The world’s only reliable source for pink diamonds, the Argyle mine in Western Australia, is scheduled to close this year. Since 1983 the mine has produced 90% of the world’s supply of pink diamonds along with some amazing blue, violet and red stones. What will the world be like once pink diamonds from Australia become extinct? Well, for most of us it will be exactly the same, but gemologically it’s a bit sad to think that we may never find another source for these natural beauties. According to Argyle, the amount of pink diamonds weighing over 0.5 carats that they recover every year would fit in the palm of your hand. Even more striking only 30 stones have ever been graded red in Argyle’s history! (See their color grade chart here) Gemologists don’t know for sure what causes the diamond’s pink color, but it’s thought to be the result of a mutation in the crystal lattice rather than the presence trace elements like nitrogen which makes diamonds yellow or boron which makes diamonds blue. Rarity and mystery often combine to make things expensive and those, along with a good marketing plan, have succeeded in pushing the price of pink diamonds to astronomical levels.
The allure of pink diamonds isn’t new, but they’re certainly having their moment. As far back as the 17th century, Jean Baptiste Tauvernier described a very large pink diamond he saw in the throne of one of the Mugal emperor’s. Tauvernier was a well-known gem dealer, he happened to sell Louis XIV the blue gem that would eventually be known as The Hope Diamond. This pink diamond, which he called “The Great Table”, is estimated to have weighed 242 carats and measured two feet long (50cm), a foot wide (33cm) and 5 inches thick (13cm)! Jewelry historians think that The Great Table was cut into smaller diamonds including two well known stones held in the Central Bank of Tehran in Iran.
The first is Darya-i-Nur, an approximately 185-carat stone that is part of the Iranian crown jewels. The second is Noor-ul-Ain, a 60-carat diamond that resides in a beautiful tiara designed by Harry Winston for the Iranian Empress Farah Pahlavi’s wedding in 1958. The British Royal Family also possesses a significant pink diamond that was gifted to Queen Elizabeth for her wedding in 1947. The Williamson pink became a 23.6 carat round brilliant and was set into a flower brooch in 1952.
For the non-royals, getting your hands on a pink diamond is not easy. Every year Argyle collects the best 50-60 diamonds, only .01% of their annual production, and sends out invitations to their diamond tender. This is probably the most exclusive diamond sale in the world. The diamonds head out on a tour to specific cities where an invitee can go and see them, and then they collect sealed bids for each stone. To my knowledge the successful bids do not become public. Any unsold diamonds are then offered to one of their approximately 30 retail partners globally. You can find a list of their retail partners here, and I guess if you live near one of them you can simply visiting your local store and then take out a second mortgage! The Argyle website highlights some of their more memorable stones and I have shared a couple of them below. I found it interesting that there weren’t any large pink stones listed in their historically significant finds, so I ask myself, what do I do if I’m in the market for something big?
Turns out, buying at auction would be your best bet, but it’s going to set you back a pretty penny. In the past few years, auction records have been set, and quickly broken by pink diamonds offered at Sotheby’s and Christies. In 2010 The Graff Pink sold for $46M and set the world record for a jewel sold at auction. This record was broken by the Pink Star which sold in 2017 for $71M. The Pink Promise sold in 2017 for $2.1M per carat and set the world record for a pink diamond at auction. However, the very next year, the Pink Legacy broke the record selling for $2.66M per carat. It blows my mind that these stones are able to create such a frenzy of desire that billionaires compete for them year after year, driving the prices to historic levels time and again. With the closure of the Argyle mine, there is a lot of speculation that pink diamond prices will rise even higher. I just hope that the families that purchase these breathtaking stones will in time donate them to museums so that their beauty can be enjoyed by everyone.
Pink diamonds make you think of unicorns and gumballs and cotton candy; looking at their sweet color makes you want to smile. I always think “Wow, I love that mother nature thought to make something so hard, durable and enduring in this fun, fanciful color!” While it may be a while, if ever, before another steady source of pink diamonds is found, we can keep our eyes out for stones coming up at auction, or hopefully museum donations, to sate us for the time being. I love to follow auction results, so I will keep you informed in the future, and I recommend that if you are able to travel to an auction house for a preview day when one of these big diamonds comes up for sale, do it! At the preview days you can view the jewelry, try things on and ask questions, no credit check required. As always, I’d love to hear from you, so send me an email with any questions.
Great Table Photo courtesy of thepracticalgemologist.com
Pink Diamond Photos and Iranian Jewels from Sothebys.com and Christies.com
The Williamson Pink photo courtesy of The Royal Collection
