A team of scientists from the\u00a0Gemological Institute of America\u00a0(GIA), collaborating with their colleagues from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Department of Mineral Sciences and the curator from the Paris School of Mines, recently examined the Winston Red diamond \u2013 a very rare 2.33-carat red diamond which is now on display at the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of Natural History\u00a0in Washington, D.C. The Winston Red diamond is the fifth-largest diamond with an exceptionally pure red colour known to exist and the only such red diamond on public exhibit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Winston Red diamond is one of the most exquisite gems on earth, from its unparalleled deep-red colour to its rich history,\u201d said Susan Jacques, GIA president and CEO. \u201cNatural fancy-coloured diamonds are very scarce, and red diamonds are exceedingly rare treasures of Mother Nature. Just two dozen pure red diamonds over one carat exist in the public record. Evaluating this spectacular gem is a scientific milestone for GIA and builds upon our expansive expertise in fancy-coloured diamonds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Through careful analysis using advanced instrumentation and drawing on decades of research, experience and historical records, GIA scientists and their collaborators were able to determine the cause of the diamond\u2019s rare colour and its possible geographic origin, which is most likely Brazil or Venezuela, based on its mineralogical characteristics and history.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the Winston Red was recently submitted to GIA for grading, I immediately recalled examining it in 1987\u2014it is an unforgettable diamond,\u201d said Tom Moses, GIA Executive Vice President and Chief Laboratory and Research Officer. \u201cThe Winston Red diamond is a historic and very rare diamond; its old mine cut, deep red hue and inclusions tell a story that can be traced back to September 1938 when Jacques Cartier sold the stone to the Indian Maharaja of Nawanagar.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s as if the diamond was squeezed and now is intensely blushing,\u201d said Dr. Ulrika D\u2019Haenens-Johansson, senior manager of diamond research at GIA in New York City. \u201cThe reason why so few diamonds are red has eluded scientists for generations. Our detailed examination of the Winston Red, supplemented by data from other red diamonds evaluated over decades by GIA, uniquely positions us to probe this question. We can attribute the colour to features introduced by plastic deformation \u2013 subtle changes to the diamond\u2019s crystal structure caused by a long and stressful history under tremendous heat and pressure deep within the earth. The highly concentrated red colour, along with its documented history, makes this diamond extraordinary.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThis gift by Ronald Winston of the Winston Red diamond and the Winston Fancy Color Diamond Collection is one of the most significant to the National Gem & Mineral Collection in recent decades. It is an honour for the Smithsonian to be the forever home for these natural history treasures, especially as a place where they can be enjoyed by the public,\u201d said Dr. Gabriela A. Farfan, curator of gems and minerals at the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. \u201cOver the past two years, we have been working hard to study the Winston Red and get it ready for its big exhibit debut in the Winston Gallery, next to the Hope Diamond. The exhibit was inspired by the symphony, where the Winston Red acts as the conductor to a rainbow of other fancy colour diamonds.\u201d<\/p>\n
Only one in ten thousand diamonds has a noticeable fancy colour outside of the subtle colour range normally associated with colourless diamonds. Of the more than one million coloured diamonds examined by GIA, only 0.07% are red, and just over half of those received the coveted GIA colour grade of \u2018Fancy red\u2019 given to the Winston Red.<\/p>\n
The Winston Red is the centrepiece of a new exhibit of fancy colour, natural diamonds that opened on April 1 at the Smithsonian\u2019s National Museum of Natural History. The exhibit features 40 other gems from the Winston Fancy Color Diamond Collection, gifted to the museum by Ronald Winston, the son of distinguished jeweller and gem collector Harry Winston.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A team of scientists from the\u00a0Gemological Institute of America\u00a0(GIA), collaborating with their colleagues from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Department of Mineral Sciences and the curator from the Paris School of Mines, recently examined the Winston Red diamond \u2013 a very rare 2.33-carat red diamond which is now on display at the Smithsonian\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30875,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[83],"tags":[],"thb-sponsors":[],"class_list":["post-30874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bulletin"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n