An unmounted 10.02 ct. fancy intense blue diamond estimated at over $6 million leads the eagerly anticipated High Jewelry sale tomorrow at Sotheby’s in New York. The cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant stone is only the third fancy intense blue diamond of 10 cts. or more to come to auction since 2008.
Other lots with estimates of at least $1 million feature rings set with high-carat colored diamonds. They include a 13.77 ct. fancy light purplish pink diamond that is cut-cornered and rectangular-shape ($1.5 million to $2 million); a 6.76 ct. fancy grayish blue cushion-cut stone, surrounded by pink diamonds and flanked by shield-cut diamonds ($1.2 million–$1.8 million); a 5.02 ct. oval fancy intense pink, with two light pink side stones of 0.4+ ct. each ($2 million to $3 million); and a 4.19 ct. fancy purple-pink oval, with round diamonds accenting the band ($1 million to $1.5 million).
The cover lot is a 1960s Harry Winston diamond necklace, an unusually round-diamond-forward composition for a house whose signature designs typically lean toward marquise and pear shapes. Estimated at $800,000 to $1.2 million, the piece boasts more than 120 cts., in trefoil clusters of marquise diamonds between round stone pairings. It can be converted for wear as two bracelets.
Continuing Sotheby’s collaboration with De Beers, the June 16 sale will offer an 11.33 ct. internally flawless old mine-cut diamond (D color, type IIa), estimated at $600,000 to $800,000, as well as two rings with 2.01 ct. pear-shape diamonds. A portion of proceeds from the rings will go to the Peace Parks Foundation, a conservation charity cofounded by the late Nelson Mandela.
Other highlights in the Sotheby’s event include five Paraiba tourmalines, of 6.11 to 8.48 cts., that come from a private collection assembled by the heir to an American media dynasty (who discovered the stones through a jeweler he met while fundraising for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation). The stones are being sold individually except for a pair going as one lot. The most expensive of the Paraiba tourmalines carries an estimate of $350,000 to $550,000.
Among antique pieces with noteworthy provenance, the auction includes a Lalique diamond necklace dating to the 1890s, owned by descendants of Elizabeth Sarah Morgan Jay, who was believed to received it as a wedding gift from her relative J.P. Morgan in 1910.
(Photos courtesy of Sotheby’s)
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