Christie’s Magnificent Jewels Sale Feature Two Diamonds Larger Than 200 Carats

At Christie's Magnificent Jewels Sale in Geneva last week, the top two diamonds were more than 200 carats. The 228.31-carat pear-shaped diamond "The Rock," which was said to be the largest white diamond ever put up for auction, sold for 21.68 million Swiss francs ($21.84 million). Apart from this, the 205-carat "Red Cross Diamond," a symbol of the world's largest humanitarian network for a long time, brought in 14.18 million Swiss francs ($14.29 million).

The Rock Diamond

The Rock, called Lot 26, was sold within two minutes. Bidding began at 14 million Swiss francs and went up by 500,000 each time until it reached 18 million Swiss francs. After three smaller bids, auctioneer Rahul Kadakia slammed the hammer down at 18.6 million. The buyer's premium was added to the final price, which was in the lower end of the estimated 19 million to 30 million before the sale.

The Rock is about the size of a chicken egg. It came with a letter from the Gemological Institute of America saying that it is the largest pear-shaped diamond with a color range from D to Z that the lab has ever graded. The GIA gave it a grade of G for color and VS1 for clarity.

The Red Cross Diamond (Lot 61)

The Red Cross Diamond (Lot 61) was estimated to be worth 10 million Swiss francs when it went up for auction. The bids started at 6 million and kept going up in steps of 500,000 until they reached 10.5 million. At that point, Max Fawcett, the auctioneer, let bids go up by 50,000. Finally, Faucett stopped the bidding at 12,05 million Swiss francs, which was reached after 11 minutes and 32 separate bids. The total was 4 million Swiss francs, more than expected because of the buyer's premium.

The Red Cross Diamond was at Christie's for the third time. In April 1918, the stone was first put up for sale at Christie's London by the Diamond Syndicate to raise money for the British Red Cross Society and the Order of St. John, whose symbol is the Maltese cross. The Maltese Cross, which can be seen clearly on the table facet of the diamond, is a striking part of the faceted gem.

The famous London firm S.J. Phillips bought the cushion modified brilliant-cut diamond, which has a color grade of fancy intense yellow and a clarity grade of VS2. At the time, ￡10,000 (about $786,000 today) was crazy money. Now, 104 years later, the International Committee of the Red Cross will get help by selling the 205.07-carat canary yellow diamond.

The most surprising act of the night was a natural pearl and diamond tiara from the 19th century that used to belong to the Fürstenbergs, one of the most important noble families in the Habsburg Empire. The auctioneers thought that the cleverly made tiara would bring between 400,000 and 600,000 Swiss francs. But instead, it sold for nearly four times the high estimate, which was 2.39 million Swiss francs ($2.4 million).

Gustav Flach made the tiara in the late 1800s. Depending on what was added or taken away from the original piece, it could look very different. It looked like the 23 natural pearls were hanging between the hair by taking off the diamond shapes. The person who wore the tiara could take out the smaller pearls and leave the larger ones, or she could take out all of the pearls and wear the tiara with just the diamond designs. You could take out the pearls and put other precious stones in their place. Also, each diamond motif could be put together to make a necklace, or it could be worn alone as a hairpin or brooch.