Just when you thought the museum scene couldn’t get any better, or at least more beautiful than the Art Nouveau treasures at The Cincinnati Art Museum, comes along a show entitled The Nature of Diamonds at The Field Museum in Chicago. The exhibition will be on show from October 23rd until March 28, 2010.

The focus is as all-consuming as the gem itself, and explores geological data, the mining process, retail and fashion aspects, and of course some pretty fabulous rocks, including Princess Matilda’s corsage ornament (yes, the one in my book) on loan from the venerably posh and uber private Siegelson. The rose, which is nearly six inches in width, was made for Princess Mathilde, niece of Napoleon I in 1855, and was later owned by Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt, the headmistress of New York society. The motif reflects the typically lush presentation of court jewels during the mid-nineteenth-century as well as a devout reverence for flora, depicted in its organic and garden-plucked glory. The gem-laden composition was set with 2,637 Brazilian diamonds weighing one-hundred-and-thirty-six carats and eight-hundred-and-sixty smaller stones.