned the ''French Blue'' to jewel merchant Eliason to get much-needed cash when the British currency, [[Pound sterling|sterling]], was highly depreciated.<ref name="Buist, M.G. 1974">Buist, M.G. (1974) At spes non fracta: Hope & Co. 1770–1815. Merchant bankers and diplomats at work. Den Haag, Martinus Nijhoff.</ref> This is consistent with the entry in Eliason's records about having the stone in 1812.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

However, the diamond's owners may have felt pressure to recut the stone quickly to disguise its identity, since if the French government had learned of its existence, it may have sued the owners for repossession.<ref name="ReferenceA" /> Regardless of whether Mr. Hope had lost possession or kept it during these years, by 1824 it was again in his possession. It was around this time that Eliason died; Hope's financial situation had been restored thanks to efforts by the Barings, who saved the Hope bank in the difficult financial years of 1812–1820.<ref name="Buist, M.G. 1974" /> Accordingly, if this is correct, then the lead cast of the ''French Blue'' and the "Hope" diamond are likely to have been created in the same workshop, possibly in London, and probably a little before 1812.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

The lead cast had important ramifications since it gave enough information to curators at the French museum to commission the first exact replicas of both the Tavernier and French Blue diamonds using a material which simulates diamonds called [[cubic zirconia]], with the help of artisans who work with gems ([[lapidary|lapidaries]]), led by Scott Sucher. These replicas have been completed and displayed with the [[French Crown Jewels]] and the [[Great Sapphire of Louis XIV]], a Moghul-cut sapphire of {{convert|135.7|carat|g oz}}. Artisans recreated the elaborate [[parure]] of different-colored gems known as the ''Golden Fleece of King Louis XV of France'', which is arguably the most fabulous work in the history of French jewelry; this happened from 2007 to 2010. The original parure, created in 1749 by royal jeweler Pierre-André Jacquemin, was stolen and broken in 1792. The reassembled jewel contained the French Blue and the Bazu diamonds, as well as the Côte de Bretagne spinel and hundreds of smaller diamonds. Three years of work were needed to recreate this jewel, and it required exacting and precise skill which revealed not only the skill of today's lapidaries, but the skill of its original eighteenth-century designers. The reconstructed jewel was presented by Herbert Horovitz, with {{Interlanguage link|François Farges|fr}} of the French museum in attendance, at the former Royal Storehouse in Paris on June 30, 2010, which was the same site where the original had been stolen 218 years before.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

Additional recreations were made possible by new discoveries. A previously unknown drawing of the Golden Fleece was rediscovered in [[Switzerland]] in the 1980s, and two blue diamonds that had ornamented the jewel were found as well, and these recent findings enabled artisans to recreate a copy of the ''emblem''.<ref>(Farges et al., 2008)</ref> It led to the construction, using cubic zirconia, of a piece that almost exactly resembles<ref name="Farges et al., 2009">Farges et al., 2009</ref> the mythic ''French Blue'' {{convert|69|carat|g oz}} masterpiece.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

The emblem has another great blue diamond, which was later named "the Bazu" in reference to a dealer who reportedly had sold it to Louis XIV in 1669.<ref>(Morel, 1988)</ref> This Bazu diamond was recut in 1749 as a baroque cushion weighing {{convert|32.62|carat|g oz}}. The 1791 inventory mentioned that the Bazu was "light sky blue",<ref>("''d'une eau un peu céleste''"; Bion et al., 1791)</ref> which is consistent with the fact that the Golden Fleece of the Color Adornment was made of a variety of great colored gems. Based on documents kept in a private collection,<ref name="Farges et al., 2008">Farges et al., 2008</ref> it could be shown that this particular diamond was not hexagonal-shaped, as some historians had previously thought,<ref>Bapst, 1889; Morel, 1988; Tillander, 1995</ref> but was in a shape best described as "rounded squared",<ref>according to the 1774 and 1791 inventories</ref> similar to the so-called [[Regent Diamond|Régent diamond]].<ref name="Farges et al., 2009" /> There is a report that a curator from the [[Muséum national d'histoire naturelle|French museum]] will assert that the hexagonal cut from the Bazu is inconsistent historically and gemologically.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}} The Bazu stone referred to another version of Louis XV's great Golden Fleece, made out of blue sapphires instead of blue diamonds.<ref name="Farges et al., 2008" /> According to one view, this version appears to have never been manufactured but only suggested to the king as an alternative to the effective final version, bearing two blue diamonds. Nevertheless, replicas of both blue diamonds were cut by Scott Sucher using cubic zirconia, one being colored deep blue and the other light blue.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

The emblem had a third great gem known as ''The Côte de Bretagne dragon''. Its replica was based on a wax likeness sculpted by Pascal Monney, who had based his recreation from three-dimensional scaled pictures of the original object which had been made by French artist François Farges; Farges, in turn, had seen the original objects displayed at the [[Musée du Louvre|Louvre]]'s [[Galerie d'Apollon]]. In addition, artist Etienne Leperlier cast a "crystal" lead glass duplicate of the wax replica of the carved Côte de Bretagne. Its pigmentation is made out of [[gold]] and manganese pigments to simulate as close as possible the original color of the [[spinel]].{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

The 500-plus remaining replicas of diamonds were cut from cubic zirconia using a baroque cushion cut. Colors were used to recall the original artwork: red for the flames, and yellow for the fleece, and in keeping with the original work, the materials used were initially colorless but were painted in the same fashion used by the artist Jacquemin when the original Golden Fleece was completed in 1749. Since the original was most likely made out of gold plated with silver, a choice was made to use a [[:wikt:matrix|matrix]] mostly made out of 925-grade silver to keep costs under control without compromising quality. A number of different artists helped with this project:
* The silver matrix was carved by Jean Minassian of [[Geneva, Switzerland|Geneva]] who used historical drawings of the delicate three-dimensional elements of the dragon's wings and tail as well as the palms around which the dragon is suspended.
* Casts were made by Andreas Altmann. This will allow even more copies to be made in the future.
* Amico Bifulci gilded parts of the matrix to recreate the elegant original gold and silver arrangement of the original.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

All stones were set according to 18th-century techniques. Finally, a luxury box containing the Golden Fleece was recreated by Frédéric Viollet using crimson-colored Moroccan leather.<ref>"maroquin cramoisi"</ref> The box was gilded by Didier Montecot to the arms of Louis XV, using the king's original iron stamp made by the Simier house.<ref>the official bookbinders of the kings of France</ref> A dark red [[Crimson|cramoisi]] ribbon, made of crimson satin moire, holds the jewel inside the box.{{citation needed|date=November 2021}}

<gallery widths="200px" heights="200px">
File:PlombDBC.jpg|Lead cast of the "French Blue" diamond, discovered in 2007 at the [[National Museum of Natural History (France)]] by Farges (ca. {{convert|31|x|26|mm|abbr=on}}).
File:Diamantbleu.gif|Computer reconstruction of the "French Blue" diamond, as cut by Jean Pitau for [[King Louis XIV of France]] in 1673 (ca. {{convert|31|x|25|mm|abbr=on}}).
File:Presentation.png|The recreated great Golden Fleece of [[Louis XV of France|King Louis XV of France]], presented by H. Horovitz (left) and {{Interlanguage link|François Farges|fr}} (right) at the Hôtel de la Marine, formerly the royal Storehouse in Paris, on June 30, 2010.
File:Toison2010.png|Detailed view of the recreated great Golden Fleece of king Louis XV of France. Below the {{convert|107|carat|g oz}} spinel Côte de Bretagne hangs the French Blue diamond and the fleece itself, set with hundreds of yellow diamond replicas.
</gallery>