My friend had a garage sale last week. She and her family sold all the junk that had been residing in their basement for years. After a day’s worth of hard labor, they made $182. On the other side of the world, Sotheby’s in Hong Kong made just a hair more.

Sotheby’s Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite spring sale achieved $64 million (HKD 499 million) and was  79 percent sold by lot and 70 percent by value.

The top lot of the sale was an emerald-cut, 8.01 carat, fancy vivid blue diamond ring that sold for $12.7 million (HKD 99.2 million), or $1,588,079 per carat.

Quek Chin Yeow, the deputy chairman and head of Sotheby’s jewelry department in Asia, noted that the sale represented one of the highest totals for jewelry sales held in Asia by the auction house.

“Throughout the day there was spirited competition among collectors from across Asia for top quality round white diamonds and pink diamonds, as well as for Burmese ruby, Colombian emerald and jadeite jewelry,” he said.

Other top lots included a brilliant- cut, 18.11-carat, D, FL  diamond that sold for $3.96 million (HKD 30.9 million). A pear-shaped, 3.28-carat internally flawless, fancy vivid pink diamond and diamond ring fetched $3.2 million (HKD 25.3 million) at the sale. A Burmese ruby and diamond necklace with 23 natural unheated rubies with a total weight of 53.07 carats garnered $3.1 million (HKD24.2 million) while a 14.12-carat moval-shaped Golconda, D, IF diamond ring sold for $2.4 million (HKD 18.6 million) at Sotheby’s Hong Kong.
Source: Diamonds.net 

Well, the price is not exactly stellar, unless you’re exceedingly “in the pink.” But the stone itself? Magnificent! It’s one of two known significant sized round pink diamonds in this world with no modifying colors. In short, it’s pink and nothing but pink!

Take a look:

12.04-ct. fancy intense pink Type IIa round brilliant-cut diamond ring by Harry Winston.© Christie’s Images Limited 2012

The largest round fancy intense pink diamond to ever appear at auction will be part of Christie’s Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels sale on May 29. The 12-ct. diamond is estimated to fetch $8 – $10 million.

The extremely rare diamond is owned by a private collector. It was purchased from Harry Winston in 1976—the same year, the United States launched its first satellite on a mission to Mars: The Viking landers. Ronald Winston named the diamond the “Martian Pink” to honor the historic event.

The Martian Pink is one of two known significant sized round pink diamonds in this world—the other being the 23.60-carat Williamson Pink diamond that was presented to Queen Elizabeth II on the occasion of her wedding in 1947. While most natural pink diamonds exhibit a color modifier like purple, orange or grey, the gem that is up for auction “shows absolutely no trace of a secondary color, making it exceedingly rare,” the auction house said. “Combined with a Type IIa characteristic, the diamond shows an extraordinary limpidity together with a lovely intense pink coloration.”
Source: Jewelry News Network

 

Looking for a more “down to earth” price for a pink gem? Feast your eyes on one of our favorite rings:

Style 9505M- Rose Gold Diamond and Pink Moissanite Ring Stunning, delicate 14kt rose gold engagement ring set with a 1.0ct (dia equiv) Charles and Colvard created round moissanite color enhanced to spring pink surrounded by 1/3ct t.w. white diamonds. Matching earrings also available.

If you know anything about our team here in Scottsdale, it’s that we’re hopeless romantics. We like nothing more than to hear your heartfelt engagement story or the tale behind a family heirloom. So when I read this in JCK this morning, I thought it would be a great way to start the week. I’m sure you’ll agree. Lesson to be learned: love takes time. And it always comes back to you.

In the 1940s, Private David Kershaw received two rings as a token of appreciation from a Polish jeweler who had just been released from a concentration camp.

“I gave him two silver dollars and he made a ring from each,” Kershaw tells JCK. The jewelry was designed as “pre-engagement rings,” inscribed with David’s name on one, and his girlfriend Jeanne’s name on the other.

Kershaw met Jeanne Walker in New Jersey during the summer of 1943. A year later, he was drafted into the U.S. Army during World War II and served until 1946. “For a veteran, trying to get back into civilian life was difficult,” Kershaw says. “We came home and weren’t sure what the future would be.”

After his discharge, Kershaw reunited with Walker; however, the two soon split amicably. “We went our separate ways,” Kershaw says. “She went to nursing school. I went to engineering school.”

Yet Kershaw kept the rings in a safety deposit box. “I never showed them to anyone,” he says.

Kershaw and Walker went on to live separate lives and didn’t keep in touch. Kershaw earned his engineering degree in 1950, the same year he married Clara Wahl, his wife of 61 years. The two had a long, happy marriage and raised two sons. Jeanne became a registered nurse. She married twice and raised two sons (one of whom died).

Read more.

I stumbled across this moissanite poll in Wedding Bee today and it got me thinking: why are so many people still so resistant to moissanite?

As you’ll see, 49% of the people polled wouldn’t even consider moissanite, so the poll question didn’t even apply to them. It got me thinking that we still have a lot of work to go. As the moissanite-friendly understand, choosing moissanite is a smart, ecologically and economically sound diamond alternative possessing many of the same qualities as naturally mined diamonds. It’s light years beyond a simulant such as cubic zirconia. Moissanite a lab-created diamond and is difficult for many jewelers to detect the difference.

Are diamonds forever?

Yet we still are so attached to diamonds. Why? Probably because of a very successful ad campaign from the 1930’s that proclaimed that “Diamonds are Forever.” In our collective mind, we deeply associate diamonds with long-lasting love. Unfortunately that’s just not true. Diamonds are also associated with large-scale ecological damage to this planet and the people on it. It’s time to think outside of the “diamond box” and choose something based on the world we live in now.

Moissanite is that choice.

Be the 20%!

Style 9577 Knife Edge Solitaire Engagement Ring Knife edge solitaire engagement ring (setting only, does not include center stone) On Sale! Save an additional 10% with purchase of a moissanite stone and setting. Use coupon code ‘Sale10’ at checkout. Setting Price: $649.00 – $1,815.00

Horseshoe

horseshoe shaped bands