This is the first time that scientists have created a nearly perfect cubic zirconia diamond replica, in its previous forms: the "French Blue" of King Louis XIV, which originated in India, and the current Cartier pendant. The project, which took ten years to complete, includes transatlantic cooperation between the Smithsonian Institution, Naturelle, the National Museum of History in Paris, and John Hatleberg, a gem cutter.
"We have been able to use modern technology to bring back a diamond from history that we haven't seen since 1792," Post said at the news conference in June, 5438+00. "We actually put ourselves back in the eyes of King Louis XIV and see what he saw."
1668, when this famous blue diamond was first added to Louis XIV's crown jewels, it was much larger and flatter than today. It is cut in Mughal style and has a large flat bottom to match the top. Because there are not so many facets on the crystal surface to reflect internal light, it is much brighter blue. Post held the replica in front of the lamp and said, "It's like looking out of the window."
This is a computer simulation that shows how the Hope Diamond appeared when King Louis XIV of France owned it. (Photo by Franois Fagers) Once the court jeweler gets the gem, it will become darker and smaller. It was cut into more faces and reduced to 69 carats. Franois Fagers of the French Museum of History said that at that time, it was called "French Blue", which perfectly matched Louis XIV's sensibility.
"Think about the garden of Versailles Castle. It has straight lines, perfect symmetrical layout and beautiful angles, "Fagers said. "In France, you are blue, which is the same inspiration."
This is an accurate but unusual cut, with a small eye in the middle to let light pass through. As suggested by Fagers and Post in a paper on 20 14, this is intentional. According to the inventory of Crown Jewelry, this diamond is set in gold and on a stick. Fagers found that when the diamond was placed on a golden background through a computer model, the center of the diamond looked like a golden sun, symbolizing Louis XIV's "Sun King". Fagers said that if you think that the blue of diamonds and the gold of the sun represent the French monarchy, it will be even more impressive.
Now, Post can put a French blue with a golden background in the fax and show a faint golden sun shape in the middle. Fagers said that historical records show that Louis XIV would take out jewelry from a gold box and proudly show this stick to important tourists; This is for observation, not for wearing.
"The important message is that France is very rich, and they can use all these diamonds at any time to build a huge army in case the country is invaded," Fagers said. "This is really a political tool, just to maintain the glory of the king and fight against foreign kingdoms."
Without the paintings in Taverna's diary and the historical records that Fagers studied in the National Museum of Natural History, all these details about the journey, colors, facets and the use of diamonds would not have been discovered.
Fagers said he found one of the most important records about diamonds. He rummaged through the diamond drawers of the National Gem Collection and found a lead casting. He was puzzled by its shape, because it was not similar to any kind of diamond he had seen before, so he spent the whole night doing research. To his surprise, he found that it was a French blue lead casting.
Cubic zirconia simulation hopes that diamonds (above), "French blue" and pub diamonds will be exposed, as well as lead castings of French blue. I have come to the conclusion that this is the only copy, the only historical copy of a known date, a French blue diamond, which we think has been completely lost. "It hasn't completely disappeared," Fagers said. This is the first time we have a completely accurate three-dimensional model with all the faces on it. "Before creating the old version of diamonds, Heartberg set out to copy the current version of Hope. Nearly 30 years ago, Post took his hope out of the pendant and gave it to Heitberg, so that he could make silicone molds and then epoxy resin castings. From there, he cut cubic zirconia to match the casting, and then took several copies to a company in Minnesota to add color.
In order to reproduce this color, the company used a method called noble metal nanodot vapor deposition. They took a colorless stone, coated it with a thin layer of metal atoms, made some minor adjustments and slightly adjusted the color. Heitberg said that this technology was not available even five years ago.
Heidelberg will come to Post and Farges later, and their replicas will be painted in different colors. Post said, "We'll go,' It's a little too dark, too bright, too green, too blue, too purple. " "。 "After years of repeated travel, we finally found a stone. All of us, everyone who knows the hope diamond, look at this stone and say,' We can't see the difference.' "
This replica may look exactly like the original Hope Diamond, but aspiring jewel thieves or forgers should be careful that you can't slip away from experts. Post said that under the ultraviolet irradiation in the darkroom, I hope the diamond will fluoresce and emit orange light for about one minute. He can measure the spectrum with a spectrometer, and the spectrum of different diamonds is as different as fingerprints, he said.
It is not clear when tourists will see these replicas in real life, but Post said that he hopes these stones can be exhibited in the Natural History Museum in the next year or two. Post said that at the same time, he also hopes to further study the history of hope with Heidelberg and Farges. Post said: "It is such an interesting diamond from both scientific and historical perspectives." We know that we will continue to learn from it. We are just beginning to know all its secrets.