Singles Matchmaking

When we think of the “heart shape” we more often than not think of romance and love. It has managed to work its way into our treasured holidays such as St. Valentine’s Day, into our greeting cards and gifts, and into our designs of jewelry as well. This jewelry is often made out of precious metals (such as gold and silver) and gems (such as diamonds and rubies), and when we incorporate the “heart shape” we are creating an object that portrays the eternal ideas of not only romance and love, but caring and belonging as well. We will now explore the origins of the “heart shape symbol”, heart jewelry, and learn about the world’s most famous heart-shaped diamond.

For years and years the heart symbol has been used to refer to not only the spiritual and emotional, but also the moral and intellectual core of a human being. It is usually colored “red” as this suggests not only blood (which the heart is responsible for pumping thorough the body), but strong emotions like passion and what emotion can possibly be stronger than that of true love?

Finding a true heart-shaped diamond is a rare event, but they do exist. For example, the most rare and famous of these is the “Blue Heart” (also called the Eugenie Blue) diamond. Many people consider it to be the best example of a blue diamond that the world has ever seen. The only diamond that can rival its fame is perhaps the Hope Diamond, but with the unique heart shape of the “Blue Heart”, it really stands out in the crowd. From the standpoint of pure elegance and simplicity, there are few diamonds that can hold a candle to the “Blue Heart”.

The “Blue Heart” diamond is 30.82 metric carats, and it’s debatable whether it is of either African or Indian origin. The rough diamond was cut in Neuilly, Paris by Antanik Ekyanan in either 1909 or 1910. Currently it’s dimensions are: 20mm x 19mm x 12mm.

The diamond wound up in the possession of an Argentinian woman named Mrs. Unzue, who had it set into a corsage. It was sold to Cartier in 1910. When it was sold to Van Cleef and Arpels in 1953 it was still in the corsage setting.

Next stop…an European family. They then sold this heart jewelry gem to a gentleman named Harry Winston in 1959. He put the diamond into a ring, and then sold it to Marjorie Merriweather Post, who eventually donated it to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. This wonderful example of heart jewelry is currently on display at this institution today. Want a bit of trivia? At one point the “Blue Heart” Diamond, the Hope Diamond, and the Heart of Eternity were all on display at the Smithsonian.

If you want to find out more about heart jewelry or open heart jewelry, then visit Betsy Johnson’s blogs.