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Rare colored diamonds to hit Sotheby's block

October 27, 2009
This 2.52-carat cushion-shaped stone with a modified brilliant cut represents the largest vivid-green diamond ever to appear at auction. It is estimated to fetch between $3.1 million and $5.1 million at Sotheby'sNov. 17 sale in Geneva.

Geneva--A selection of rare natural-colored diamonds and historical jewels will be on auction at Sotheby's Nov. 17 sale in Geneva.

Approximately 400 lots are set for the auction block and are estimated to fetch more than $29.5 million.

A array of important and unique natural blue, green and pink diamonds will be featured in the sale, along with pieces from the collections of Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe, Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Russia and famed society figure Daisy Fellowes.

The sale will also feature pieces signed by the world's most luminous jewelry houses, including Boucheron, Bulgari, Cartier, Harry Winston, Tiffany and Co., and Van Cleef and Arpels, among others.

Among the most anticipated of pieces up for auction is a pear-shaped fancy vivid-blue diamond with a modified brilliant cut and weighing 5.96 carats. It is estimated to fetch between $5.5 million and $7.5 million, and follows up the sale of the "Star of Josephine." The latter, a cushion-shaped fancy vivid-blue diamond, sold at Sotheby's Geneva's May 2009 auction for $9,488,754, or about $1.35 million per carat--the current world auction record price per carat for a blue diamond and any gemstone.

A rare cushion-shaped vivid-green diamond with a modified brilliant cut and weighing 2.52 carats represents the largest vivid-green diamond ever to appear at auction, Sotheby's said in a media release. It is estimated between $3.1 million and $5.1 million.

Additional colored diamonds to be featured include a cushion-shaped fancy pink diamond weighing 6.63 carats; a cut-cornered rectangular-shaped fancy vivid-yellow diamond with a modified brilliant cut, weighing 74.8 carats and mounted on a yellow gold ring; and a very rare fancy intense-blue brilliant-cut diamond ring of 3.17 carats. The pink is expected to fetch between $1.3 and $1.9 million; the yellow, between $2.5 million and $3.5 million; and the blue, between $1.6 million and $2.6 million.

As for section of the auction dubbed "Jewels of Important Historical Provenance," the highlight is a rare and important ruby and diamond necklace from the 19th century, property of Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe. The necklace was created with 24 cushion-shaped rubies balanced with 24 similarly shaped diamonds, mounted in silver and gold. Estimated between $530,000 and $975,000, the necklace is accompanied by the original hand-written documentation of the stones' weight, as well as the necklace's original velvet fitted case embellished with the monogram "R" under a coronet by R and S Garrard and Co., Jewellers to the Crown.

A sapphire and diamond demi-parure, circa 1900, inherited from Grand Duchess Maria Pavlova by her daughter Princess Elena of Greece and Denmark, Grand Duchess of Russia, has been consigned by its present owner, a member of a European imperial family, and is estimated to fetch between $137,000 and $176,000. The group of jewels--which left Russia just before Pavlovna's flight from St. Petersburg during the 1915 Revolution--includes a brooch set with an oval Burmese sapphire within a border of cushion-shaped diamonds, and a pair of matching ear clips.

Finally, the highlight of a selection of jewelry from society figure Daisy Fellowes, a former editor of Harper's Bazaar, Paris, is a sapphire brooch made in Cartier's London workshop in 1940. The brooch takes the shape of an iris in which the petals are set with cushion-shaped sapphires and brilliant-cut diamonds, and the stem is created from emeralds entwined with baguette diamonds. It is estimated between $152,000 and $249,000.

"We are extremely proud of the discerning selection we have assembled and the broad appeal that the range offers," David Bennett, Sotheby's chairman of jewellery, Europe and Middle East, said in the media release.
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