Gemstones and Fancy Colored Diamonds Break Two Price Records

Sotheby's Hong Kong held an auction on October 7, 2014 highlighting their Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite. The auction featured 339 lots highlighting stunning and rare gemstones, diamonds, fancy colored diamonds and jadeite. An untreated 17.16ct Kashmir sapphire and 8.41ct fancy vivid purple-pink diamond ring both broke world price records per carat. Other notable jewelry pieces included a 3.32ct emerald cut fancy vivid blue diamond ring and a 35.72ct step-cut emerald and diamond ring.

Lot 1938 - 17.16ct Kashmir Sapphire and 6ct Diamond Ring

Mined from Kashmir, India - it is often rare to find such a large gemstone of "cornflower blue" color with such clarity. Extreme conditions are required to create sapphires and often lead to inclusions within the crystal. Because of the color saturation and clarity of this gemstone, an emerald cut was used to highlight the stone's best qualities. Sale price in USD, $4,056,701, setting a world record selling price of $236,404 USD per carat.

Lot 1935 - Step Cut Emerald and Diamond Ring

The emerald cut was created for use with this beautiful green gemstone to highlight the natural color and clarity of the emerald. Though natural inclusions are often considered to be a beautiful and intrinsic feature of an emerald, this stone is incredibly clear and transparent. This gem did not go through any clarity treatments. It is set beautifully on a split platinum shank accented with diamonds, as to not deter from the emerald's incredible beauty. Mined from Muzo, Colombia. Sold in USD, $4,345,361

Lot 1936 Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond and Diamond Ring

Mounted in 18kt white gold and flanked by two trilliant (triangular) diamonds weighing approximately 2cts combined, this 3.32ct fancy vivid blue diamond is GIA certified as "internally flawless". This amazing blue jewel is natural and color graded as Fancy Vivid Blue. Sales price in USD, $5,355,670

Lot 1941 - Fancy Vivid Purple-Pink Diamond and Diamond Ring

The stunner of the auction was this pear-shaped 8.41ct fancy vivid purple-pink diamond, mounted in platinum, with pave set circulars on a split shank. The center diamond is GIA certified as internally flawless with excellent polish and is a Type IIa, the most chemically pure. Pink diamonds are so incredibly rare that Sotheby's states that "Only 0.1% of the twenty million carats of rough produced annually is pink, and a whole year's worth of production of these pink treasures over half a carat would fit in the palm of your hand." A pink that is this large with such incredible color and clarity, may be a once-in-a-lifetime treasure. This prized ring broke the world record sales price for a pink stone this year at USD $17,768,041 or $2.1 million per carat. The previous record, held by a 5ct pink beauty was in November 2009, at a price of $$10,776,660 USD.

Photos courtesy of Sotheby's