Diamonds - The Blue Heart Diamond

By Teri Champigny

There is a spectacular diamond in the Smithsonian Collection called the Blue Heart Diamond. Fans of the movie Titanic might think the "Heart of the Ocean Diamond" was based on this stone, and it may have been! However, this diamond hasn't been cast in the ocean, but is safe and sound at the Smithsonian!

It has also been called the Eugenie Blue Diamond, although it's uncertain that the Empress Eugenie ever owned this particular stone. It was cut in Paris between 1909 and 1910, but the stone's origin - Africa or India - is unclear.

It is an enormous heart-shaped, blue diamond weighing 30.82 carats. Its current setting is in a platinum ring, surrounded by white diamonds. It changed hands among famous jewelers - such as Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels -  and owners until it was bought by Harry Winston in 1959 who mounted the diamond in its current ring setting. Winston sold the ring to Marjorie Merriweather Post. Mrs. Post donated the ring to the Smithsonian and it remains there with other famous blue diamonds, including the Hope Diamond and the Heart of Eternity Diamond.

These famous blue diamonds have recently gone through a grading and examination process, to classify their colors and to determine the source of the color. The Hope Diamond is classified as Fancy Deep Grayish-Blue. The Heart of Eternity has been classified as a Fancy Vivid Blue. The Blue Heart Diamond has not yet been classified, but some experts categorize it as either Fancy Vivid Blue or Fancy Deep Blue.

Blue diamonds are of particular interest to scientists not only because of the color and the impurities that create it, but because blue diamonds also have an electric conductive property that makes them unique among clear and other colored diamonds.