Fancy Color Investments
Natural Fancy Color Diamond As A
Store Of Wealth Creation
It is only in the past 30 years that the buying
and selling of natural colored diamonds has taken on the business attributes of
an orderly market. Until the 1960s, the market in colored diamonds was a
specialty market of celebrity buyers, royalty, and collectors. This was true
also of the market for other fine works of art - antique furniture, and The
Great Master's oil paintings.
The market for colored diamonds, as well as for
antiquities and other fine arts has became more transparent. As wealth spread to a greater number of people, clients began to seek aesthetic satisfaction as well as safety and security in the ownership of colored diamonds and other art
objects. No longer was the purchase of a colored diamond the private world of Sultans, Hollywood Actresses and private collectors. The members of the new class of wealth are more highly educated and their hard earned savings require a
degree of economic security with proper documented investments.
Gem dealers and brokers encouraged and assisted
the purchase of these rare and fine gems. The most prominent and successful of these individuals and firms had their roots deeply planted in the precious gem community, where credibility rests on long-standing relationships, with recognized technical and scientific credentials. As the markets became more
efficient the market prices were standardized. With the spread of education, myths and stereotypes have been properly explained and documented.
All natural colored diamonds are generally more rare than colorless diamonds. But, how do we count the colors of the rainbow?
And how would we categorize those colors so that we could ascribe relative
values to diamonds of differing hues, lightness's and saturations? Not all natural colored diamonds sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars per carat, and most natural colored diamonds weigh less than 5 carats. During the past
five years small specimens of the finest quality yellows, browns and blacks have
undergone a greater price appreciation, on a percentage basis, than any other
type of colored diamond.
Commercial rarity, more so than natural scarcity, is a function of supply and demand. But it is nonetheless a predictor of present and future prices. Now that the centuries old market for colored diamonds and
other fine works of art have been transformed, rarity is no longer the preserve of the very rich. 'Rarity' applies not just to Rembrandt's Blinding of Samson, but any Rembrandt Drawing or Etching. 'Rarity' applies not just to Thomas Chippendale's First Credenza, but any Rococo example by the English
Cabinetmaker. For any object that is pleasing and gratifying to own, rarity is a
limitation to future supply. Exceptionally fine colored diamonds have no fixed price, and as with fine paintings, set rules do not apply.
What has enabled the market in colored diamonds to
grow and expand over the years is a heightened appreciation of both value and beauty of natural colored diamonds. However, what have brought the recognition of colored diamonds to the forefront are advances in the scientific measurement
of color. Precision colorimetric and improved methods of verbalizing colors have immensely improved the grading of hue, intensity, lightness and other physical qualities.
As always it is prudent to require a GIA Lab Report when considering the purchase of a natural color diamond!
Fancy Intense Blue 14.00 +
Carats GIA Lab Report # 12027952 Dated May 22, 2002