In the world of colourless diamonds, the most highly prized stones are those with a pure absence of colour. But the opposite is true when grading fancy coloured diamonds. For these rarities, the stronger and purer the colour, the higher the value. According to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), only one out of 10,000 carats of fashioned diamonds displays fancy colour, and a diamond’s chances of displaying intense color are even less – one in 25,000. Browns and yellows are the most common fancy colours. Red, green, purple and orange are the rarest.

Though by no means the rarest of coloured diamonds (red, green, purple and orange are far rarer), yellow, by virtue of being the most luminous hue in the colour spectrum, attracts more attention than any other colour.The presence of nitrogen causes a diamond to appear yellow, with the intensity of the yellow color dependent on the amounts of nitrogen embedded in the stone.

This sumptuous pair of yellow diamond earrings are graded Fancy Vivid for both diamonds, making it a perfectly matched pair, a very occurrence in coloured diamond jewellery.  Cut pear-shaped, each diamond weights a hefty 15.09 carats, and are certified VS2 (Very Small Inclusions 2) in clarity by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) which also describes the diamonds as having ‘Excellent Polish and Symmetry’. The earring was auctioned by Sotheby’s in Hong Kong on May 23, 2020.