Christie’s is on the point of current The Golconda Blue, the most important Fancy Vivid Blue Diamond ever to be provided at public sale. Weighing 23.24 carats, this gemstone will headline Christie’s Magnificent Jewels sale, which takes place stay on Might 14 on the 4 Seasons Lodge des Bergues in Geneva. The diamond has an estimate of $35 million to $50 million.
It’s mounted in a hoop by JAR, and ranks among the many rarest and most essential diamonds ever found.
The diamond’s historical past traces again to Yeshwant Rao Holkar, the Maharaja of Indore — a cosmopolitan determine of the Twenties and ’30s who was identified for his refined style in artwork and jewels. In 1923, he commissioned Chaumet to set the 23-carat pear-shaped Golconda blue diamond right into a bracelet. A decade later, Mauboussin reimagined it as a part of a necklace worn by the Maharani, immortalized in a portrait by Bernard Boutet de Monvel.
In 1947, the diamond was acquired by Harry Winston, who later offered it as a brooch to the Maharaja of Baroda. Reacquired and resold, the stone now returns to the marketplace for the primary time.
“Distinctive noble gems of this caliber come to market as soon as in a lifetime,” mentioned Rahul Kadakia, Christie’s worldwide head of knickknack. “Over the course of its 259-year historical past, Christie’s has had the dignity of providing among the world’s most essential Golconda diamonds, together with the Archduke Joseph, the Princie and the Wittelsbach. With its Royal heritage, extraordinary colour and distinctive measurement, The Golconda Blue is really one of many rarest blue diamonds on the planet.”
Sanyogitabai Devi of Indore wears the Golconda blue mounted in an an Artwork Deco Mauboussin sautoir.
Bernard Boutet de Monvel, courtesy of Christie’s
“Golconda” is a reputation that’s used within the jewellery world to indicate the world’s best diamonds and gems that possess luminousness, transparency and an innate purity. It additionally signifies that the gem was mined within the historical diamond fields of Jap India. A number of the most well-known Golconda stones embrace the Agra Diamond, the Hope Diamond on the Smithsonian, the Koh-i-Noor which varieties a part of the British Crown Jewels, the Darya-i-Nur in Iran and The Princie Diamond.
