Saturday, January 2, 2010

World Famous Heart-Shaped Jewelry

By Betsy Johnson

The "heart shape" often conjures up thoughts of love and romance. It has worked its way into our treasured annual holidays like St. Valentine's Day, into greeting cards and gifts, and into our jewelry designs as well. As we all know, jewelry is often made out of precious metals like gold and silver, and precious gems like diamonds and emeralds, and by incorporating the "heart shape" we are produce an object that displays the eternal ideas of romance, love, caring, and belonging. We will now explore the origins of heart jewelry, the "heart shape symbol", and the world's most famous heart-shaped diamond.

When we think of the spiritual, emotional, moral, and intellectual core of humans, what symbol comes to mind? For most of us it is the "heart shape". The heart shape is often shown in the color "red" as this depicts both blood (it is the heart that pumps blood through the body) and intense emotion. What emotion can possibly be stronger than that of true love?

Finding a true heart-shaped diamond is a rare event, but they do exist. For example, the most rare and famous of these is the "Blue Heart" (also called the Eugenie Blue) diamond. Many people consider it to be the best example of a blue diamond that the world has ever seen. The only diamond that can rival its fame is perhaps the Hope Diamond, but with the unique heart shape of the "Blue Heart", it really stands out in the crowd. From the standpoint of pure elegance and simplicity, there are few diamonds that can hold a candle to the "Blue Heart".

The "Blue Heart" diamond is 30.82 metric carats, and it's debatable whether it is of either African or Indian origin. The rough diamond was cut in Neuilly, Paris by Antanik Ekyanan in either 1909 or 1910. Currently it's dimensions are: 20mm x 19mm x 12mm.

An Argentinian woman named Mrs. Unzue sold the diamond to Cartier in 1910. She had set the diamond into a corsage, and it was in this setting when it was sold to Van Cleef and Arpels in 1953.

An European family ended up with the diamond next, and they sold it to a gentleman named Harry Winston in 1950. He placed this heart jewelry gem into a ring and sold it to Marjorie Merriweather Post. Now on to it's final resting place... Marjorie Merriweather Post donated it to the Smithsonian Institution, and this wonderful example of heart jewelry is on display here today. For trivia buffs, three of the world's most famous diamonds, the "Blue Heart", the Hope, and the Heart of Eternity were all on display at the Smithsonian at one time.

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