Diamond Engagement Rings Specialist

The Dubai sale that is coming up next month is going to be one of a kind for Christie’s. It is going to feature a range of jewellery with unique gemstones and designs from some of the leading international jewellery houses. One of the pieces is an over 26 carat rectangular yellow diamond while another is an over 17 carat rectangular D colour diamond in a ring. It will also include, for the first time, five jewellers from the Middle East who will be showcasing their designs with these other pieces of jewellery.

The five jewellers are André Marchais, Selim Mouzannar, Sevan Bicakci, Noor Fares and Nadine Kanso. Most of the designs that will be on show from them will be modern and contemporary. The designers come from all over the region – from Beirut, Turkey, Lebanon, etc. Some of them belong to traditional jeweller families.

It’s a flawless diamond and it is all of 32 carats. The diamond has an emerald cut and it belonged to Leonore Annenberg who worked as US Chief of Protocol in the Reagan administration in the US. She was married to Walter Annenberg, the billionaire publisher who passed away seven years ago. She passed away early this year and the auction house was commissioned to sell it in New York.

The diamond is set in a ring and has smaller pear-shaped diamonds on either side of it. It’s a huge diamond – almost the size of a walnut and it was cut by the famous David Webb of Manhattan. Christie’s thought they would get between £1.8 million and £3 million for it. What they did not expect from the buyer who remains anonymous was the astounding amount of close to £5 million that they got. The last 30-carat diamond they sold went for £1.8 million.

Come October 15 and two large beautiful diamonds are going to be up for sale at Christie’s New York Sale. Called the Ponahalo Diamonds, they weigh 102.11 and 70.87 carats approximately and are among some of the finest diamonds in the world today.

The Ponahalo Diamond was found in a DeBeers mine and since it was a very special diamond, it was given a name, following a tradition of christening the ones that were the best. This one was 316.15 carats and the name meant ‘vision’ in the local dialect. This large rough diamond was cut up into four diamonds and these two that are on sale took 1 ½ years to shape.

Whatever is realised from the sale of these diamonds will go towards the Diamond Empowerment Fund.

The New York Sale also features a whole lot of jewellery that are outstanding like exquisitely designed diamond engagement rings, necklaces, brooches, etc. The estimated sale proceeds are in the region of around £18 million.

Ask Christie’s and they will tell you it’s true. A few days ago, a Christie’s auction in Hong Kong saw the largest colourless diamond in 18 years go for over US $6 million. According to Christie’s this rare gem was auctioned in Hong Kong – and it’s the largest diamond thus far to be sold in Asia – simply because they see the Asian market emerging as a strong demand for high priced diamonds. Due no doubt to the large crop of private collectors that seem to be making their presence felt in these auctions ever since the spurt in the economies of China, India and Russia, not to mention some of the smaller South East Asian economies.

The diamond sold is over 100 carats - 101.27 to be precise and it was sold at a price that was very much an estimated one. It is absolutely flawless with an F colour and is classified a VVS1 stone. To date, there have been only three large colourless diamonds that have been auctioned and they have all been sold in Switzerland. The diamond, it is said is the size of a quail’s egg though Asian collectors seem to be more in favour of the perfection of the stone rather than the size. This diamond however, wins hands down on both counts.

This auction in Hong Kong is being viewed as one of Christie’s most successful ones as they sold jewellery here worth over US $60 million. There was also a green diamond over 10 carats that fetched nearly US $ 3.5 million. A pair of emerald earrings that belonged to a Russian Grand Duchess also fetched a record price.