One of a kind

When ancient civilizations first discovered diamonds thousands of years ago, they immediately realized there was something special about them. In fact, some even believed that they possess magical abilities. Not long after that most of the special diamonds in the world became the property of wealthy and influential people throw history. As it turns out, many of the unique diamonds that drew the bigger attention were fancy colored diamonds. Those gifted and one-of-a-kind diamonds can owe their fame to their beauty, size and at times to their historical importance.

THE PINK STAR DIAMOND

Also known as the Steinmetz Pink, is a diamond weighing 59.60 carat (11.92 g), rated in color as Fancy Vivid Pink alongside internally flawless clarity grade by the Gemological Institute of America. The Pink Star was mined by De Beers in 1999 in South Africa, and weighed 132.5 carat in the rough. The Pink Star is the largest known diamond having been rated Vivid Pink. As a result of this exceptional rarity, the Beny Steinmetz Group took a cautious 20 months to cut, even for its large size it considered enormous amount of time. It was unveiled in Monaco on 29 May 2003 in a public ceremony.

On April 4, 2017, it was sold on Sotheby’s auction in Hong Kong to Dr. Henry Cheng Kar-Shun, chairman of the jeweler Chow Tai Fook for no less than 71.2 million dollars.

THE BLUE HOPE DIAMOND

The Hope Diamond is a 45.52-carat (9.104 g), originally extracted in the 17th century from the Kollur Mine in Guntur, India. It has been described as fancy dark grayish-blue as well as being “dark blue in color” or having a “steely-blue” hue.

Its exceptional size has revealed new information about the formation of diamonds. It is blue under ordinary light and exhibits a red phosphorescence under exposure to ultraviolet light. It is classified as a type II-b diamond.

The earliest records of the diamond show that French gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier purchased it in 1666 as the Tavernier Blue. The stone was cut to produce the French Blue, which Tavernier sold to King Louis XIV of France in 1668, from whom it was eventually stolen in 1791. It was then re-cut, with the largest section of the diamond acquiring the name “Hope” when it appeared in an 1839 catalogue of a gem collection owned by a London banking family of the same name, the Hope Family. The diamond has had several owners, including Washington socialite Evalyn Walsh McLean, who was often seen wearing it. New York gem merchant Harry Winston purchased the diamond in 1949 and toured it for several years before giving it to the National Museum of Natural History of the United States in 1958, where it is nowadays on permanent exhibition.

 

 

THE MOUSSAIEFF RED DIAMOND

Formerly known as the Red Shield Diamond is a diamond measuring 5.11 carats (1.022 g) with a triangular brilliant cut, rated in color as Fancy Red by the Gemological Institute of America. When considering other famous diamonds back throw the course of history a 5-carat size maybe doesn’t sound so unique compared to the others but it’s the world’s largest known red diamond, the rarest color of all fancy color diamonds.

The Moussaieff Red was discovered by a Brazilian grumpier named Ze Tatu in a manual digging in the district of Major Porto in 1989. The rough stone weighed 13.9 carats (2.78 g).

The diamond was purchased and cut by the William Goldberg Diamond Corp., where it went by its original name, the Red Shield. It was purchased for around 8 million dollars in 2001 or 2002 by Shlomo Moussaieff, an Israeli-born jewelry dealer in London. It is currently owned by Moussaieff Jewellers Ltd.

 

THE DRESDEN GREEN DIAMOND

The Dresden Green Diamond is the largest and finest natural green diamond ever discovered; a 41-carat (8.2 g) originated in the mines of India. The Dresden Green is a rare Type IIa, with a clarity of VS1 and it is said to be potentially internally flawless, if slightly recut. It was purchased cut and polished in India by famous London diamond merchant, Mr. Marcus Moses, who intended selling it to His Majesty King George I (1714-27) for £10,000. The stone was eventually purchased by Duke Frederick Augustus II (1733 -1763) at the Leipzig Fair in 1741 for 400,000 Thaler. Following two earlier settings, in 1768 the Dresden Green on a hat clasp, its current setting.

It is named after Dresden, the capital of the German state of Saxony, where it has been on display for most of the last two centuries, latterly in the New Green Vault at Dresden Castle. After World War II, it was relocated to Moscow for a decade before being returned to Dresden.

 

Cover photo by Graff.