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FANCY COLORED DIAMONDS

The Type IIa fancy-pink diamond weighing 10.64 carats, in an 18-karat white and rose gold ring with trapeze diamonds, which sold for $19.9 million at
Sotheby’s Hong Kong in October.

 

OCTOBER IS AWASH IN PINK

October, it appears, will be remembered as a month that is awash in pink. Sotheby’s magnificent Jewels and Jaedite sale proved to be all that it hoped to be, when its top lot, when a Type IIa fancy -pink diamond weighing 10.64 carats in an 18-karat white and rose gold ring with trapeze diamonds sold for $19.9 million.

The sales price was within the pre-sale estimate of $19.1 to $25.5 million, and it accounted for more than the half the full sales value of the entire auction, which Sotheby’s reported as $38.3 million.

The diamond was accompanied by GIA report that described it as fancy vivid purplish pink, natural color, internally flawless.

It was not the only items of fancy colored jewelry that reached its forecast potential. The auction featured a series of items by contemporary Chinese high jeweler Anna Hu. Among them was “The Dunhuang Pipa Necklace,” which had as its centerpiece a 100-carat fancy intense yellow diamond. It was expected to sell for between $5 million as $6.3 million, and in the end brought in $5.8 million. 

RIO TINTO REVEALS ARGYLE DREAMING COLLECTION

Also in October, the rough diamond mining company Rio Tinto has unveiled in New York an iconic set of jewelry that had been handcrafted with diamonds from its Argyle mine in Australia. The gold used in the piece was mined and minted by Rio Tinto in the United States. 

The $1.1 million necklace and ring known as Argyle Dreaming, was created by famed international designer, master craftsman and jeweler John Calleija. 

The one-off necklace and ring pay homage to the ancient landscape and majestic colors of the east Kimberley region of Western Australia, home to the 1.6 billion year old Argyle gems. 

Comprising 673 pink, white, yellow, blue and champagne Argyle diamonds and 237 grams of Rio Tinto’s Kennecott gold, the jewelry took over 800 hours to create. 

The features a 3.55-carat white Argyle diamond in its center which can be switched out with the Argyle champagne diamond at the centerpiece of the ring. 

Argyle’s Fancy Colored Diamonds in shades of pink, blue and yellow are accented throughout the design.

The Argyle Dreaming ring by John Calleija. 

The $1.1 million Argyle Dreaming necklace, created by John Calleija. It features pink, white, yellow, blue and champagne Argyle diamonds, and has as its centerpiece a 3.55-carat white Argyle diamond that can be switched out with the Argyle champagne diamond.


LAST DAYS OF OPERATION FOR AUSTRALIAN DIAMOND MINE

Rio Tinto’s Argyle diamond mine is the world’s largest producer of colored diamonds. The mine, which is located about 2,600 kilometers northeast of the Western Australia state capital of Perth, will close next year after almost four decades of production. 

“There is going to be a fair bit of supply which is going to come out of the market,” said Arnaud Soirat, Rio’s head of copper and diamonds, making the announcement in June. “In late 2020 we’ll be stopping operations and will start the rehabilitation of the site.”

Argyle currently is the source of about 90 percent of the world’s pink diamonds, which nonetheless still only account for about 0.01 percent of its total output.

More than three-quarters of Argyle’s output is composed of lower-value brown diamonds, with the mine’s overall output sells selling for an average of between $15 and $25 a carat. That a far from the hundreds of thousands of dollars per carat that can be received for a Fancy Pink stone. The diamond sold in month in Hong Kong went for about $1.87 million per carat.

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