Auction house Christie’s has reason to exult over the sale of The Pink Promise, a  king   among diamonds for a price of US$ 31,861,000  at the Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels  auction held yesterday, November 28, 2017. The lot had been estimated at between US$ 28,301,856 – US$ 41,166,336.

Waxing eloquent in the publicity building up to the sale, Rahul Kadakia, International Head of Jewellery at Christie’s had said: “The  Pink Promise is the Picasso of the pink diamond world. When you look at the shape of the stone it’s so elegant. It’s a cross between an oval and a marquise — what we call a ‘moval’. It’s a fabulous diamond.”

The Pink Promise is a fancy vivid pink Type IIa diamond, weighing approximately 14.93 carats and is set within a circular-cut diamond surround, gallery and hoop, Christie’s said. The stone is enhanced by circular-cut pink diamonds and mounted in platinum.

“A pink diamond is rare to start with,” Lisa Hubbard, Senior Adviser to Christie’s International Jewellery had explained prior to the auction. “But an oval pink diamond of this weight is very rare, very hard to find. It is a singular diamond in many ways, and just beautiful.”

Some of the important pink diamonds in history have included the 182 carat ‘Darya-i-Nur’, today of the Iranian Crown Jewels; the 20.53 carat ‘Hortensia’, formerly part of the French Crown Jewels, now at the Louvre; and the 23.60 carat ‘Williamson’, property of the Queen of England.

Pink diamonds have been attracting very good prices at auction and Christie’s noted that their price has held firm.

 Meanwhile, its previous owner, diamantaire and haute jeweler Stephen Silver, in a separate press release described how the beauty of the diamond was enhanced and perfected. He is said to have recut a 16.21 carat Fancy Intense pink diamond “in a quest to achieve the stone's maximum colour potential”. 

“Stephen Silver bought the original 16.10 carat Fancy Intense pink diamond in June of 2013, but noticed that the stone's cut made some areas of the stone appear to be washed out,” a press release stated. “He considered this an opportunity to recut the stone and possibly achieve a higher colour grade. Over a period of three years, Mr. Silver worked with a master gem-cutter to carefully plot a new cut for the ultra-rare Type IIa pink diamond, cutting it down facet by facet to save the most carat weight while coaxing the gem to yield the highest possible colour. The process gambled millions of dollars in lost carat weight if the recut stone failed to raise its colour grade as hoped. Finally, a new GIA certificate affirmed that "The Pink Promise" diamond, with its new weight of 14.93 carats, had achieved a Fancy Vivid pink colour grading and a significantly higher appraisal value. The ultra-rare Type IIa Fancy Vivid pink diamond was also assessed with an VVS1 clarity—the grade just under flawless.”