Early history
The country of origin, mine of origin etc. of the diamond
are not known. The earliest known information about the diamond is that it
came into the possession of the Yousupov family of Russia in 1840, during
the time of Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yousupov (1827-1891). The Prince who
was a patron of the arts and a collector of art woks, artifacts, and
jewelry, purchased the diamond during one of his frequent visits to Europe.
But details of the purchase such as the country or city where the purchase
was done, the previous owner of the diamond, the price of the purchase etc.
are conspicuously lacking.
Being a diamond of the pre mid-19th century, we can
safely predict the source of the diamond, as around this time the only known
source of blue diamonds in the world was the Kollur mines of Golconda, in
Southern India. As such the Sultan of Morocco diamond seems to be of Indian
origin.
The diamond had been with the Yousupov family for
82 years up to 1922, when it was sold by Prince Felix Yousupov- the last
Yousupov prince and the most famous of all Yousupovs, who was directly
involved in the murder of the mad monk Rasputin- to Cartier's of
New York. The Yousupov family were a Russian noble family, descended from
the Crimean Tartars. According to traditional family history, the earliest
ancestors of Yousupov migrated from Arabia to the Crimean region, and were
descendants of the 4th Caliph of Islam, Ali bin Abu Ta'lib, a cousin of the
Holy Prophet Muhammad, the founder of the religion of Islam. Termess a
descendent of Ali, migrated and re-settled in the shores of Azov and Caspian
Sea in the 10th century A.D. In the 14th century , Edigu, who was one of
Tamerlane's greatest generals, a Crimean Tartar from the Manghit Tribe, and
a descendent of Termess , settled on the south shores of the Black Sea,
establishing the Nogai Horde, from whom the Crimean Khanate, descended. In
the 15th century Khan Yusuf became the head of the Norgai Horde. Khan Yusuf
allied himself with Czar Ivan the Terrible, but eventually the former allies
became enemies. Ivan later attacked Kazan, and the Queen of Kazan, Sumbecca,
the daughter of Khan Yusuf was captured and taken to Moscow as prisoner. In
the 17th century, Abdul Mirza, a descendant of Khan Yusuf, converted to
Orthodox Christianity, under the name of Dimitry, and was bestowed with the
title of Prince Yousupov by Czar Feodor I. Prince Dmitry Yousupov had two
children. The eldest, Prince Matvei Dmitrievich Yousupov died young. The
second son Prince Knyazhevo Dmitrievich Yousupov married twice
and had a son by the name Prince Grigori Dmitrievich Yousupov (Nov. 17,1676
- Sep 21, 1730), who was the General in Chief and Minister of Defense,
under Peter the Great, and helped him with the construction of the Russian
Navy.
Prince Grigori was married to Anna Nikitichna Akinfova
(died 1735), and had four children. One of the children Prince Boris
Grigorievich Yousupov, became Senator Chamberlain in 1730 and Governor
General of Moscow in 1738. Prince Boris was sent to study with the French
Navy at the age of 20, and later became advisor to the Czar, and
served three sovereigns. During the reign of Empress Elizabeth he was
appointed head of Imperial schools. Prince Boris married Irina Mikhailovna
Zinovyeve and had one son and four daughters. The eldest son of prince
Boris, was Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yousupov, who was Senator, Minister of
State Properties and Director of Imperial Theatres, and was a keen traveler
who spoke five languages, and a Patron of the Arts. Nicholas served under
three sovereigns including Catherine the Great, Paul I, and Alexander I, as
a private councilor and diplomat. In his travels through Europe he met
sovereigns of France, Prussia, and Austria. He had also met Napoleon I on
several occasions. In 1793 he married Tatiana Vasillieva (1769-1841). The
couple lived in the luxurious palace of Arkhangelskoye in Moscow. Nicholas
died at the age of 80 in 1831, and was succeeded by his second and only
remaining son Prince Boris.
Prince Boris Nikolaievich Yusupov (1794-1849) was Marshal
of the Imperial Courts and at the age of 42 inherited his immense family
wealth, including more than 675,000 acres of land. He was primarily a
businessman and not a patron of the Arts like his father. He moved to the
Moika Palace in St. Petersburg which is also known as the Yousupov Palace,
with his second wife Zinaida Ivanova Narishkina (1810-1893). Boris focused
on the family granaries and developed a good relationship with the peasants
who worked in them. Prince Boris died in 1849.
Prince Boris' only son Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yousupov
(1827-1891), Marshal of the Imperial Courts, was also a patron of the Arts,
like his uncle Czar Nicholas I. Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yousupov, bought a
large collection of jewelry, which included the 35.27-carat Sultan of
Morocco diamond. The Prince was later forced to spend much of his time in
southern Europe, due to ill health and served as the Czar's diplomat during
this period. While in Europe he bought a lot of paintings, other works of
art and also a collection of violins, to adorn his Moika Palace. He married
countess Tatiana Alexandovna (1828-1875). The Prince was also a talented
musician and composer. and in 1866 published a book about the history of the
Yousupov family. Prince Nicholai Yousupov II died in 1891 and was succeeded
by his daughter Zinaida, who was considered a legendary beauty. Princes
Zinaida NIkolaievna Yousupova (1861-1939) married Count Felix Felixovich
Sumarokov (1856-1928), Governor General of Moscow (1914-1915). After the
death of Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yousupov in 1891, Felix was granted
special permission by Czar Alexander III, to carry the title of Prince
Yousupov, Prince Felix was commandant of the Guards Cavalry of the Imperial
Guards and was appointed Governor General of Moscow in 1914. At the
beginning of world war I, the Yousupov family owned more than 100,000 acres
of land and several industries such as sugar beet factories, brick plants,
saw mills, textile and cardboard factories, mines and distilleries, in
addition to 16 palaces and estates.
Later history
Zinaida had two sons, Nikolai Felixovich Yousupov and
Felix Felixovich Yousoupov. The eldest son Nikolai Felixovich died young at
the age of 26, and the second son, succeeded his father as Prince Felix
Yousupov II, who married Irina a grand-daughter of Czar Alexander III.
Prince Felix Yousupov II, who was the last Yousupov prince, became the
most famous of all the Yousupovs, as he was involved in the murder of the
mentally deranged monk Rasputin, just before the Bolshevik Revolution
of 1917.
Grigory Efimovich Rasputin was a peasant and a petty
criminal, who eventually became a monk, and spent a lot of time in
monasteries, doing monastic things, but never received holy orders . Prince
Felix Yousupov II, in his memoirs the "Lost Splendor" portrays Rasputin as a
fascinating , compelling character, given to great excesses, but also
possessed of enormous powers. He wielded a frightful and prodigious power
over Russia's royal family in the years preceding the Bolshevik Revolution.
Rasputin's strength and superhuman powers were exhibited
at the time of his death. When Rasputin's aristocratic assassins led by
Prince Felix Yousupov failed to kill him after he devoured a plateful of
cyanide-laced cakes and several glasses of poisoned wine, they decided too
finish him off by shooting him in the heart. But, though he fell and lay
apparently dead, the monk managed to get up and crawl upstairs looking for
his killers, who then shot him several more times, clubbed him and threw him
into the half-frozen Neva, where he finally died as determined by the
autopsy, of drowning.
After the murder of Rasputin, Prince Felix Yousoupov II,
was exiled to Crimea, but returned to St. Petersburg in 1917, to find the
city in massive disorder after the February Revolution. He took with
him some of his most precious paintings, and the jewelry and in the autumn
of 1917, left Russia for good to Paris.
The Sultan of Morocco was one of the jewels he had
carried with him, when he left Russia and he sold it in 1922, to Cartier's
of New York.
Prior to the 19th century, the world's only known source
of blue diamonds was the Golconda mines of southern India. But, later the
Premier Diamond Mines in southern Africa became the main source of these
extremely rare diamonds.
The collection of 11 extremely rare, exceptional quality,
blue diamonds, known as the De Beers Millennium collection, and displayed at
the London Millennium Dome, throughout the year 2000, were all sourced from
the famous Premier Diamond Mines of South Africa.
Last transaction and the
present owner of the diamond
After the sale of the diamond by Prince Felix Yousupov in
1922 to Cartier's of New York, the next occasion we here about the diamond
is in 1972, when the diamond was sold privately to an anonymous buyer in San
Francisco, California. Clarke G Wolfe an employee of the famous jeweler
Laykin et cie, based in Los Angeles, California, had reported in December
2004, that between the year 1969 to 1974, when he was employed at this
jewelry firm, he carried the diamond by air to San Francisco, and had
delivered it to the V.P. of the company "Bud" Ehresman. This was for a
possible sale to a private collector at the time. The price paid for the
diamond was said to be $250,000.
List of famous and
notable blue diamonds in the world
|
S/N |
Name |
carat weight |
color |
|
1 |
Hope
Diamond |
45.52 |
fancy dark grayish blue |
|
2 |
Tereschenko |
42.92 |
fancy blue |
|
3 |
Wittelsbach |
35.56 |
fancy intense blue |
|
4 |
Sultan of Morocco |
35.27 |
fancy grayish blue |
|
5 |
The Blue Heart |
30.82 |
fancy intense blue |
|
6 |
The Heart of Eternity |
27.64 |
fancy vivid blue |
|
7 |
Transvaal Blue |
25.00 |
unknown color grade |
|
8 |
The Blue Empress |
14.00 |
unknown color grade |
|
9 |
The Blue Magic |
12.02 |
fancy vivid blue |
|
10 |
Graff Blue |
6.19 |
fancy blue |
Chemistry of blue
diamonds
Diamonds are divided into two types depending on the
presence or absence of detectable quantities of Nitrogen in the diamond
crystal.
Type 1 - Contain detectable quantities of Nitrogen- 98%
of all natural diamonds
Type 11- Do not contain detectable quantities of
Nitrogen- 1-2 % of all natural diamonds.
Blue diamonds are type 11 diamonds. Type 11 diamonds are
again sub-divided into two:-
Type 11a - Do not contain detectable Nitrogen and
absolutely colorless. I-2 % of all natural diamonds. Sometimes due to
plastic deformation of the crystals can show a variety of colors such as
pink, red, purple, orange, and brown, but their occurrence is less than 0.1
%.
Type 11b - Do not contain detectable Nitrogen, but
instead contain trace amounts of Boron, which impart a blue color to the
diamonds. Their occurrence is less than 0.1 % .
Therefore all naturally occurring blue diamonds are the
extremely rare type11b diamonds.
Colorless diamonds can sometimes show a bluish tint,
which may become a little intense when viewed in daylight rich in UV-rays.
This effect is caused by fluorescence and should not be mistaken for true
Type 11b diamonds. eg:- The Regent diamond, the Portuguese diamond, and the
Queen of Holland diamond.
