Round brilliant diamonds are the cornerstone of the fine jewellery industry today. Many collectors invest in stones that belong to the 'magic sizes' of 1, 2, 2.5 or even 5 carats. To those of you who've been to some of the most prestigious jewellery fairs across different continents, perhaps you may have even seen larger stones being exhibited by many of the international design houses.

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.

While some jewellers have their own proprietary ways of visually evaluating a diamond for clarity (the presence or absence of blemishes and inclusions), most gemological laboratories around the world employ a magnification standard of 10x when performing this task.



This can be done with a standard gemological triplet loupe, however a proper microscope aids in defining the types and traits of inclusions present within a stone. It's a common saying among many jewellers and collectors that stones of SI2 clarity and below more commonly show eye-visible inclusions that you can view with unaided vision, however this is just a general observation and there are always exceptions.

The stone above shows some prominent feather inclusions to the lower left side, which may be spotted by eye if careful or keen enough. The tiny inclusions at the center though would be thoroughly missed unless you were making proper use of a loupe or microscope. Certain inclusions weigh more heavily compared to others in the hierarchy of quality grading. Pinpoints for example, pose no durability threat, however feathers- which are essentially fractures or breaks in the stone, if large enough can compromise some areas of the stone's durability.

Yet another magnificent gemstone makes its way into the public eye this month. A 7.03 carat fancy deep blue diamond, mounted onto a a ring by the Moussaieff design house, was noted with a high-estimate of around 14.2 million dollars for its participation during the Nov. 12 Christie's auction event- Magnificent Jewels. The blue stone is accented by around 46.93 carats of colourless diamonds that are said to be internally flawless in clarity.




After a short london tour, the jewels headed to their Geneva location for the event itself. Some other notable pieces that were set to participate in the auction were- Art Deco designs by the house of Cartier, including 3 very exceptionally made fine brooches that were formerly in the private collection of Beatrice, Countess of Granard.



An iconic diamond ‘zip’ necklace created by Van Cleef & Arpels as well as a turquoise and diamond Belle Époque brooch from the collection of Dame Nellie Melba, also shared in the spotlight.





Sotheby's news has mentioned the participation of a grand 78.29 carat pear-cut diamond during its own sale in November 13, 2019. The stone is said to possess an I-color, with a very high clarity rating. These diamonds and jewelry artworks are rare and elusive pieces that have still managed to present themselves very well at the events, despite the public sentiment on majority of the common diamond trade's performance this year. Larger and more prominent stones may be the exception to economic effects on smaller diamond sales internationally.