The showpiece of this year’s Victoria Secret’s annual Fashion Show will be the Harlequin Fantasy Bra, worn by supermodel Marisa Miller. The bra, created by Italian jewelry house Damiani, contains 2,300 white, Champagne and Cognac colored diamonds with a 16 carat heart-shaped brown-yellow diamond pendant dangling in the front. Taking over 800 hours to make and with 150 total carat weight of diamonds, the gold framework and hand-set diamonds are fashioned in a harlequin pattern.
Marisa Miller was on the cover of the 2008 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, is a model for Victoria’s Secret, and is an ambassador for the American Cancer Society.
The fashion show will be televised by CBS on Tuesday December 1 at 10:00 PM ET/PT.
If you live in or are visiting New York City the next few months, you might want to stop by the American Museum of Natural History and get a rare chance to view some exceptional colored diamonds. September 15 was the opening of a new display of in the museum’s Morgan Memorial Hall of Gems.
The collection includes the following diamonds:
An intense-pink brilliant diamond from the Argyle Diamond Mine in Australia set in gold metal mounting with small pink diamonds designed by Carvin French.
A 5.4-carat round brilliant-cut diamond set in a white gold pendant with 20 sapphires, designed in California in 1960.
Five vivid naturally colored diamonds ranging in size from 1.01 to 2.34 carats from the Olympia Diamond Collection, which are on loan from Scarselli Diamonds. The five diamonds are a 1.01-carat vivid orange-yellow diamond (mined in Africa), a 1.02-carat vivid blue-green diamond (mined in Brazil), a 2.17-carat vivid purplish-pink diamond (Argyle Mine in Australia), 2.13-carat vivid blue diamond (mined in Africa), and a 2.34-carat vivid orange diamond (from Africa). The vivid color grade is the highest colored diamond grade given by the GIA (Gemological Institute of America) and these five diamonds are rare because they are completely saturated colors.
Synthetic (laboratory-grown) diamonds from the Boston-based Apollo Diamond Corporation, created using the chemical vapor deposition (CVD) technique. The display shows the stages of growth of CVD diamonds as the diamonds form in gas mixture to a heated chamber containing “seed” material.
Synthetic (laboratory-grown) diamonds from Sarasota, Florida-based Gemesis Corporation, created using the high-pressure, high-temperature (HPHT) technique, which uses large presses to transform carbon material to diamond using compression. The display includes uncut and cut (polished) diamonds, loose and in jewelry.
This special colored diamond display runs until January 2010 and is free with admission to the museum, which is located at Central Park West and 79th Street in Manhattan.
A 507.55-carat white diamond was recovered September 24 at the Cullinan diamond mine in South Africa. Initial review of the diamond indicated it has exceptionally white color and high clarity. The diamond is currently undergoing expert analysis to document color and clarity grading and to determine if the diamond is Type II (lacking yellow producing trace elements).
The diamond was discovered with three other large diamonds with similar high color and clarity weighing 168.00 carats, 58.50 carats, and 53.30 carats.
Johan Dippenaar, Petra’s Chief Executive Officer noted, “The Cullinan mine has again given the world a spectacularly beautiful and important diamond. Initial indications are that it is of exceptional color and clarity, which suggest extraordinary potential for its polished yield. We now eagerly await the findings of the expert analysis.”
The Cullinan mine is best known as the source of the world’s largest gem diamond ever discovered, which was discovered in 1905, named the “Cullinan,” and weighed 3,106 carats rough. Other famous diamonds sourced at the Cullinan mine include the Golden Jubilee (755 carats rough), the De Beers Centenary (599 carats rough), the Niarchos (426 carats rough), and the Premier Rose (353 carats rough). Cullinan was also the source for some of the world’s largest polished diamonds including the Golden Jubilee (545 carats polished), the Great Star of Africa (530 carats polished), and the famous Taylor-Burton diamond (69 carats polished).
Petra Diamonds Cullinan Consortium who purchased the mine from De Beers in 2007 owns the Cullinan mine. The Cullinan mine is also the world’s primary source of blue diamonds. In May 2009, a fancy vivid blue diamond weighing 7.03 carats (cut from 26.58 carat rough) from the Cullinan mine sold for $9.4 million, the highest price ever paid for a gemstone sold at auction.
Last week the world’s most famous gemstone, the Hope Diamond, was displayed to the public for the first time in 50 years out of its setting. Housed in the Hall of Geology , Gems and Minerals at the National Museum of Natural History, the Hope Diamond is getting a rare fashion make over.
More than five million visitors a year have viewed the diamond that has been in an ornate setting, sixteen white pear-shaped and cushion-cut diamonds suspended from a chain containing forty-five diamonds.
To observe its 50th year at the museum, the public was able to vote on a new setting for the famous blue diamond. The Hope Diamond will be displayed loose, with no mounting, until next spring when it will be set in a temporary setting called “Enchanting Hope,” a necklace of a ribbon of diamonds with the Hope sitting in a cluster of diamonds in a teardrop shape. The Hope Diamond will be returned to its ornate setting in late 2010.
Victoria’s Secret knows how to get attention and their 2008 Black Diamond Fantasy Miracle Bra is no exception. The one-of-a-kind contains about 3,900 gemstones with 1,500 total carat weight and was created by Martin Katz, the rare gemstone jeweler who has worked with Victoria’s Secret on earlier fantasy lingerie.
The bra has 3,575 black diamonds, 117 certified one-carat white round diamonds and 34 rubies. Two tear-shaped black diamonds with 100 total carat weight, drop from diamond encrusted cords in from.
Brazilian Adriana Lima is the supermodel who will be modeling the this 2008 Fantasy Bra in the Victoria’s Secret Christmas catalog as well as the December 3 televised fashion show.
Gemesis, the Florida-based synthetic diamond company, currently only produces the laboratory grown diamonds in yellow and orange colors. The company is working on production techniques to produced pink and blue synthetic diamonds. It hopes to have that process developed by the end of this year. Gemesis is also working on process that would eventually allow it to grow white diamond crystals in the 5 to 10 carat range that are in greater demand worldwide. These larger sized synthetic diamonds are probably at least three years away from commercial production.
Gemesis has recently updated their web site to provide educational information about their company and synthetic diamonds, including the jewelry brands carrying Gemesis Cultured Diamonds.
The 2007 Rio Tinto Diamonds Argyle Pink Diamond Tender has concluded with great success. Some of the rarest and most beautiful diamonds in the world were for sale and examined by a select group of invited buyers in Perth (September 11-14), Hong Kong (September 18-28) and New York (October 1-12). About 100 prospective buyers were invited to examine the diamonds in secret locations, and then submitted bids for one or more of the 65 specially selected pink diamonds.
The rules of the tender prohibit announcement of the 17 successful bidders, the winning bids, or even the sales total for the tender. The special Rio Tinto tender pink diamonds have been know to get prices of as much as $400,000 per carat, forty times that of white diamonds. Recent projections that pink diamonds from the Argyle mine are expected to run out by 2018 have increased the public and industry’s awareness of their rarity and perceived value.
This year’s tender was exceptional due to the range of vivid and deep colors with deep pinks, purplish reds, and a rare gray-violet colored diamond.
Rio Tinto Diamonds Argyle mine started production in 1985 and the open pit mine operates 24 hours a day, 265 days a year. The open pit’s normal life ends in 2008 but Rio Tinto has extended its life to 2018 with low-grade production expansion in the pit and new underground operations. Historically, 60 to 80 million tons of material are extracted from the open pit operations, resulting in about 9 million tons of diamond-bearing ore and between 25 and 30 million carats of diamonds. Moving beyond 2008, production is projected fall to about half of current operations.
Only about 5% Argyle’s production is gem quality diamonds and only an extremely small portion of those are pink diamonds. It is certainly no exaggeration to say that the annual Rio Tinto Diamonds Pink Tenders contain exceptionally rare diamonds.
Sotheby’s recent Hong Kong auction was the site of a record-breaking diamond sale. The 6.04-carat fancy vivid blue diamond, cut in the emerald shape, sold for $7.98 million. The internally flawless sold for $1.32 million per carat, which is a new price per carat record for any gemstone ever sold. The combination of the rare blue color, the internally flawless color, and the large carat weight for a blue diamond make this an exceptional stone among world-class diamonds.
The previous owner of the diamond was a private Asian collector and the new buyer is Moussaieff Jewellers, a London based jeweler with a reputation for acquiring some of the world’s most valuable gemstones.
Blue diamonds have always captured attention because of their rarity and beauty. There are entire books written about the most famous blue diamond, the 45.52-carat Hope Diamond, displayed in the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC. The Hope Diamond started out as the 112.25-carat French Blue discovered in India, which was a source of blue diamonds from 1500-1700.
In recent history, South Africa has been the location of blue diamond discoveries, almost exclusively at the Premier Mine. Some other famous blue diamond sales include a 1994 Sotheby’s sale of a $9 million for a 20.17-carat blue diamond ($460,000 per carat). In 1995, a 6.70-carat blue diamond sold for $3.52 million ($525,000 per carat).
Hong Kong was an appropriate location for the record-breaking sale because diamond shoppers there are notorious for their thirst for luxury diamonds. Hong Kong is the king of glitz in Asia, especially for colored diamonds. Colored diamond sources are diminishing so the rare pinks and blues are becoming increasing popular with serious collectors in Europe, the United States, and Asia.
Pink diamonds have become one of the most sought after of nature’s treasures so it is no wonder that the annual sale of rarest of the rare pink diamonds is a diamond lovers dream. Unfortunately, this sale is so exclusive that only about 100 select bidders are invited to participate and few diamond lovers will ever even see a photo of one of these diamonds, let alone see one in person.
The 23rd Argyle Pink Diamond tender, conducted by Rio Tinto owner of the Argyle Diamond Mine, consists of three separate showings. The 2007 Perth presentation was recently concluded, the display in Hong Kong is September 18-28, and the final event is in New York is October 1-12. At each event, the invited bidders get to examine 65 of the world’s rarest pink diamonds. They make bids on the diamonds they want and Rio Tinto notifies the winners in October. Rio Tinto never publicly announces the winners or the prices and is not obligated to accept the bids. They are selling rare items so they reserve the right to determine what the value should be.
This year’s tender of 65 items are reported to be of exceptional quality. The 65 Argyle Signature Stones collection diamonds were picked from the 8,000 to 10,000 polished pink diamonds produced annually and are deeper in color and more vivid than previous year’s collections. In addition to the classic pink diamonds, this year’s collection contains some purplish reds, deeper pinks, and an unusual rare grey-violet diamond cut in a unique shield shape.
While pink diamonds have always been rare, they are becoming even more so because the surface mining operations at the Argyle Mine are nearing their productive life. Rio Tinto recently announced they would invest in deeper underground mining operations that will continue production of pink diamonds until 2018. Since the Argyle Mine supplies 90 percent of the world’s pink diamonds and there are no new pink diamond sources on the horizon, pink diamond lovers are investing now in beautiful stone that they know will continue to increase in value.
Blina Diamonds, a diamond exploration company, announced today that three rare green diamonds were recovered from the Ellendale field located 2,000 km north of Perth in Western Australia. These were the first green diamonds found in the Ellendale area. The largest of the three diamonds weighed 2.72 carats.
Natural fancy colored green diamonds are very rare and expensive. Most green diamonds seen on the market are heat treated and irradiated to produce the green color.
One of the challenges with green diamonds is that the green color tends to occur in patches in the diamond, not even throughout the stone. As a result, when a green diamond is cut and facetted, it has the potential of losing its green color if the patches of green color are not left intact or in the right location. The risk with green diamonds is that the cutter can easily destroy the high value of the diamond.
Blina Diamonds
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