It comes at no surprise that Fancy Color Diamonds, Blue Specifically, lead the results for the auction house in their recent Hong Kong event. Although sales during this auction lagged those of last year, reaching a total of HKD $ 315,247,000 a 37% decrease compared to HKD $504,057,500 for the same auction last year. Sales of the top three out of five items were fancy color diamonds ( two blue diamonds and one pink diamond) represented almost half of the sales (44.6% of the sales). The other 2 top items were colorless diamonds which represented 8.01% of the sales. The three Fancy Color diamonds represented 1.6% of actually items sold. Out of 283 items offered, 101 were not sold (35.7%). Last year, 87 out of 262 items went unsold (33.2%).

The 5.00 carat Fancy Vivid Blue diamond with VS2 clarity was sold for $13,833,499 or $2.767 million per carat, a strong price for this 5-10 carat sub-category. The highest price per carat paid for this category is $3.3 million per carat, paid for the 9.75 carat, pear shape, sold back in 2014.

The 5.00 carat Fancy Vivid Blue diamond          Image credit: Sotheby’s

The 3.47 carat, Fancy Intense Blue diamond with VS1 clarity was sold for $3,076,747 or $886.7k per carat. It is not a record breaker for this sub-category, but remains a strong price, considering it’s depth of color and clarity. The record in this sub-category is held by the 3.13 carat, Fancy Intense Blue Diamond with IF clarity sold on April 4, 2017 by Sotheby’s Hong Kong for $1.53 million per carat.

The 3.47 carat Fancy Intense Blue diamond          Image credit: Sotheby’s

As expected, the 4.31 carat, Fancy intense Purplish Pink diamond was sold for $1,010,275 or $234.4k per carat. An extremely low price, but due to the low clarity of the diamond, and the strong blue fluorescence.

The 4.31 carat Fancy Intense Purplish Pink diamond          Image credit: Sotheby’s

The 1.38 carat, Fancy Vivid Bluish Green Diamond with an SI2 clarity sold for $811,282 or $587,885 per carat, the mid-range of the valuation by the auction house ($714k to $918k total).

The 1.38 carat Fancy Vivid Bluish Green diamond          Image credit: Sotheby’s

The 1.42 carat, Fancy Intense Blue diamond with Internally Flawless clarity was sold for $750,053 or $528.2k per carat, at the high of the estimate by the auction house. Not a new record but keeping steady with market valuation.

The 1.42 carat Fancy Intense Blue diamond          Image credit: Sotheby’s

The 0.87 carat, Fancy Blue diamond with SI1 clarity sold for $231,203 or $265,750 per carat, almost three times its high estimate. This is most likely due to the rarity of brilliant cut diamonds in fancy color.

The 0.87 carat Fancy Blue diamond          Image credit: Sotheby’s

Some items were not sold such as the rare 1.53 carat Fancy Vivid Green Diamond with VS2 clarity, the 3.64 carat Fancy Pink with IF clarity, the 8 fancy vivid yellow diamonds that were set together, and the 1.62 carat, Fancy purple-pink diamond.

The next auction that we will cover and attend is the Geneva auction in mid-November.