Spectacular and Very Rare Fancy Red diamond ring

Red diamonds

Predominantly red diamonds are the rarest diamonds in the world. Only a handful of red diamonds have been documented throughout history, with most weighing less than one carat. Very few diamonds possess the depth of colour required to receive a red component in their colour grade. When acquiring the 2.23 carat Raj Red, Ronald Winston, the son of legendary jeweller Harry Winston, was quoted saying: ‘My father never saw a red diamond and he saw everything’.

Sources

The earliest red diamonds were found in alluvial deposits in India, Brazil, South Africa, and Borneo. Finds of red diamonds have never been anything less than a rare stroke of good luck. 

In the mid-1980s, the Argyle Mine in Western Australia emerged as the world’s primary source of pink and pink-to-red diamonds. Over the course of its almost forty-year operation, the mine’s output of pink-to-red diamonds reportedly could fit into the palm of one’s hand, with most weighing far less than one carat after polishing. Due to the closure of the Argyle Mine in 2020, in future even fewer red diamonds will be entering the market than ever before.

Grading Red Diamonds

When grading coloured diamonds, the colour far outweighs the importance of other characterstics such as clarity, cut and carat weight. Contrary to colourless diamonds, coloured diamonds are graded face-up. The GIA recognises 27 hues including those with modifiers such as purplish pink or orangy pink. The colour description accompanying a fancy grade is determined by the hue, as well as the tone and saturation of the hue.

The GIA has found that predominantly red or reddish diamonds only occur in a limited range of tone and saturation. Because so few predominantly red diamonds exist, the GIA has assigned them to only one category within the fancy color grading system: Fancy. In other words, there are no Fancy Intense, Fancy Vivid, Fancy Light, Fancy Deep or Fancy Dark red diamonds as may be found within all other coloured diamond categories.

Gemmological Properties

Unlike with other coloured diamonds, it is not fully understood what creates shades of pink or red, but these sought-after colours are believed to be linked to submicroscopic irregularities in the crystal lattice. High pressure during formation deep in the Earth’s mantle before emplacement, is likely at the origin of a diamond’s red hue.

Comparables

The world’s largest red diamond is the 5.11 carat trilliant-cut Moussaieff Red, followed by the 5.05 step-cut Kazanjian Red and the 5.03 carat round DeYoung Red Diamond.

Historically, only very few other red diamonds have been recorded. In 1987, the 0.95 carat round Hancock Red achieved world-renown by setting a record price per carat at 926,315 USD, when it was sold at auction in New York. The Hancock diamond was named after its first owner, the Montana-based oil tycoon and collector Warren Hancock who reportedly purchased it in 1956 for a mere 13,500 USD.

This exceptional Fancy Red diamond weighing 1.44 carats is very rare due to its significant size and its superb, highly saturated hue.