The Canary and the Panther

The vast majority of diamonds are colourless or just slightly yellow, and only one in 10,000 diamonds are naturally coloured, making them extremely expensive. This time we are auctioning off a white-gold ring set with an exceptionally large intense fancy-yellow diamond. The yellow colour is reminiscent of a canary bird, and this type of gemstone is therefore aptly called "Canary Diamonds". The colour is the result of a process in nature where traces of nitrogen have mixed with the gemstone's primary material of carbon. The higher the concentration of nitrogen, the clearer and more intense the yellow colour.

One of the world's largest yellow diamonds was found in the Kimberly mine in South Africa in 1877. The following year it was bought by the jeweller Charles Tiffany and is therefore known as the "Tiffany diamond". It was later exhibited at the largest World Fair in history in New York in 1939-40 and from 1957 in Tiffany's own store. The famous jeweller has over time allowed a handful of famous women to borrow the diamond – for example the actress Audrey Hepburn in connection with advertising photos for the movie "Breakfast at Tiffany's" in 1962. In 2019 you could experience it on the neck of the singer Lady Gaga, who wore it on the red carpet for the year's Academy Awards ceremony. The yellow diamonds have thus been on everyone's lips several times throughout history, and on the auction market, they are highly sought after. We are therefore proud to be able to present this little wonder at the autumn auction.