Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a French merchant and adventurer who was best known for acquiring the 'Tavernier Blue Diamond' that he subsequently sold to Louis XIV, first made a reference to pink diamonds in the early 17^th century. Tavernier mentioned a very large pink rough diamond weighing over 200 carats, shown to him by Moghuls in the Kingdom of Golconda in 1642. This diamond named ‘The Grand Table’ and valued at 600,000 rupees at the time, is still the largest pink diamond recorded to date. The French merchant also purchased two pale pink diamonds around 1668 and drew the pictures of the stones in his travel book.

 

Since the 17^th century, the value of coloured diamonds has considerably increased. Fancy coloured diamonds are rarer than near colourless diamonds as their hues come from a disturbance during the formation process of the stone deep in the earth. For all coloured diamonds except pinks, the colour comes from trace elements that interfere during the formation of the crystal. A diamond is composed of pure carbon; it is the intrusion of another atom that causes the colour: nitrogen for yellows, boron for blues. Concerning the pink diamonds, the colour is a consequence of a distortion of the crystal structure of the stone.

Fancy coloured diamonds are rare in nature, but the intensity of the colour is also an important characteristic of the stone. The Gemological Institute of America grades fancy coloured diamonds as: Faint, Very Light, Light, Fancy Light, Fancy, Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid. Fancy Vivid colours are the most sought-after. The amazing stone offered in this auction displays a very bright and deep fancy vivid purple-pink colour. Even in the category “Fancy Vivid”, one can find different levels of intensity; the saturation and hue of this stone are absolutely exceptional.

 

The current record price ever paid at auction for a diamond or any gemstone is ‘The Graff Pink’, a magnificent 24.76 carat Fancy Intense Pink diamond, which sold at Sotheby’s Geneva in November 2010 for $46.16 million. The current record price per carat for a fancy vivid pink diamond ($2,155,332) was set by a 5.00 carat diamond, sold in Hong Kong in January 2009. Last year, in October, Sotheby’s Hong Kong offered a 8.41 carat Fancy Vivid Purple-Pink diamond, which sold for $17,778,247, a world auction record price for a fancy vivid pink diamond.