red diamond

The first auction of a red diamond in Australia gathered a lot of attention but at the end of the day there was no sale. The Sotheby's Australia's April 12 sale featured the first red diamond ever offered for public auction in Australia. The stone in question is a 0.82-carat, fancy purplish-red Argyle diamond set into a ring with a pair of fancy blue diamonds all surrounded by brilliant-cut white diamonds mounted in platinum. It was estimated at between 700,000 and 1 million Australian dollars (between about $645,065 and $921,556) but although there was a lot of interest before the auction the bidding started at $480,000 and stalled out at $490,000.

Red diamonds are exceedingly rare. It's not known exactly how red diamonds are produced in the earth, it is believed that plastic deformation of the stone's crystal is the cause. As diamonds were pushed up kimberlite pipes from deep inside the earth toward the surface they were exposed to tremendous heat and pressure. This can cause areas of deformation in the crystal structure thereby changing it so that it can only absorb light in different areas of the visible spectrum. Instead of a rainbow you get a single color, often a pink, purple or red tone. This is different from other colored stones such as blue diamonds which form because of the addition of boron or green diamonds which are impacted by natural radiation. There are only around 100 natural red diamonds believed to have been discovered and just three over five carats: Moussaieff red, the Kazanjian red and the De Young red diamond.

ABC News in Australia reports that all is not lost for this red stone, it will likely sell behind the scenes, albeit for less money. The website reports that Margo Fitzgibbon, a diamond collector from Sydney, will make another offer for the ring and believes that there will be others who will be looking to buy as well. She predicted it will sell for around $800,000 or $900,000 Australian, possibly to an overseas buyer.

Australia is the home of the pink diamond. The Argyle diamond mine provides the world with the finest pink and red sparklers. And yet the Sotheby's Australia's upcoming April 12 sale of antique and contemporary jewelry marks the first red diamond ever offered for public auction in Australia. The stone in question is a 0.82-carat, fancy purplish-red Argyle diamond set into a ring with a pair of fancy blue diamonds all surrounded by brilliant-cut white diamonds mounted in platinum. The ring is estimated at between 700,000 and 1 million Australian dollars (between about $645,065 and $921,556), a testament to the rareness of the reds.

The sale also includes a double strand of graduated emerald beads accented with diamond-set rondelles, a sapphire and diamond ring and an emerald and diamond ring and a few examples of another Australian export, the black opal. Also up for sale is a Vertu mobile phone set with fancy pink and colorless diamonds, pink sapphires and rubies with 18-karat rose gold and a variety of Rolex, Cartier, Piaget, IWC and Breitling watches. Previews for the auction will be held in Melbourne on April 7 and 8 and in Sydney April 10, right up until the evening sale on the 12th.

A couple of years ago we heard about a treasure hunt related to a book, "Secrets of the Alchemist Dar" which contained riddles leading to 100 gems including one rare stone which was said to be worth over $900,000. But the hunt was canceled and now a treasure heads to the auction block.

The rare stone in question was a .59 carat red diamond from Australia's famous Argyle mine and it will be auctioned on September 16, 2009, in New York. Colored Stone Magazine reports that a winning bid at a September 16th auction in the Penthouse of the International Diamond Tower includes four other treasures, rings holding a .54 carat oval blue diamond, another with a 1.01-carat yellow diamond, a pink diamond ring and an enameled ladybug ring. The collection was created for Donald Palmieri of the Gemological Appraisal Association in New York who chose and bought the stones for the author's collection.

As the story goes by the time Palmieri had bought the raw materials for the collection, he had spent close to $1 million but the five-ring collection only has a minimum reserve of $400,000. In May 2006 the collection was appraised at $1,195,500 with the red diamond ring estimated at being worth $1 million.

Why did the jewelry never end up in the hunt? It's a curious tale. Software genius Michael Stadther had self-published the best-selling fantasy novel, "A Treasure Trove: A Fairy Tale About Real Treasure for Parents and Children of All Ages." Clues in the book led to a 18K gold tokens buried at various U.S. national parks which were then redeemed for fine jewelry pieces related to the book. The sequel called for clues hidden all over the world and Stadher wanted even more extravagantly enticing prices, hence the gathering of rare colored diamonds. Palmieri bought the diamonds and designer Aaron Basha began to create the pieces. But something happened on the way to the treasure hunt, Stadther and his publisher fell out and the treasure hunt was canceled.

A recent bankruptcy document on the Tweleve forum shines further light on the situation including the fact that the sequel was a failure, $200,000 was owed to Simon and Schuster and a movie deal with Paramount fell through. Now the rings are up for sale so that some money can be recouped. The rings were available at the JCK Show in Las Vegas earlier this month but did not sell there and so the auction has been scheduled for this fall.

Gallery: The Five Rings Of The Secrets of the Alchemist Dar

The world's rarest gem is believed to be painite, a gem that most have never even heard of. Rarity does not equate to beauty in gems, however. The painite is an orangish or reddish brown, with the brown tint coming from iron in the crystal. It was first discovered in Burma in the 1950s and was widely considered to be the rarest of all gems, with only two faceted crystals in existence. Within the last couple of years, however, the source of the original painite crystals was discovered, and now a few hundred faceted stones exist.

A more widely recognized (but still very rare) gem is the red diamond. There are many more red diamonds available than some other rare gems, but very large red diamonds are extremely rare. The largest cut natural red diamond may be the one owned by Moussaieff Jewellers Ltd, a 5.11 carat trillion cut.

The rare blue diamond, made famous by the Hope Diamond, gets its deep blue color from traces of boron in the stone. It is a natural blue diamond, in contrast with most of today's blue diamonds, which are turned from clear to blue with a process involving irradiation and heat.

The Hope Diamond was believed to be originally over 112 carats, but was poorly cut. It was recut in the 1600's, resulting in a stone just over 67 carats. It changed hands many times, and got its name from Henry Philip Hope, who acquired the diamond in 1839. After it changed hands a few more times, the Hope Diamond came to rest in the care of the Smithsonian, and now weighs over 45 carats.