Regent diamond, also called Pitt Diamond, a brilliant-cut stone with a slight blue tinge that once was the outstanding gem of the French crown jewels; it is said to have been discovered by a slave in the Parteal Mines (also spelled 'Partial') on the Kistna River of India about 1701 and weighed 410 carats in rough form. The slave stole the enormous rough concealing it in bandages of a self-inflicted leg wound, and fled to the seacoast. There, he divulged his secret to an English sea captain, offering him half the value of the stone in return for safe passage to a free country. But during the voyage to Bombay, temptation overcame this seafaring man and he murdered the slave took th diamond. After selling it to an Indian diamond merchant named Jamchund for about $5000, the captain squandered the proceeds in dissipation and, in a fit of remorse and delirium tremens, hanged himself.
In 1702, Jamchund sold the stone for about $100,000 to Sir Thomas Pitt, British governor in Madras, who was the grandfather of William Pitt of American Revolutionary fame. Known to historians as the "Elder Pitt," William was the British Prime Minister for whom Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was named. Thomas Pitt published a letter in the London Daily Post to counter rumours that he had stolen the gem. The stone was cut to a 141-carat cushion brilliant called the Pitt diamond and was purchased in 1717 by the Duke of Orleans, regent of France, from which it gets the name Regent.
The royals used the stone in many ways including being set in the Crown of Louis XV, as a hair ornament of Queen Marie and as an adornment in the hat of Marie Antoinette. After the French Revolution the stone was set in the hilt of Napoleon Bonaparte's sword. Napoleon's wife, Marie Louisa, carried the Regent back to Austria upon his death. Later her father returned it to the French Crown Jewels. Today, it remains in the French Royal Treasury at Louvre.
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