Famous diamonds

The Idol's Eye Diamond

A flattened pear shaped stone the size of a bantamÕs egg. another famous diamond that was once set in the eye of an idol before it was stolen. Legend also had it that it was given as a ransom for Princess Rasheetah by the Sheik of Kashmir to the Sultan of Turkey who had abducted her.

The Blue Hope

More notorious than any other diamond. The Hope was once owned by Louis XIV and was officially designated the Ôblue diamond of the crown.' Stolen during the French Revolution, it turned up in London in 1830 and was bought by Henry Philip Hope after whom it is currently named. At that time it acquired its gruesome reputation for bad luck: all the Hope family died in poverty. A similar misfortune befell a later owner, Edward McLean. You can see the Blue Hope today at the Smithsonian in Washington.

The Eureka Diamond

As one of the first major diamonds found in South Africa, this stone had been appropriately named. In 1867, a boy found a pebble near the banks of the Orange River. A month later a neighbor a neighbor offered to buy it; his mother refused payment and gave the stone to him. Later the 21 carat rough was cut into this 10.73 brilliant.

Kimberley Diamond

Originally a 490-carat rough, this champagne colored stone named after the Kimberley Mine in South Africa, was cut to 70 carats in 1921, and to its current emerald shape in 1958. The Kimberley was widely exhibited until it was sold to an undisclosed collector from Texas in 1971.

The Kahn Canary

Unearthed in Crater of Diamonds State Park, near Murfreesboro, Arkansas in 1977, the Kahn Canary is considered to be an unnofficial symbol of the state. Bought and named by Stan Kahn of Love Story¨ jeweler Kahn Jewlers of Pine Bluff, Arkansas, the Kahn Canary has been lent to Hillary Rodham Clinton to wear at all of her husband's inaugurals, both as Governor of Arkansas, and as President of the United States.