Named after its owner, the Tereshchenko is a pear-shaped blue diamond weighing 42.92 carats. Its color, size and clarity have made it a legendary gem—a legend enhanced by its history.
In 1911, Cartier sold to Theodore Tereshchenko, a Russian businessman, a pear-shaped type IIb blue diamond weighing 42.92 carats. At the time it was considered the second-largest blue diamond, after the Hope. Originally placed on a pendant with a lozenge-shaped diamond, in 1914 the Tereshchenko diamond was set by Cartier—at the owner’s request—in a necklace composed exclusively of colored diamonds, the rarest and most desirable variety.
The Tereshchenko diamond resurfaced at auction in Geneva in 1984. It was then the fourth-largest blue diamond in the world.
