SHOPThe Pumpkin Diamond
In honor of Halloween, let’s look at The Pumpkin Diamond, one of the rarest diamonds in the world.
When an 11.00 carat Brownish Orange piece of rough was discovered by a farmer in the Central African Republic (the actual year is unknown) he couldn’t have possibly foreseen that it would one day become one of the rarest and most expensive Natural Fancy Vivid Orange diamonds in the world – or be photographed so extensively in Hollywood.
After the piece of rough was transported to South Africa for sale, it ended up being cut and polished by William Goldberg of the William Goldberg Diamond Corporation. A stunning 5.54 carat Vivid Orange Cushion Cut diamond emerged where it was graded at GIA and then sent to auction at Sotheby’s. On October 30th 1997, Ronald Winston of Winston Jewelers had the winning bid of $1.3 million USD for this magnificent diamond and promptly named it “The Pumpkin Diamond”.
Once the diamond was back at head office, Ronald Winston had the diamond set into a beautiful ring with two crescent-shaped white diamonds flanked on either side of the diamond and was valued at more than $3 Million USD.
Halle Berry wearing The Pumpkin Diamond at the 2002 Academy Awards accepting for Monster’s Ball
The ring was so exceptional that it ended up being worn by Halle Berry in 2002 and received international attention when her hand was photographed beside her Academy Award.
One year later, the diamond was taken out of its setting and was featured in the Smithsonian’s “Splendor of Diamonds” exhibit.
Orange diamonds are one of the rarest Natural Fancy Color Diamonds, particularly one like The Pumpkin Diamond that is pure orange without any modifying colors. They are quickly snapped up by collectors, jewelers and investors as soon as they become available in the trade.
Today this diamond would easily be worth ten times the price paid by Winston in 1997 (and possibly more). We just don’t see very many orange diamonds in the market, let alone at auction.
Now if someone would just dress up like The Pumpkin Diamond for Halloween! That would be beyond rare! #beyondrare!
Source: This article was originally published on www.queenofcolordiamonds.com by Nicole Snitman, GIA DG, AJP