Editor’s Note
This article highlights investment-grade gemstones featured in an upcoming auction, noting their increasing rarity as key mines deplete.
If you’ve been holding off buying a fancy pink diamond or some Burmese rubies, Phillips’ upcoming Hong Kong Jewels Auction on March 28 could very well offer a gemstone that would steal your heart. Beauty aside, highly prized precious gemstones are a good option for a diversified investment portfolio, especially considering that Australia’s Argyle pink diamond mine has closed for good, and Burmese ruby and Colombian emerald mines are close to drying out. Here are our best picks from the sale.
Fancy pink diamonds over 1 carat are extremely rare, and the tint of purple of this ring’s central stone does not just imbue it with a sense of enchantment but incredible value. Weighing 1.38 carats, this creation flaunts an intriguing spiralling form that is stunning from every angle. It is surrounded by rows of pink sapphires and diamonds that render it absolute femininity.
For centuries, rubies have been celebrated across various cultures in Asia, embodying power, prosperity and success. Rubies from Burma, now Myanmar, are commonly regarded as some of the world’s most desirable.
The finest Colombian emeralds exhibit a richly saturated and homogeneous bluish-green hue. Due to the delicate balance of their formation and the demanding methods taken to obtain these precious gems, they often possess a variety of internal inclusions poetically known as “jardin” (garden in French).
In antiquity, the glorious red spinel has been mistaken for a ruby — for the former was not yet known as a separate mineral, and the naked eye simply cannot differentiate between the best versions of both. Case in point: The British crown jewels’ Black Prince’s Ruby turned out to be a large, irregular cabochon red spinel weighing 170 carats. After the red spinel came into its own as a worthy investment stone over the past few decades, its prices have risen quickly. To find a rock as large and beautiful as the one on this ring is getting increasingly hard.
Paraiba tourmalines from Brazil are among the rarest and sought after gemstones in the world today, because deposits are supposedly depleted. Its mesmerising swimming-pool blue shade is the result of a delicate balance between copper and manganese — the higher the copper content, the more neon it appears.