Introduction To Fancy Color
The finest quality diamonds of all kinds are
memorialized as timeless objects of beauty as well as secure repositories of
value. Pristine, filled with the sparkle of life and most often transparent and
colorless. Diamonds with color have a greater level of ambiguity than colorless
diamonds. Colorless diamonds often referred to as 'white' diamonds are
considered by some to be a commodity, but each colored diamond is a one of a
kind work of art. Colored diamonds are joyously exquisite stones, which share
the same bright sparkle as colorless diamonds, but whose extra dimension of
color brings delight to our senses. Colored diamonds are much rarer than
colorless diamonds, and therein lies their special value as collectors' items,
as adornments, and as hard assets that combine privacy of ownership with
appreciating value.
'I remember that stone. It was an incredible
color, and possessed it's own personality. I have never seen another quite like
it.' R. Winston 1990
Colored diamonds are truly rare: For every 10,000
carats of diamonds that are cut, a mere one-carat may possess fancy color. A
purplish-pink diamond from the Argyle mine in Australia may, literally, be a
one-in-a-million proposition. This is among the reasons their prices have never
gone down at the dealer level during the past thirty years. In fact, prices of
certain colored diamonds during that three-decade period have doubled every 5
years.
Ownership of a fine colored diamond is now, more
so than ever, within the reach of people of relatively modest means as well as
connoisseurs and collectors. Multi-carat stones of pink, blue and green worth
millions of dollars each may still change hands behind the velvet curtains of
high society's auction rooms, but within the past decade a different and much
larger market has emerged outside these sanctums, where colored diamonds, of all
sizes and all colors are regularly bought and sold.
Few people pause to realize that the world's most
celebrated diamonds are colored diamonds. The famous sapphire-blue Hope from
India, and 'The Mouawad Lilac' Fancy Pink
The Hope Diamond Necklace 45.52
carats
'The Mouawad Lilac' Fancy Pink
24.44 Carats
The Fancy Vivid Yellow Allnatt from South Africa
and the Dresden Green from Brazil, these are the type of gemstones that have
inspired the most profound awe, partly because their heritage and rare value,
which has previously only been within reach of royalty, the aristocracy, and the
very wealthy.
'The Allnatt Fancy Vivid Yellow
VS2 Clarity 102.29 Carats
'The Dresden Green VS1 Clarity
40.70 Carats
Over the past decade there has emerged a new
generation of owners and admirers of colored diamonds, equally discerning and
drawn by the same desire to possess something of value with no match anywhere in
the world. These adherents are people who have learned that every colored
diamond, no matter its size or hue, is unique - each with its own shade of
color, and degree of color saturation, its own indescribable quality of
brightness.
In response, a new international demand in the
market has evolved, whose only immutable benchmarks are beauty, rarity and
capital appreciation. Size and color still matter, but only as a function of
price, because in this market colored diamonds come in limited sizes and most
colors.
Today the market in colored diamonds goes far
beyond the confines of the major auction houses, where, in the past, only the
very finest diamonds of intense pink, blue and green were deserving of
attention. The new rapidly expanding market, respects disclosure and
transparency, with published price guidelines. This proliferation of buyers and
sellers has brought the added safety and security that come from enhanced
liquidity.
Thus is explained the paradox: Colored diamonds
are still among nature's rarest works, and rarity defines their commercial
value. As more and more people become educated about colored diamonds, and as the breadth of appreciation expands, so does the breadth of the market. Renoir's The Swing, Botticelli's Birth of Venus, or Picasso's Three Women at the Fountain may be priceless for all but the world's few great museums of art, but there is also a thriving market in other less acclaimed sketches, paintings or other works produced by those same masters and others. So it is with colored diamonds.
There are still million dollar transactions done in the auction rooms of the
privileged few, but the market in colored diamonds, outside of those cloisters,
is now many times greater. It is a multi-billion dollar market that involves
thousands of people worldwide who are joining a new regime of collectors and
connoisseurs.
'The Incomparable with its 14 satellite stones.
The Third largest polished diamond Natural Fancy Brownish-Yellow 407.48
Carats Internally Flawless
Since formal records were first
kept at the beginning of the 1970s, prices for the finest quality colored
diamonds have increased in value by an average of between 10%-15% per year,
which means that some have, on average, doubled in price every 5 years at the dealer level. The rise in value has not been in a straight line: There have been pauses, during which prices were static or barely increasing in times of
economic contractions. But except for these short pauses, prices of colored
diamonds have gone in only one direction - upwards,
In contrast to the uncertain and wavering values of stocks, real estate and other assets, the downside financial risk from owning a colored diamond is minimal and has existed only during very short periods, the potential upside is exceptional. There is an additional bonus for sophisticated collectors who experience enchantment from the ownership of beautiful works of
art, in this case, nature's works of art. Owning a colored diamond has become a mark of prestige as well as sophistication. It is very difficult today to read an up market magazine without seeing two or three advertisements featuring
colored diamond jewelry.
An endless catalogue of colors. Objects of desire whose qualities are of infinite variety. A rising demand from a growing constituency of admirers. Yet a scarcity of supply, occasioned by nature's reluctance to yield its treasures in bountiful quantities. This is the context and these are real supply and demand influences at work!
Colored diamonds are becoming increasingly popular, and that has only heightened their prestige. Their consistently rising value is making them all the more coveted. For some people, a colored diamond is not only an object to be possessed and admired, but also a source of comfort at a time when precious metals, commodities, and even the world's stock markets have become less reliable protections against inflation and other erosions of
capital.
