A 45.07 carat fancy vivid yellow diamond is forecast to sell for $2.8m to $3.5m at Phillips New York on Wednesday (12 June).
It leads the New York Jewels Auction, featuring colored diamonds and gemstones, period jewelry, and signed jewels by Cartier, Bulgari, and Van Cleef & Arpels.
The square emerald-cut VS1-clarity stone has classic step-cut faceting, considered an unusual choice to best show off the color and draw out the illusion of greater saturation.
The Fancy Color Research Foundation (FCRF) gives the diamond a total visual score of 11 out of 12, based on inner grade (3), color dispersion (4) and undertone (4), noting that despite its depth percentage, excellent polish and symmetry grades, its visual presence translates to “a diamond appearing smaller in carat weight”.
The diamond will realize $77,657 per carat if it hits its high estimate. In March a 15.51-carat VS2 fancy vivid yellow diamond sold for $1.14m – $73,253 per carat – at Phillips Hong Kong Jewels Auction, beating its low estimate.
Geneva Christie’s went ahead with two of its Geneva auctions, one for jewelry and one for watches, despite the fact that its website has been down since late last week following a cyberattack.
“The Yellow Rose” diamond, pictured above, was the top lot in its “Magnificent Jewels” sale in Geneva.
The 202 ct. Yellow Rose diamond sold for $6.7 million at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels sale in Geneva on Wednesday.
On Tuesday, a smaller but historically significant yellow diamond the 101.29 ct. fancy vivid Allnatt was pulled from Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels auction at the last minute, despite carrying a $6.1 million to $7 million estimate.
A 21.38 carat Fancy Vivid Yellow diamond is to be auctioned tomorrow (31 January) at Sotheby’s Hong Kong with an estimate of HKD 8,000,000 to 11,000,000 HKD ($1m to $1.4m).
The radiant-cut VS1 gem is flanked by two tapered baguette diamonds, mounted in platinum and 18 karat yellow gold, inscribed HW (Harry Winston).
The FCRF (Fancy Color Research Foundation) gives the stone a visual score of 7 out of 12. It says the stone looks slightly larger in relation to its weight, which is an important feature to consider when buying color diamonds.
“A large vivid yellow radiant cut diamond features a low inner grade and prominent colorless patches around the crown area,” it reports. “No significant green or brown undertone is visible in the hue.”
The stone leads the live Important Jewels auction, Sotheby’s first jewelry auction of the year in Hong Kong, comprising a selection of diamonds, colored stones, jadeites and signed jewels.
ALROSA subsidiary JSC Almazy Anabara has recovered a 28.59 carat rough diamond of deep greenish yellow hue the biggest yellow found so far this year.
ALROSA said that following an appraisal, the color of the stone has been determined as fancy intense yellow.
The diamond, discovered at Ebelyakh placer deposit in July, has dimensions of 11.40 x 19.00 x 17.50 mm, and has “insignificant colorless inclusions on the surface,” the miner said.
“This stone is unique because nature seemed to have prepared it for cutting in advance and gave it a pear-like shape,” said Evgeny Agureev, a Member of the Executive committee, and Director of the United Selling Organization of ALROSA.
The United Selling Organization and the company’s cutting division, DIAMONDS ALROSA, have yet to study the diamond and decide whether to auction it as a rough stone or to cut and polished it.
The Almazy Anabara is a leader in producing fancy colored stones. In 2017, it produced a 27.85 carat pure pink diamond the largest pink stone in ALROSA’s history, and a large 34.17 carat vivid yellow diamond.
ALROSA plans to focus its cutting division on the processing of large and colored diamonds and the subsequent sales. Starting this year, ALROSA has been sorting colored diamonds according to a new technology, that includes almost all hues and color grades. Most of these diamonds are processed by DIAMONDS ALROSA the company’s polished diamond unit.
ALROSA produces at least 7,000 carats of colored diamonds per year. In September, it held a True Colors auction in Hong Kong, where it showcased a collection of 250 diamonds of different shapes and hues. The company said it plans to run such auctions regularly.
