Jewelry auctions however, tend to showcase those rare exceptional stones that come around once in a lifetime. Just a few years back, Sotheby's released such a stone that made headlines across nearly every jewelry news portal. The unveiling of a 102.34 carat natural round brilliant diamond.
The stone was a colorless gem with no clarity characteristics, and was touted to be the largest D-flawless round brilliant cut diamond in the world at the time. Its exceptional quality made it even more rare and sought after by thousands of luxury collectors.
The original rough came from Botswanna, a locality very well known for diamond production. It weighed about 425 carats, and master cutters took over half a year to correctly create the finished cut stone from its material.
More rough diamond materials of high carat weight have also been unearthed since then. One of which in particular was acquired by Graff, and contained the potential for a new record-holder in this classic category.
In 2019, the recently unveiled 102.79 carat Graff Constellation was said to beat the previous record by a very narrow margin.
This stone was cut from the 'Light of Letseng' rough diamond originally found in Lesotho mines. It is now considered as the largest D-flawless natural round brilliant cut diamond graded by the Gemological Institute of America at the date of this article.
The photo above depicts the said stone in the hand of Graff Chairman; Lawrence Graff- a pioneer in the global diamond retail trade, and an avid collector record-breaking precious gems.
Among all the fancy-cut shapes you'd normally hear about at auctions, it's sometimes quite interesting to see such a traditional or classic shape like the round brilliant, come in such large and elusive carat weights. One may wonder if any more will be unveiled at auctions in the years to come.
