Find Out How the Hope Pearl and Hope Diamond Reunited After 156 Years Apart

Let’s celebrate June’s official birthstone with a deep dive into the backstory of one of the most celebrated natural pearls in the world — the Hope Pearl — and its famous sibling, the Hope Diamond.

How these two museum-quality pieces were reunited after 156 years apart is a heartwarming and intriguing tale. Read on…

Back in the early part of the 19th century, a London banker named Henry Philip Hope amassed a collection of fabulous gems, including the deep blue 45.52-carat Hope Diamond and 150 extraordinarily rare natural pearls.

Hope’s namesake pearl, which was once believed to be the largest natural saltwater baroque pearl in existence, is set as a pendant, with the narrower end capped with a crown of red enameled gold set with diamonds, rubies and emeralds. The pearl stands two inches tall and weighs 450 carats.

It exhibits an irregular pear shape and a unique coloration, grading from dark bronze to white. Experts believe the baroque specimen is a blister pearl, which grows attached to the mollusk’s shell.

Both the Hope Diamond (purchased in 1824) and Hope Pearl (purchased between 1800 and 1810) were mentioned prominently in the 1839 publication titled “Catalogue of the Collection of Pearls and Precious Stones Formed by Henry Philip Hope, Esq.”

Hope, who never married, died that same year at the age of 65.

A bitter legal battle ensued among his three nephews. Each of them made claims on the estate, and after 10 years, a settlement was reached and the jewels were split up. The pearl ended up in the South Kensington Museum for many years, and was sold at a Christie’s auction in 1886 for £9,000 (about £950,000, or $1.18 million, in today’s valuation).

The Hope Diamond and Hope Pearl remained apart for the next 156 years. But then, in 2005, the diamond and pearl siblings enjoyed a momentous six-month reunion at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC. The Hope Diamond was already a resident of the National Gem and Mineral collection at the National Museum of Natural History.

The Hope Pearl was one of 12 extraordinary specimens featured in a special exhibition called “The Allure of Pearls” in the Harry Winston Gallery of the Janet Annenberg Hooker Hall of Geology, Gems and Minerals. The Hope Pearl was loaned for the presentation by an unnamed collector from England.

Other specimens in the exhibition included La Peregrina, the Pearl of Asia, the Drexel Pearl, the Black Beauty, the Pearl of Kuwait, the Queen Mary Brooch with two large natural pink conch pearls, the South Sea Drops, the Survival Pearl and the Paspaley Pearl.

A natural pearl is extraordinarily rare and valuable because it is formed inside a mollusk totally by chance, without human intervention. A natural pearl forms when an irritant, such as a grain of sand, slips between the mollusk’s shell and its mantle tissue.

To protect itself from the irritant, the mollusk secretes layer upon layer of nacre, which is the iridescent material that eventually produces a pearl. Cultured pearls, by comparison, are grown under controlled conditions, where a bead is implanted in the body of the mollusk to stimulate the secretion of nacre.

Pearl is one of the three official birthstones for June. The others are alexandrite and moonstone.

Credits: Smithsonian/NMNH Photo Services.

Did the Subs Scanning Titanic Wreckage Spot a Megalodon-Tooth Necklace?

Employing a pair of submersibles named Romeo and Juliet, the Guernsey-based Magellan company took six weeks to complete the largest underwater scan in history. In the end, the high-tech firm had compiled 700,000 high-resolution images in an effort to map every millimeter of the wreck site of the ill-fated Titanic.

Magellan stitched together the images to deliver an incredibly detailed, 3D look at the 882-foot luxury liner from every angle. Its cameras were able to see minute details, from the serial number on one of the ship's propellers, to a unique piece of jewelry lost by a distinguished passenger on April 14, 1912 — the night the Titanic sank after hitting an iceberg while on its maiden voyage from Southampton, England, to New York.

At a depth of 12,500 feet, the submersibles were able to spot a turquoise and gold shark tooth necklace lying on the ocean floor in a field of white circular ornaments, possibly ivory hoops or carved beads.

But, this is not an average shark tooth necklace, according to breathless accounts infiltrating the Internet, but the tooth of a prehistoric megalodon. Really?

The extinct shark existed millions of years ago and grew to 65 feet in length, the size of one and a half school buses. It was at the top of the food chain with a bite force of between 108,514 and 182,201 Newtons. That's nearly 10 times the crunching power of a great white shark.

It also flashed enormous teeth. In fact, the name of the species is derived from the Greek, meaning "big tooth."

The problem with the premise that the scan revealed a megalodon-tooth necklace is that the giant shark's tooth measures about 7 inches from point to base — not exactly the size a jeweler would deem fit for a fashionable gold pendant. No, we're pretty sure the jewelry is set with a conventional shark tooth.

Even so, the Magellan team is reportedly using artificial intelligence to scan footage of passengers boarding the ship to see if anyone was wearing a shark-tooth necklace during the voyage. From there, they might be able to track down the ancestors of that person and potentially reunite them with the jewelry.

As for now, the Magellan team may not collect any artifacts on the ocean floor due to restrictions placed by the US and British governments.

Of the 2,240 passengers and crew on the Titanic, more than 1,500 lost their lives in the North Atlantic Ocean about 400 miles south of Newfoundland, Canada. The ship sank in two parts and the debris field spreads over three miles between the bow and stern.

Credits: Titanic screen captures via Magellan. Megalodon tooth photo by Fakirbakir, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

Actress Bella Thorne Shows Off Her 10-Carat Emerald-Cut Engagement Ring

Former Disney star Bella Thorne took to Instagram on Friday to announce her engagement to TV producer Mark Emms and to show off what is estimated to be a 10-carat emerald-cut diamond engagement ring.

Thorne posted a series of romantic photos along with the simple caption, "my love." In the first photo, Thorne's 25.2 million followers got to see a close-up of the ring, which highlights a large center stone flanked by tapered baguettes.

Emms — who is best known as the producer of the Netflix series, Bad Vegan, and the co-owner of The Mulberry, a trendy bar in New York's SoHo district — popped the question on May 13 at Thorne's home in California, according to Vogue. The publication reported that after the proposal, Thorne and Emms celebrated the momentous event with family.

Vogue noted that the couple met last August at model Cara Delevingne's birthday party in Ibiza, Spain.

“It was love at first sight as the sun rose,” she told the publication.

The actress is already working on the arrangements for a countryside wedding in the UK, where Emms resides and works. She also told Vogue that she plans to make a number of wardrobe changes on her special day.

"Every bride does not need one gown, but four!" she exclaimed.

Thorne's latest engagement comes nearly a year after the actress split from her former fiancé, Benjamin Mascolo, in June of 2022. Thorne and the Italian singer were engaged in March of 2021.

Less than a month after accepting a 4-carat, pear-shaped diamond engagement ring from the Mascolo, Thorne reciprocated the loving gesture by giving her then-fiancé a diamond engagement ring of his own — a diamond-studded, openwork gold ring.

Might Emms have an engagement ring in his future? Stay tuned.

Credits: Instagram.com/Bellathorne.