How often does one come across phrases such as "present location unknown" or "all trace of the diamond has been lost" when undertaking research into the histories of famous diamonds? It is all the more satisfying, therefore, to recall an item in a newspaper that appeared in January, 1962, under the heading "Rare diamond reappears." This refered to the Wittelsbach, a diamond of a rare dark blue color whose reappearance, even though after a mere few decades, was nonetheless an exciting and welcoming event.
The Wittelsbach weighs 35.56 metric carats and measures 24.40 mm in diameter and 8.29 mm in depth. (The diameter figure is very likely the length of the diamond. Being slightly oval, the width would be a few millimeters less.) It is pure apart from a few surface scratches that were probably caused during removal from its setting. The diamond has been cut with 82 facets arranged in an unusual pattern -- the star facets on the crown are vertically split and the pavilion has sixteen needle-like facets, arranged in pairs, pointing outward from the culet facet.
The first record of the Wittelsbach dates from the latter part of the seventeenth century. One fact is thus certain: the diamond must be of Indian origin. Furthermore, it has been suggested that a diamond of such a rare color must once have formed part of the famous French Blue Diamond, weighing 112½ old carats in the rough, which Tavernier bought in India and later sold to Louis XIV of France. The principal gem which this yielded is the Hope, weighing 45.52 carat, so that technical reasons alone clearly preclude the possibility of the Wittelsbach having been fashioned from the same piece of rough. The sole possibility of a connection between the Wittelsbach and the Hope lies in Tavernier's French Blue Diamond being merely part of a much larger piece of rough that had at some time been split in two (a very unlikely occurence). However, it would be interesting to ascertain whether the Wittelsbach has physical properties similar to the Hope.
The history of the Wittelsbach has been uneventful; for the most part it has been passed down from one royal owner to another. The gem formed part of the gift which Philip IV of Spain gave to his 15-year-old daughter, the Infanta Margareta Teresa, up the occasion of her betrothel to the Emperor Leopold I of Austria in 1664. (Any chance of tracing the earlier history of the Wittelsbach was lost when the Madrid archives were destroyed during the Spanish Civil War of 1936-39.) The bride's father commanded the treasurer to compose a dowry from a recent acquisition of precious stones from India and Portugal. The resulting selection included a large blue diamond. Unfortunately, the marriage between the Emperor and the Infanta ended with her early death in 1675. Her jewels passed to her husband, and listen in a document dated March 23rd, 1673:
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