'A once in a lifetime opportunity': Fancy vivid yellow diamond could be worth $6m

Only one in ten million coloured diamonds is in this class - it 'literally blazes with colour'

This autumn, Christie's New York is proud to offer The Vivid Yellow, a rare, highly saturated fancy vivid yellow diamond of 32.77 carats, as the star lot of its October 18 sale of Magnificent Jewels.

The golden yellow hue of this large pear-shaped stone is so intense and so deep that the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) ranks it amongst the rarest of gemstones in its class. The stone is expected to achieve in excess of $6m.

"The Vivid Yellow literally blazes with colour, unlike any yellow diamond I've ever seen," said Rahul Kadakia, Christie's Head of Jewellery for Christie's Americas.

"In the world of diamonds, a naturally coloured stone of this incredible colour and size represents a freak occurrence -- an extremely rare geological phenomenon. The appearance of this extraordinary gemstone on the market truly represents a once in a lifetime opportunity for top jewelry collectors."

Yellow diamonds gain their colour from nitrogen replacing carbon atoms in the diamond's structure. Where there is less nitrogen present, the resulting stone may be light or "faint" in colour.

Fancy vivid yellow diamond

In the case of The Vivid Yellow, the stone's atoms absorbed an unusually high level of aggregated nitrogen, giving it a superbly saturated golden yellow colour.

The uncommon nature of this particular diamond's colour intensity has been reconfirmed by the GIA, whose gem laboratory is devoted to the grading and identifying of important diamonds.

In its grading report for the stone, the GIA classifies The Vivid Yellow as "Fancy Vivid" - the highest saturation one can find in a coloured diamond. Only about one in 10 million diamonds possesses a colour pure enough to qualify as fancy vivid.

In addition, the report notes that the original rough stone from which The Vivid Yellow was cut must have possessed an extraordinary intensity and thus required no modified faceting in the cutting process to help bring out the colour.

"Large fancy vivid yellow diamonds such as this pear shape are rarely encountered at the GIA and come to market very infrequently," the report states.

The unmounted diamond, which is about the size and shape of a guitar pick, will be the star lot of Christie's first major jewelry sale of the fall 2011 auction season, slated to take place October 18, 2011 at Christie's Rockefeller Plaza flagship in New York.

The stone has the potential to surpass the per-carat price of $203,000 achieved for The Golden Drop, a pear-shaped yellow diamond of 18.49 carats sold in June 1990 at Christie's London.

• Click here to view our jewellery stock for sale
• Learn how you can get pleasure and profit by investing in jewellery
• Read all the latest Watches & Jewellery and Memorabilia news

Join our readers in more than 200 countries around the world - sign up for your free weekly Collectibles Newsletter today or download our free Collectors News app for your iPhone

Recent and related articles...

· One last sparkle for the summer - Christie's jewellery auction brings $760,000 | 21 July 2011

Dominated as often by diamonds, the sale will be the last for gemstones before September

· Gemfields makes record-breaking $31.6m sale of high-quality emeralds | 19 July 2011

The company's success in Singapore will make interesting reading for collectors of fine jewellery

· Kovels reveals collectors' most popular internet search of 2011... | 15 July 2011

Could it be jewellery...? The collectibles price guide has once again revealed its most popular search

· Morton Kuehnert's auction offers collectibles from all over the world | 13 July 2011

The Texas collectibles sale will be led by a luxurious $20,000 18K gold Pasha de Cartier watch

· Small $1.3m Royal snuff box reaches big World Record price at Bonhams | 6 July 2011

This amazing collection of pieces sparked bidding wars and broke records in London...

www.paulfrasercollectibles.com

Images: Christie's