Gary Roskin Interviews Maurice Galli

Image courtesy of Harry Winston

The career of a renowned jewelry designer and his relationship with the world famous Hope Diamond is the subject of a story on The Roskin Gem News Report.

Maurice Galli, 81, a professor of jewelry design, author and longtime senior designer for Harry Winston, Inc., has an illustrious career but there was one glaring hole in his résumé. Even though he has been employed at Harry Winston for more than 50 years and was mentored the company’s founder, Harry Winston, he never had the chance to design a piece of jewelry for the Hope Diamond, the famous blue diamond that was donated to the Smithsonian by Mr. Winston. Needless to say this has changed.

The story is told by Gary Roskin, who is no slouch himself in the world of precious gems. He is one of the world’s leading gemologists as well as a longtime educator and writer. Nearly a year ago, he was given access to the back room of the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History Hall of Geology, Gems, and Minerals while 10 gem experts documented and examined the Hope and Wittelsbach-Graff blue diamonds, the two most famous blue diamonds in the world, to try to determine whether they were ever related. He has been writing about the event and its findings in a series of stories on his website. The Galli story is part of this ongoing series.

A Record $30.6M Achieved for 118-Carat White Diamond; 7.5-Carat Blue Diamond Fails To Sell

A 118.28-carat D-flawless diamond fetched $30.06 million at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels sale Monday. It is a world record price for any white diamond at auction. 

The unmounted, oval-shaped diamond is the largest white diamond ever sold at auction and the largest oval D-flawless diamond in the world as graded by the Gemological Institute of America. GIA graded the diamond, reportedly about the size of an egg, as D color, flawless clarity, with excellent polish and symmetry. The diamond was also graded as a Type IIa, making it among the most chemically pure type of diamond with exceptional optical transparency.

The diamond was cut from a 299 carat rough diamond discovered in 2011 from a mine in Southern Africa.

However, there was a disappointment for the evening as a 7.59-carat round fancy vivid blue diamond failed to sell. Known as the Premier Blue, this brilliant-cut internally flawless gem is the largest round fancy vivid blue diamond ever graded by the GIA. Sotheby’s said the round brilliant cut is rarely used in colored diamonds due to the high waste involved in the cutting process. The diamond is mounted on a platinum ring and surrounded by brilliant-cut pink diamonds together weighing approximately 1.70 carats.

The auction held at the Hong Kong Convention and Exhibition Centre took in nearly $95.5 million, making it the highest total for a sale of jewelry in Asia.

In addition to diamonds, jadeite was very popular during the sale. The top item in this category was a double-strand jadeite bead necklace that sold for more than $5.4 million.

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Big Bulgari Blue Diamond Ring May Earn $12M at Auction

The Bulgari Blue Diamond, circa 1972

Christie's auction house announced that it will offer “The Bulgari Blue Diamond”—a two-stone diamond ring designed by the Italian jewelry company in the 1970s—at its New York headquarters on October 20. The ring features a triangular-shaped, colorless diamond of 9.87 cts. paired with a triangular-shaped fancy vivid blue diamond of 10.95 cts.—the largest fancy vivid blue diamond of this cut ever to be offered at auction.

Fancy vivid blue diamonds of this size are among the rarest of colored diamonds, the auction house said. It is estimated that one in about 10 million diamonds will possess a color pure enough to qualify as “fancy vivid.” The ring will be priced upon request for prospective bidders, but is expected to achieve in excess of $12 million and is positioned to become one of the top-selling diamonds at auction in 2010.

“The appearance of this sensational jewel on the market is causing a huge stir amongst top jewelry collectors worldwide,” said Rahul Kadakia, head of jewelry for Christie’s Americas. “This ring’s exceptional quality, rarity and size combined with the coveted imprimatur of the house of Bulgari make this upcoming sale a truly special event in the world of jewelry and one that is certain to make auction history.”

The ring is being offered by a private European collector who has kept it in his family for almost 40 years. According to family tradition, the ring was given as a gift from the collector to his wife in celebration of the birth of their first baby boy. The final sale price in 1972 was about $1 million, a fortune at the time, Christie’s said.

10.6-Carat Fancy Blue Diamond Has an Asking Price of $9.8 Million

The "Royal Blue" diamond

A 10.6-carat fancy blue diamond known as the “Royal Blue” is available through M.S. Rau Antiques in New Orleans. The asking price is $9.8 million.
 
Blue diamonds are among the rarest in the world so it seems unusual that this cut-corned, modified brilliant cut gem is the second significant blue diamond to appear on sale in August. A week earlier, Sotheby’s Hong Kong announced that it is offering a 7.59-carat round fancy vivid blue diamond that is estimated to fetch $19 million.

This stone has a VVS1 clarity grade, notable for having “very, very slight” inclusions, according to the report from the Gemological Institute of America. It is one step away from being graded as “internally flawless” under the GIA scale. The chemical that creates the blue in diamonds is boron, which this gem has.

The diamond is set on a platinum and rose gold ring surrounded by vivid pink and colorless diamonds.

Fewer than 0.3 percent of all colored diamonds graded by GIA were predominately blue. Gem expert and dealer Robert Procop, also the co-designer of Style of Jolie jewels with Angelina Jolie, knows as much as anyone when it comes to the rarity and historical significance of these gems.

“Blue diamonds are rarely discovered and only a few have been found over centuries of mining, making it one of the rarest gems of the world,” he said. “(They) have also been the most gifted by royalty and historical figures making them the most mysterious and precious of jewels. I rarely see a blue diamond that I do not admire.”

Large fancy blue diamonds have been sold for record-breaking figures at auctions and other sales, several have had illustrious provenance through its mine origins and ownership throughout centuries. The most famous blue is the Hope Diamond, last purchased by famed luxury jeweler, Harry Winston, who donated it to the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in 1958.

The asking price for the “Royal Blue” ring is more than $924,500 per carat, which seems a bit steep, particularly since it has no known provenance. However, it is only about half of the per-carat price of a 5.30 blue diamond purchased by another famed jeweler, Laurence Graff, at a Bonhams auction in London in April 2013. The final price was $9.6 million or $1.8 million per carat.

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World’s Largest Flawless Vivid Blue Diamond May Fetch $25 Million

The Blue

A 13.22-carat blue diamond is the lead item at Christie’s Geneva Magnificent Jewels sale May 14. Known as “The Blue,” the auction house says it is the largest flawless vivid blue diamond in the world. It has a pre-auction estimate of $21 to $25 million.

The Ocean Dream

Another highlight of the 250-lot auction at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues is what the auction house is calling the largest fancy vivid blue-green diamond in the world to come to auction. Known as “The Ocean Dream,” the 5.50-carat gem has an estimate of $7.5 to $9.5 million. “The combination of its size, natural origin, hue, and saturated color makes it an extremely unusual occurrence,” Christie’s said in a statement.

Other diamonds expected to generate strong international interest include a 76.51-carat light pink cut-corned diamond set as necklace centerpiece by diamond dealer Lev Leviev with an estimate of $7 to $10 million (pictured above); and a 75.97-carat pear-shaped D-color flawless diamond with an estimate of $13.5 million to $15 million (pictured below).

The 250 lot sale is estimated to fetch a total of $80 million, Christie’s said. It includes the following:

* A collection of 14 jewels from a “European Gentleman” under the heading, “A Passion for Jewels.” It includes the Rajah diamond, a 26.14-carat, old-mine brilliant-cut diamond with an estimate of $3 to $5 million. 

* Another highlight of “A Passion for Jewels” collection is the Belle Époque Devant-de-Corsage brooch, crafted in 1912 by Cartier. It is estimated to fetch $7 million to $12 million. 

* 20 pieces from the Estate of Baroness Thyssen-Bornemisza de Kaszon will be another highpoint of the auction led by a natural pearl and diamond necklace estimated at $550,000 to $700,000.

* A five-strand necklace composed of 87, 81, 76, seventy-one and 65 natural pearls with an estimate of $2 to $3 million.

* A 21.41-carat cushion-shaped Alexandrite with no indications of treatment and a distinct color-change from green to purple with an estimate of $500,000 to $700,000. 

* A necklace made of seven Mughal engraved spinel beads that date back to the 17th century with an estimate of $1.5 to $2 million. 

* A three rectangular-cut diamond ring designed by JAR with an estimate of $330,000 to $460,000. Proceeds will benefit Ospendale Pediatrico Bambino Gesu in Rome and the Pediatric department of the Ospedale San Paolo in Milan.

* Mystery-set ruby and diamond ear pendants, entitled Entrée en scène, was part of the “Une journée à Paris collection Van Cleef & Arpels launched in 2006 as an homage to Paris. It has an estimate of $200,000 to $310,000.

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