Viewing page 4 of 16

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

^[[M&P
1959]]
2

Though its early history is not known with certainty, the legends attached to the Hope date back many hundreds of years. Speculation ties the Hope to the famous "French Blue," once the eye of an idol in India, later part of the Royal Jewels of Louis XIV of France. Mr. Winston acquired  the Hope from the estate of the late Mrs. Evalyn Walsh McLean of Washington in 1949. It was presented to Mrs. McLean by her husband, Edward B. McLean, in 1911. Its known history, prior to the McLean purchase, dates from 1830 when David Eliason, a noted gem dealer, sold the stone to Henry Thomas Hope, an Irish squire and banker. The stone was shown at the London Exposition in 1951. In 1867 it was sold at Christie's in London. It was acquired in 1908 by the Sultan Habib Bey, but after the Young Turks Revolt it was again placed on the market, and purchased by  McLean in 1911.

The Vetlesen Jade Collection.- One of the world's finest collections of Chines jade carvings was presented to the Smithsonian Institution on February 5, 1959. The collection, made over a period of many years by Mrs. Maude Morell Vetlesen of New York, was presented on behalf of her estate by her son and executor, Mr. Edmund C. Monell.

The collection comprises 130 pieces, carved in one or the other of the two jade minerals, nephrite or jadeite. Each piece is of superb quality. Some specimens date from the Ming Dynasty, but most are from the Ching Dynasty (1644-1912). 

Transcription Notes:
z@nellie- I think the London Exposition was in 1851 not 1951.