Christie's Auctioning 14 Carat Orange Diamond

A 14 Carat fancy vivid orange diamond is being auctioned by Christie’s. It is the world’s largest orange diamond. It is set to lead their Magnificent Jewels auction in Geneva, Switzerland on November 12. The estimated sale price is between $17 million to $20 million. That comes out to be around $1.3 million per carat. It is currently being held at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues.

There has only been one other fancy vivid orange diamond sold at auction. It weighed in at 6 carats. It was known as the “Pumpkin Diamond” and fetched $1.3 million in 1997 at Sotheby’s. It was sold to Ronald Winston, son of the Harry Winston founder. Pink and blue diamonds appear at auctions regularly, but orange diamonds are very rare. The most expensive diamond ever auctioned at Sotheby’s in Geneva was in 2010 when a pink diamond weighing 24.78 carats was purchased by jeweler Laurence Graff for $45.6 million.

Orange diamonds are also referred to as “fire diamonds”. The term was given to the breathtaking stone by gemologist Edwin Streeter in his book The Great Diamonds of the World in 1882. It is more common to find orange diamonds that are mixed with other colors. The orange color is completely natural and is caused by a nitrogen and carbon lattice inside the stone that occurs at the stone’s creation.

The Gemological Institute of America Laboratory has made a note that is included in the auction house’s statement. It says, “In the Laboratory’s experience, strongly colored diamonds in the orange hue range rarely exceed 3 or 4 carats in size when polished. This diamond is almost four times larger than that size range.” In GIA’s grading system for colored diamonds, the appearance of strongly colored diamonds goes from orange-yellow to orange. The less yellow there appears to be in the stone, the more rare the stone becomes.

The orange diamond is pear shaped and weighs in at precisely 14.82 carats. It is a VS1 fancy vivid orange diamond and is referred to as “the Orange”. It is more than double the size of the several fancy vivid orange diamonds ever sold. It is rumored to have belonged to the same anonymous owner for at least the last 30 years. It does have natural imperfections, despite the fact that it is a “very, very good” orange diamond.

Other items to be auctioned off at the upcoming Christie’s auction include a ruby and colored diamond ring that is set with a 5.09 carat oval Burmese ruby. The estimated price on that is between $1.6 million and $2.8 million. There is an Art Deco 100 carat emerald and diamond necklace made by Van Cleef & Arpels. It is from the collection of Egypt’s Princess Faiza, daughter of Kind Fouad. There is also an earring set to match this breathtaking necklace. The necklace alone is estimated to fetch between $2.7 million and $3.7 million. Also included in the items to be auctioned off is a seven strand natural pearl and diamond necklace with 614 natural saltwater pearls. It is expected to be sold for between $3 million to $4.5 million.

Other important items in the auction will include a 100 carat emerald and diamond necklace by Cartier that is expected to fetch close to $10 million. Another Van Cleef & Arpels piece is a mystery set Magnolia broach that is expected to fetch $250,000. The day after the Christie’s auction, Sotheby’s is set to auction off a vivid pink diamond worth over $60 million.