Sotheby's Presents An Exceptional Pink Diamond

Sotheby's presents a rare and exquisite 10.64 carat fancy, vivid purplish pink, grade D diamond. Estimated sales price ranges between $20 and $26 million. Photo courtesy Sotheby's Hong Kong.   On October 7th, Sotheby's Hong Kong presents Magnificent Jewels & Jadeite. Not surprisingly, this exceptional fancy purplish pink diamond leads the sale with an estimated sales price of between $20 and $26 million.  

The Rarity of Pink Diamonds

What makes a diamond exceptional? In the case of this exquisite fancy pink diamond, it begins with color. Pink is among the rarest colors found in nature. Hence, pink diamonds remain few and far between. Then, just to sweeten the deal, nature added fhila vivid purplish tint. Pink diamonds remain a mystery to geologists. Generally, experts understand that an atomic-level defect creates what they call a color center. This defect causes that portion of the stone to selectively absorb light in the visible spectrum. In this case, the center absorbs every color except pink. Beyond that, the mechanism behind pink diamonds remains under intense scrutiny as scientists, geologists, and gemologists attempt to discover just what causes them to appear pink. In addition to the mystery of their coloring, the occurrence of pink in diamonds is exceptionally rare. Most contemporary pink diamonds hail from the Argyle Mine in Australia. According to the GIA, the Argyle Mine produces 20 million carats in diamonds annually. Of these, only 0.1% are colored. Still a smaller portion of those are pink, making pink diamonds rarer still. (source) On top of that, pink diamonds over 10 carats in size prove even rarer. Thus, Sotheby's offers an extraordinary opportunity for one lucky collector to possess a diamond normally reserved for royalty.  

Famous Pink Diamonds

Speaking of royalty, most famous pink diamonds belong to members of royal families around the world. The most famous of these colored diamonds originally surfaced in the Middle East, Persia in particular. Two of the most famous pink diamonds include the Darya-i-Nur (Sea of Light) and the Noor-ul-Ain (Light of the Eye). The former pink diamond weighs between 175 and 195 carats and exhibits a beautiful pale pink color. Currently it belongs to the Iranian Crown Jewels. The latter weighs 60 carats and belongs to the Empress consort of Iran, Farah Pahlavi. As a gift, Harry Winston mounted the pink diamond as the central stone in the Empress's wedding tiara. More recently, in 1947, a miner in Tanzania discovered a 23.60 carat pink diamond in Dr. John Williamson's mine. Dr. Williamson named the diamond after himself and then gifted it to Princess Elizabeth as a wedding present. The current Queen of England wore the Williamson Diamond mounted in a brooch to two subsequent weddings during the 1960s. This month, a royal-worthy pink diamond will be purchased by a private collector or dealer, probably not of royal background. This fortunate person will also enjoy the privilege of naming what is sure to prove one of the most famous pink diamonds in the world.  

Sotheby's Presents an Extraordinary Pink Diamond

Listed as Lot #1820, this superb diamond rests between two trapeze diamonds mounted in a ring fashioned of white and pink gold. Shaped as a cut-cornered rectangular mixed-cut stone, the diamond received a GIA grade of Fancy Vivid Purplish Pink of natural color. In addition, the GIA gave the stone an Internally Flawless rating. To find a diamond of this size and color with such exceptional clarity is inordinately rare. Sotheby's considers the pink diamond one of the rarest objects on earth. No wonder they chose it as the lead of their upcoming Magnificent Jewels & Jadeite auction. In addition to this exquisite diamond, the sale also features an extraordinary collection of music-inspired jewels by Anna Hu. Of course, the sale also includes rare and exceptional jadeite jewels, among them a few in the rare and beautiful lavender color. For a complete listing and details about the sale, I invite you to visit their website. ~Angela Magnotti Andrews