Jean-Baptiste Tavernier

Common card · No. 293610

Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605–1689) was a 17th-century French gem merchant and traveler. Traveling as a private merchant at his own expense, Tavernier estimated that he travelled 60,000 leagues in six voyages to Persia and India between 1630 and 1668 which he published as Les Six Voyages de Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (Six Voyages, 1676). Tavernier is best known for his 1666 purchase of the 116-carat Tavernier Blue diamond that he subsequently sold to Louis XIV in 1668 for 120,000 livres, the equivalent of 172,000 ounces of pure gold, and a letter of ennoblement. In 1669, Tavernier purchased the Seigneury (fief) of Aubonne, located in the Duchy of Savoy near the city of Geneva, and became Baron of Aubonne.

Read on Wikipedia · Image Nicolas de Largillière, Public domain