The gavel fell at $12.9 million for the 101.41 carat ‘Juno’ diamond and $0.7 million for the 111.59 carat ‘Earth Star’ at Sotheby’s New York last week, pushing the total sum for this distinctive pair of pear shapes over the $13 million mark.
We’ll call her Claire
The new owner has renamed the 101 carat Colorless, Internally Flawless, Type IIA diamond “Claire” in honor of his wife. According to Sotheby’s this is the fourth-largest pear-shaped diamond of its kind to be offered at auction.
The auction house also notes that less than 2% of all gem quality diamonds fall into its category of natural rarity. At $12.9 million it easily surpassed the pre-sale estimate of $10 million.
Ongoing Demand
Head of Jewelry for Sotheby’s America Quig Bruning commented on the final price paid for Claire:
We are thrilled to see this exceptional diamond achieve such a strong result, it’s confirmation that there’s ongoing demand from collectors at the highest levels of the market.
The Earth Star
At $693,000 the 111 carat Earth Star did not meet its pre-sale expectations of $1.5 million, yet it’s a well known gemstone, listed in the book “Famous Diamonds” by Lord Ian Balfour.
A fancy deep orange-brown diamond, it was fashioned from a 248.9 carat rough diamond unearthed in South Africa 55 years ago. Jewelry Designer David Webb created an azurmalachite mounting for the diamond, using its blue-green coloration to represent planet Earth, as seen from a star.
The Size of Small Eggs
Brunig commented on the impressive size and weight of the stones and the special nature of last week’s auction.
With any major diamond, you feel the weight when you hold it in your hand. Part of that is the impressiveness… Just a handful of diamonds over 100 carats have ever been offered at auction. The fact that we have two in one sale is rare beyond rare.
