Farnese Blue diamond, with 300-year royal history, fetches $6.7 million

With wedding bells ringing royally loud in London, there’s a sense of déjà vu when it comes to the interest around royal jewellery. That Prince Harry chose diamonds from his mother’s wedding ring for his fiancée elicited a barrage of emotional commentary from national and international media. But a look at the catalogue of Sotheby’s latest Magnificent & Noble Jewels auction in Switzerland makes it clear that the allure of royal jewellery predates the current frenzied reactions from the paparazzi.

At the auction on May 15, the cynosure of the evening was the Farnese Blue Diamond, a 6.16, pear-shaped rarity in an even rarer blue-grey colour. Its journey began as a solitary gem when the diamond was gifted in 1715 to Elisabeth Farnese, the Queen of Spain, as part of her dowry. This was an era in Spanish history right after the war of succession, which sucked the country’s wealth dry. Elisabeth was to marry King Philip V of Spain, grandson of Louis XIV, King of France, in Parma, and the Spanish government instructed its colonies — spanning from Mexico to present-day India — to send gifts for their new queen.

As it happened, a rare blue diamond was found in the Golconda mines in what is now Andhra Pradesh. This gem and several other precious jewels and gold bullion — enough to fill 12 ships — set out from Cuba for Spain. On the treacherous seas, though, only one of the 12 ships survived, and on it was the pear-shaped diamond, a gift from the governor of the Philippine Islands. The “Farnese Blue”, as it was later known, then joined the Spanish royal family’s collection and travelled with it across Europe for 300 years.

Among its wearers was Charles II of Spain, also known as the “Bewitched”, the last Habsburg ruler of the Spanish empire. He fashioned this diamond into a tie-pin during his tumultuous reign between 1815 and 1849. After Charles II, it passed briefly to his son, Charles III, who was assassinated just five years into his rule. His son and the last Duke of Parma, Robert I, inherited the Farnese Blue in 1854, which he then mounted on a diadem that belonged to his mother, Louise Marie Thérèse of Artois, herself a descendant of Marie-Antoinette. The diamonds on this tiara are believed to have once belonged to Marie-Antoinette. All through its fascinating and long history, though, the Farnese Blue was hidden in a small wooden box, a secret to everyone outside the royal family or its jewellers.

What may seem like a crash course in Spanish history is actually the Farnese Blue’s biggest attraction. “It is hugely rare to be able to trace a gemstone’s history back 300 years, and there are records which show it has been cherished by members of four European royal families (being worn by both men and women through the generations). For many collectors, this historical aspect adds an extra element of fascination to the value of the diamond,” says Daniela Mascetti, deputy chairman, jewellery Europe and senior international specialist at Sotheby’s. The auction house had expected the diamond to sell for $ 3.7 — to $5.3 million. It eventually sold for $6.7 million to an anonymous buyer. According to Sotheby’s, the sale comes at a time when the interest in aristocratic jewels is at an all-time high. The auction house has sold over 1,100 lots of such gems and jewellery, with combined sale proceeds of nearly $285 million.

Some of the prominent sales include the Beau Sancy, a 34.98-carat modified pear double rose-cut diamond worn by Marie de Medici in 1610 at her coronation as Queen Consort of Henri IV, which sold for $9.7 million in Geneva in May 2012, and the Donnersmarck tiara, made of 11 rare Colombian emerald pear-shaped drops that weigh over 500 carats in total, which sold for $12.7 million in May 2011. At the May 15 auction, two of the world’s largest and purest white diamonds that were discovered in Botswana sold for a total of $17.37 million.

The Farnese Blue, for the first time in 300 years, will be owned by someone outside the Spanish royal family. And it would be poetic justice if it somehow made its way back “home” to an Indian collector.