Dia­monds owned and worn by Marie Antoinette. Smith­son­ian Institution

Dia­mond neck­lace Napoleon pre­sented to his sec­ond wife, Marie Louise. Smith­son­ian Institution

I spent the last three days in Wash­ing­ton, D.C., our nation’s cap­i­tal, with my fam­ily. We vis­ited The Smithsonian’s Gem Hall. It’s a pil­grim­age I make every time I’m in the city. As per usual, the lines were long and crowded, two deep, to view Marie Antoinette’s dia­monds as well as the neck­lace Napoleon gave to his sec­ond wife, Marie Louise. The gems never cease to mes­mer­ize and remind me that all of these wildly col­or­ful and bril­liant geo­des are an acci­dent of nature. This is imper­fec­tion at its most per­fect moment.

The jew­els, blink­ing in their cases like stars stolen from the night­time sky, astound with the power of their pres­ence, his­tor­i­cal nar­ra­tives, and cer­tainly by their unpar­al­leled beauty. The Hope Dia­mond was dis­played unmounted from its famous white dia­mond set­ting. View­ing the stone sans its daz­zling sur­round really offers a rare per­spec­tive. Its depth of color is round, full, and sump­tu­ous, not unlike a Beaux-Arts chaise cov­ered in mid­night blue mohair-velvet. One just wants to sink deeply into that heav­enly plush and wal­low within it’s confines.

On an unex­pected note: QVC and The Smith­son­ian will be col­lab­o­rat­ing on a jew­elry col­lec­tion this com­ing fall. The pieces will be repro­duced from the museum’s hold­ings, includ­ing Marie Antoinette’s dia­monds (which were  later re-set into the mount­ings you see here), and the Hope Dia­mond. Plus ca change, plus c’est le meme chose.

The Hope Dia­mond. Smith­son­ian Institution