Lot Essay
Pure orange diamonds, also named 'Fire diamonds' by famous gemologist Edwin Streeter in his book The Great Diamonds of the World (1882), are exceptionally rare in nature. So few have been graded in the world that the origin of their colour still bears a part of mystery. The present diamond is the the largest Fancy Vivid Orange diamond graded by the GIA Gemological Institute of America to date: 'In the Laboratory's experience, strongly coloured diamonds in the orange hue range rarely exceed three of four carats in size when polished. (This diamond) is almost four times larger than that size range. In GIA's coloured diamond grading system, as the colour appearance of strongly coloured diamonds transitions from orangy yellow to orange the occurrence becomes progressively more rare -that is- the less yellow present the more rarely they occur. These diamonds have been compared with the best sapphire from Sri Lanka as it is unusual for orange diamonds to reach such high levels of saturation.'
The appearance of such a gem at auction is so scarce that amongst the very few fancy vivid orange diamonds that were ever sold at auction, the largest was less than 6 carats, making the ORANGE diamond, weighing as much as 14.82 carat, the ultimate possession for diamond collectors.
The appearance of such a gem at auction is so scarce that amongst the very few fancy vivid orange diamonds that were ever sold at auction, the largest was less than 6 carats, making the ORANGE diamond, weighing as much as 14.82 carat, the ultimate possession for diamond collectors.