A pre-investment year sale price at Sotheby’s October, 1975, was $570,000. In the realm of famous colorless diamonds, the Jonker IV has a rich auction history, weighing in at 30.70 cts, with D VVS2 quality. Many investment companies specializing in diamonds went bankrupt and the jewelry trade was left to take the blame for not buying back the merchandise it had sold.ĭuring this period of economic upheaval, the auction market reflected the same vagaries as the marketplace. Once the investment bubble burst, the D flawless one carat plummeted to an all-time low of $7,000 per carat according to Howard Rubin, who was then Vice President of Leer Gem Corp. In March 1981, David Federman, then editor of Gemstone Price Report, listed an 18-month price history for a D flawless one-carat diamond:īy 1982, the coveted D flawless had fallen to $18,800 per carat listed by Rapaport Diamond Report, December 31, 1982. Investment buying of diamonds and precious stones became rampant and a D flawless one carat topped at $63,000! The Rapaport Diamond Report, created in 1978, became the trade pricing bible and more and more diamonds were being sold with lab certificates. Now, suddenly, these appealing avenues were opened to the public. Investment opportunities in hard assets had previously been reserved only for the wealthy. Individuals were accumulating money and were looking for places to invest. This “top quality” in most cases equates to clarity grades F, IF and VVS, and D to F color diamonds. Even though the GIA terminology was established, it was not universally used as it is today. Interestingly, Joseph Schlussel, Editor of The Diamond Registry Bulletin, recalls his first edition in 1969 where he mentions that “top quality” one-carat diamonds in Paris were selling for $1,600 per carat. Diamond distribution became really big business due to mass production techniques and new business management applications. Chain stores grew rapidly, as did family jewelers. In 1948, the slogan “A Diamond is Forever” turned the diamond into a commitment with which every couple declared their engagement.ĭuring the 1950s through the 1960s, jewelry firms developed into large corporate entities: Zales, Gordon, Sterling. Due to this expanded economy, personal wealth was increasing and diamond prices rose. There was a focus on rebuilding Europe and Japan and United States industries were supplying the world with goods and services. The buying and selling of diamond jewelry was not on the collective consciousness. During the actual war years, activities in the gemstone and metal industries were being diverted to the war effort. The average person was able to accumulate diamonds due to the development of mass production cutting techniques and more diamond deposit discoveries.īy the mid to late 1920s, the one-carat “blue white perfect” (D flawless) was up to approximately $500 per carat.Įconomies were recuperating from the crash and the winds of war were blowing in Europe. The preceding Edwardian era and the Art Deco period relied heavily on the use of diamonds in a white on white pattern (diamonds in platinum) in all sorts of jewelry uses. The 1920s in the United States was a period of economic growth and expansion until the stock market crash of 1929. In June, 1909, diamond dealer Roseau sold it to Cartier who, in turn, sold it to Evelyn Walsh Maclean for $80,000 in 1911.Ĭollector stones were sought after by the wealthy and influential, but at the same time, a “good one-carat perfect” sold for $100 (this was before GIA nomenclature) according to Jewelers Circular Keystone Centennial Issue, June, 1969. The most famous blue diamond, firmly entrenched in the American memory, is the Hope Diamond, which started its twentieth century journey in November, 1901, when it was valued at 18,115 British pounds to satisfy the personal debts of Lord Hope. De Beers had gained firm control over diamond distribution and began to establish an organized world market. We will loosely divide the century into periods, using the one-carat D flawless diamond as a touchstone to weave through the decades.Īn abundance of diamonds yielded by new discoveries in Africa and Brazil allowed the average person to become a diamond owner, a privilege previously reserved only for European royalty and American aristocracy. The jewelry industry is no exception to this phenomenon, and tracing diamond pricing records is one way of gaining that historical perspective. A s we greet the future, symbolized by the much heralded millennium, we also have the impulse to look back over the past decades of the twentieth century and review the progress of history.
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