Editing Hope Diamond (section)

===India===
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| caption1 = Tavernier's original sketch of the Tavernier Blue
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| caption2 = [[Cubic zirconia]] replica of the Tavernier Blue
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Several accounts, based on remarks written by French gem merchant [[Jean-Baptiste Tavernier]], who obtained the gem in India in 1666, suggest that the gemstone originated in [[India]], in the [[Kollur mine]] in the [[Guntur]] district of [[Andhra Pradesh]] (which, at the time, was part of the [[Qutb Shahi dynasty|Golconda kingdom]] of the [[Qutb Shahi dynasty]]).<ref>''India Before Europe'', C.E.B. Asher and C. Talbot, Cambridge University Press, 2006, {{ISBN|0-521-80904-5}}, p. 40</ref><ref>''A History of India'', Hermann Kulke and Dietmar Rothermund, 3rd ed., Routledge, 1998, p. 160; {{ISBN|0-415-15482-0}}</ref><ref>''Deccan Heritage'', H. K. Gupta, A. Parasher and D. Balasubramanian, Indian National Science Academy, 2000, p. 144, Orient Blackswan, {{ISBN|81-7371-285-9}}</ref>

Tavernier's book, the ''Six Voyages'' (French: ''Les Six Voyages de J. B. Tavernier''), contains sketches of several large diamonds that he sold to [[Louis XIV of France|King Louis XIV]], possibly in 1668<ref name=twsI35/> or 1669; a blue diamond is shown among these, and Tavernier mentions the mines at "Gani Coulour" (Kollur Mine) as a source of colored diamonds, but no direct mention of the stone is made. Historian [[Richard Kurin]] has built a highly speculative case for 1653 as the year of acquisition,<ref name="Kurin1">Kurin, Richard ''Hope Diamond, The Legendary History of a Cursed Gem'', pp. 29–30</ref> but the most that can be said with certainty is that Tavernier obtained the blue diamond during one of his five voyages to India between the years 1640 and 1667. One report suggests he took 25 diamonds to [[Paris]], including the large rock which became the Hope, and sold all of them to King Louis XIV.<ref name=twsI44ff/> Another report suggested that in 1669, Tavernier sold this large blue diamond along with approximately one thousand other diamonds to King Louis XIV for 220,000 [[French livre|livres]]—the equivalent of 147 kilograms of pure gold.<ref name=twsI44bb/><ref>Morel, Bernard, ''The French Crown Jewels'', p. 158.</ref>

In the historical novel, ''The French Blue'', gemologist and historian Richard W. Wise proposes that the [[Letters patent|patent of nobility]] granted to Tavernier by Louis XIV was part of the payment for the Tavernier Blue. According to the theory, [[Jean-Baptiste Colbert]] (the King's Finance Minister at the time) regularly sold noble offices and titles for cash; an outright [[patent of nobility]], according to Wise, was worth approximately 500,000 livres. That amount, plus the reported sale to the King, would have totaled about 720,000 livres, half the price of Tavernier's initial estimate for the gem.<ref>Wise, Richard W., ''The French Blue'', Brunswick House Press, 2010, Afterword p. 581. {{ISBN|978-0-9728223-6-7}}.</ref> There has been controversy regarding the actual weight of the stone: Morel believed that the {{convert|112.1875|carat|g oz|adj=on}}<ref name=twsI44jj/> stated in Tavernier's invoice would be in old French carats, thus 115.28 metric carats.