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| Dee Beers' Wondrous Sphere |
Beautifully crafted in the style of a glittering
three-dimensional astrolabe or celestial object d’art, De Beers’ Wondrous
Sphere incorporates 476 polished and rough diamonds placed on orbiting white
gold rings articulated around a 13.17-carat olive green rough diamond. That
center diamond took De Beers chief diamond buyer Andrew Coxon nine-months
to find, “and I can’t tell you how many I discounted during my search!” says Coxon,
who is the president of the De Beers Institute of Diamonds.
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| 1.17ct Natural Fancy Vivid Green diamond and 3.84cts diamond ring by Moussaieff. |
“The design required a rough diamond of stature and beauty,” Coxon
explains, adding the diamond would have probably go straight to the polishing
wheel if he hadn’t “rescued” it.
Natural Vivid Green diamonds are the second-rarest diamonds
to be found naturally— Fancy Red diamonds being the rarest— says Coxon who has
bought and sold some of the world’s most famous and largest diamonds including
the 59.60-carat CTF Pink that came from a 132.5-carat rough diamond mined by De
Beers in 1999 and which was bought by jewelry retailer Chow Tai Fook at
Sotheby’s Hong Kong last April, setting a new world auction record for any
diamond at $71.2 million or 1.19 million a carat. The previous year (2016),
Chow Tai Fook set the auction world record for a Fancy Vivid green diamond,
when it bought the “Aurora Green, for $16.8 million or $3.3 million per carat.
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| 1.21ct Fancy Yellow Green diamond, 1.01ct Fancy Blue diamond and 0.92ct Fancy Intense Pink diamond ring by Moussaieff. |
While other colored diamonds form as a
result of a "contamination" in the carbon crystal (such as boron for
blues and nitrogen for yellows), the green color results from millions of years
of exposure to natural radiation beneath the surface of the earth. The largest
and perhaps finest natural green diamond known is the 40.7-carat Dresden Green,
a pear-shaped diamond first acquired by Frederick Augustus II, King of Poland
from a Dutch merchant in 1741, and it now resides permanently in the Green
Vault of the Dresden Royal Palace. The second largest green diamond, the
Gruosi, is owned by De Grisogono and it weighs 25 carats. It is set in a gold
ring bedazzled with 282 black diamonds created by the Swiss luxury jeweler.
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| 1.48ct Natural Fancy Vivid Yellow Green diamond by Moussaieff |
“The most attractive modifier is the blue green. They can
have a wonderful Caribbean Sea color. For me, as a professional, I actually
prefer those to the straight vivid green because it has a warmer hue. But it’s
not as rare as the vivid green. The least valuable are the grayish yellowish
green diamonds, which are actually very affordable. You could buy a 3-carat grayish
yellowish green for US$15,000-20,000 per carat,” explains Graeme Thompson,
Bonhams’ Director of Jewelry in Asia.
Thompson points out, “Yellowish and grayish green
diamonds are featured in our auctions quite frequently, but we’ve never had a
fancy vivid green diamond.” adding, “We did have a 1.24 carat fancy intense
green diamond in 2015, which sold for HK$1 million.” The auction house will offer
a beautiful fancy deep green diamond in May, which Thomson describes as having “a
slightly darker tone than a fancy vivid green diamond, a very alpine color.”
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| 1.48ct Natural Fancy Vivid Yellow Green diamond by Moussaieff |
Thompson says the market for green diamonds is “very much
in Asia,” because the color is considered auspicious by Asian buyers who already
have a long tradition of appreciating Jadeite.
That Asian interest has been noted by Alisa Moussaieff,
the 88-year old driving force of the London-based Moussaieff Jewellers who says
that in recent years, Asian jewelry lovers have become “more and more
discerning when it comes to the finer points in colored diamonds.” The high-end
jeweler point out “the color of green diamonds is extremely versatile and
combines really well with other colors in diamonds.” Moussaieff likes to pair
green diamonds with pink diamonds in her creations.
Prices for green diamonds have been rising, but
collectors also need to be cautious and buy with their “eyes and heart,” as
well as the backing of a certificate from a body such as the Gemological
Institute of America (GIA), says Thompson.
BUYER BEWARE
While natural green diamonds are extremely rare, the
color can be reproduced artificially so convincingly that it can be difficult
for a seasoned jeweler to distinguish between a natural green diamond and one artificially
treated.
To reassure buyers, the GIA has developed thorough,
in-depth lab tests that manage to rule decisively whether the diamond's green
color was created in a natural or artificial process. “Very few green diamonds
pass the stringent tests,” says Coxon, adding that it has now become a
requirement to show the original rough diamond to the diamond grading
laboratory for them to examine its original Green skin, before it is partially polished
away in the manufacturing process.
“Never buy any Fancy Coloured diamond which does not have
a recent GIA diamond grading report and which is not sourced for you by a
trusted brand with undoubted expertise,” Coxon advices.
He adds, “In addition to the vital GIA certificate and a
trusted brand’s guidance, the most important rules to remember when purchasing
a piece of diamond jewelry are: eye, brain, heart. Do the diamonds excite your
eyes, do they mesmerize your brain, is your heart captivated by them? Choose
for beauty!”
A Version of this article was first published in ROBB REPORT SINGAPORE (February 2018)