The Hope Spinel

The sixteenth drawer

Henry Philip Hope was born in Amsterdam in 1774 into the family behind the bank Hope & Co., which by the end of the 18th century was one of the most powerful banks in the world. He was an heir to the bank rather than a banker himself. Toward the end of the century he moved to Britain to escape the political upheaval on the Continent, settled in London with his elder brother, and spent his fortune on art and, above all, on gems.

His collection grew to roughly 700 stones; a gemological history published in 2015 puts it at more than 750 gems and pearls when its catalog appeared in 1839. Hope arranged the stones scientifically in a mahogany cabinet built for them. The treasures went in the sixteenth drawer: the blue diamond now known as the Hope Diamond, the Hope Pearl, an emerald from the turban of Tipu Sultan, and a large octagonal spinel. In 2015 the specialist who handled the spinel's sale said the fact that it was kept beside the blue diamond showed how highly Hope valued it.

Spinel is often mistaken for ruby. The two form in the same rock, are chemically similar and share a pinkish-red color, but very large spinels tend to be clearer than rubies of similar size. Some of the most famous 'rubies' in Britain's Crown Jewels, including the Black Prince's Ruby and the Timur Ruby, are in fact spinels from the same ancient mines in Central Asia.

A decade of family warfare

Hope died in Kent on December 5, 1839. He never married and had no children, and his will did not mention the gems at all. He had secretly given the collection to one of his three nephews during his lifetime, apparently to avoid death duties and keep it together. After his death, two of the nephews each believed the gift was theirs, and a bitter, public dispute followed for about ten years.

The settlement split the collection. The younger nephew, Alexander Beresford-Hope, received most of it, while his elder brother, Henry Thomas Hope, kept eight of the finest stones, among them the blue diamond and the spinel. When Henry Thomas died, the jewels passed to his widow, Anne Adele. Their only daughter had married the 6th Duke of Newcastle, a notorious gambler, so Anne Adele left the Hope jewels to her second grandson, Henry Francis Pelham-Clinton, on condition that he take the Hope name.

Lord Francis Hope, as he became known, had only a lifetime interest in the jewels and needed a court order to sell any of them. He was a gambler too, and by the mid-1890s he had been declared bankrupt, only nine years after receiving the inheritance. He went to court for permission to sell, and in 1901 the blue diamond was sold privately to a dealer. It is now in the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History in Washington.

From the Hope Heirlooms to a Canadian jewel case

The rest of the gems were dispersed at auction in London in 1917. The spinel was lot 35 in the sale of 'The Hope Heirlooms' and was bought by a dealer for GBP 1,060, which press reports in 2015 put at roughly $1,600 at the time.

It next appears in the collection of Lady Mount Stephen, born Georgina Mary 'Gian' Tufnell, second wife of George Stephen, 1st Baron Mount Stephen. Stephen was a Scottish-born financier who rose from stable boy to president of the Bank of Montreal and first president of the Canadian Pacific Railway, and in 1891 became the first Canadian raised to the British peerage. The couple were close to the royal family; Lady Mount Stephen was a lifelong friend of Queen Mary. When her husband's great-niece was presented at court in the 1920s, Lady Mount Stephen lent her the spinel to wear.

When Lady Mount Stephen died in 1933, the spinel passed to her husband's niece, Elsie Reford, the Canadian horticulturist who built the gardens at Estevan Lodge in Grand-Metis, Quebec, now Reford Gardens. Reford gave it to her granddaughter, who was also Lady Mount Stephen's goddaughter. The family that sold it in 2015, direct descendants, had always called it 'Aunt Gian's Hope spinel', and the case still held a handwritten note describing it as a 'spinel-ruby' from the Hope Collection.

Eighteen telephone lines

In September 2015 the spinel was offered at auction in London, its first time on the market in 98 years, with an estimate of GBP 150,000 to 200,000. Before the sale the specialist in charge said it 'could go for a lot more.'

On September 24, 2015, bidding came from around the world through 18 telephone lines, online and in the saleroom, and several telephone bidders fought it out. It sold to a private telephone bidder for GBP 962,500, reported in the US press as $1.47 million, almost five times the high estimate. That came to about $30,000 per carat, nearly double the previous record of $16,000 per carat for a faceted spinel, set in 2013.

What makes it exceptional

The stone is a 50.13-carat octagonal step-cut spinel, described as about the size of a small plum and similar in color, with a rose hue, and about two and a half centimeters across. Before the sale a Swiss gemological laboratory examined it and confirmed it came from the ancient Kuh-i-Lal mines in Tajikistan. Because of its transparency, cut, color and size, the laboratory classed it as an 'exceptional treasure of nature.'

The Kuh-i-Lal mines produced the great historic spinels, but they are hard to reach and, for political reasons, were not worked in the 20th century, so spinels of this size and quality are very rare even without a famous name attached.

It is mounted as a brooch that can also be worn as a pendant, with detachable fittings. The stone sits in decorative old brilliant- and rose-cut diamond claws inside a frame of larger old brilliant-cut diamonds, about 6.50 carats of diamonds in all, set in silver and gold in the 19th-century style.

The numbers

Carat weight

50.13 carats

Cut

Octagonal step cut

Color and clarity

Rose hue; no formal grade published, described as exceptionally transparent

Origin mine

Kuh-i-Lal, Tajikistan, per a Swiss laboratory report

Cutter

Not recorded

Accent diamonds

About 6.50 carats of old brilliant- and rose-cut diamonds

Price per carat (2015)

About $30,000

Timeline

1. Jun 8, 1774

   Henry Philip Hope is born in Amsterdam.

2. 1839

   A catalog of Hope's gem collection is published; the large octagonal spinel is among the treasures of the sixteenth drawer.

3. Dec 5, 1839

   Hope dies in Kent. His will does not mention the gems, and a dispute among his nephews begins.

4. 1901

   With court permission, Lord Francis Hope sells the blue Hope Diamond privately to a dealer.

5. 1917

   The remaining Hope gems are sold at auction in London. The spinel, lot 35 of 'The Hope Heirlooms', goes to a dealer for GBP 1,060.

6. 1933

   Lady Mount Stephen dies, and the spinel passes to Elsie Reford in Canada.

7. 2013

   A faceted spinel sets a record of $16,000 per carat.

8. Sep 5, 2015

   Press reports announce the sale: the spinel's first time on the market in 98 years.

9. Sep 24, 2015

   The spinel sells at auction in London for GBP 962,500, about $30,000 per carat, a world record for a spinel.

The world in 1839

• Jan 9, 1839

  The French Academy of Sciences announces Louis Daguerre's photographic process, the daguerreotype.

• Apr 9, 1839

  The world's first commercial electric telegraph line opens alongside the Great Western Railway in England, from Paddington to West Drayton.

• Apr 19, 1839

  The Treaty of London recognizes Belgium as an independent, neutral kingdom.

• Jun 3, 1839

  Chinese officials begin destroying seized opium at Humen, setting off the First Opium War with Britain.

• Nov 17, 1839

  Giuseppe Verdi's first opera, Oberto, opens in Milan.

• Sep 9, 2015

  Queen Elizabeth II becomes the longest-reigning British monarch, two weeks before the spinel sale.

• Sep 28, 2015

  NASA announces evidence of liquid water on Mars, four days after the sale.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, The Hope Spinel is number 30 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (26 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Henry Philip Hope kept the spinel in the same drawer as the Hope Diamond, the Hope Pearl and an emerald from the turban of Tipu Sultan.
• The family that sold it knew it as 'Aunt Gian's Hope spinel', and its case held a handwritten note calling it a 'spinel-ruby'.
• The Black Prince's Ruby in Britain's Crown Jewels is actually a spinel, thought to come from the same Central Asian mines.
• Lady Mount Stephen lent it to a great-niece to wear when she was presented at court in the 1920s.
• It went 98 years between auctions, from 1917 to 2015.
• The 2015 price per carat was nearly double the previous spinel record, set only two years earlier.