The world’s most expensive jewellery
We are so done with dull and dreary for 2021. What we want is sparkle and colour and fire and awesomeness! What we want is jewellery – the world’s most expensive jewellery, to be precise. And of course, an amazing casino jackpot to help us buy it. But until that happens, we can do a little window shopping first, and make a list of lovely, glittery things we’d love to own and flaunt and worship. Come, join us in our longing for lustrous gems!
The Hope Diamond – $250 million
Go big or go home – that’s what the Hope Diamond is all about. Because why mess around with lesser gemstones when you could have the grande dame of diamonds herself – a 45.52-carat blue sparkling stone, and a legend in its own right.
Of course, it could be the $250 million price tag that gives the Hope Diamond its place in history – but it could also be its legacy of bad luck and curses too. We don’t know if it’s really cursed, but its colourful history could have played a part in keeping this persistent rumour alive.
Thought to have been mined in Southern India, the stone was sold to French gem merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier in 1666, before having its name changed from the Tavernier Blue to the French Blue, and sold to King Louis XIV in 1668. More than a hundred years later, the stone was stolen from the French royal family, and recut again, this time with the largest part of the stone appearing in a London banking family’s personal collection in 1839. The name of the family was Hope, and since then, it’s been the enduring name of the diamond as well.
Of course the revelations don’t stop there. After moving from the Hope family to several other owners, the diamond was sold to the Washington socialite Evelyn Walsh McLean in 1911, with its curse apparently causing her a great number of personal tragedies. After her eventual death, it was sold to the famed gem merchant, Harry Winston, who eventually donated it to the Smithsonian in 1958. So we can’t actually purchase it, but we can purchase a ticket to look at it. Which, considering all the talk of curses, is probably just as well. Oh and also we don’t have $250 million – a small, insignificant problem…
The Pink Star Diamond – $72 million
No more talk of curses – we want to talk about pretty things instead. And there’s nothing prettier than the Pink Star Diamond, also known as the most expensive ring ever sold at auction. And that’s a title we can get behind!
An oval-shaped stone weighing almost 60 carats, the Pink Star diamond was originally cut from a larger 132.5 carat gemstone from South Africa, mined by De Beers in 1999. In 2013, the Pink Star was sold at auction to a diamond dealer from New York, for the unbelievable sum of $83 million. Unfortunately the sum turned out to be a little too unbelievable, and the stone had to be returned to Sotheby’s after the buyer defaulted on the sale. It’s not all bad news for the Pink Star though, as it was eventually sold to a Hong Kong bidder for a far more affordable (haha) $72 million. We’re all about the colour pink, although sadly the price tag is a little beyond our means. So we’ll just have to lust from afar, and dream sparkly pink dreams instead.
The Graff Peacock Brooch – $100 million
If we can’t afford the Pink Star diamond then we definitely can’t afford this dazzling creation – but it’s just so gorgeous to look at, we can’t help drooling over it! Crafted by the famed London company, Graff Diamonds, this glittering peacock brooch is magnificence personified, featuring more than 1,300 gemstones and weighing over 120 carats in total. And the pièce de résistance? An utterly resplendent dark-blue pear-shaped diamond at its centre, setting the price tag at a stratospheric $100 million, and putting it firmly out of the reach of us mere mortals. All we can do is sit back and gaze at its sparkling brilliance, and hope that one day we might be able to afford a single one of its 1,300 gemstones. This is where that casino jackpot could come in immensely handy – just saying!
L’Incomparable Necklace – $55 million
You don’t have to speak French to know that the name of this piece is the Incomparable Necklace – and with a value of $55 million, it’s not just a clever name. In fact with a colossal 407-carat diamond at its heart, it’s more than incomparable, it’s unparalleled, unsurpassed, and unmatched in every way.
We can see you’re still in awe at the size of its centre diamond – and we don’t blame you, because at 407 carats, it holds the title of the world’s largest internally flawless diamond. Incomparable indeed. But the superlatives don’t stop there – that’s because this necklace also features another 102 stones, set in glittering 18-karat gold, and taking the L’Incomparable Necklace to new heights of opulence and luxury. And to think the centre stone was first discovered by a young girl in a pile of mining rubble. It just goes to show, no matter how humble your beginnings, there is always greatness to be found if you look below the surface.
The Orange – $35.5 million
No, this isn’t an actual orange – instead it’s a breathtaking orange diamond – one that set a world record price per carat for coloured diamonds, when it was auctioned off by Christie’s in Geneva in 2013. Even if you’re not a fan of the colour orange, or coloured diamonds in general, you have to admit there’s something mesmerising about this completely unique gemstone – and just as mesmerising is the price it reached. Originally valued at $21 million, it eventually sold for an unbelievable $35.5 million, making each of its carats worth a startling $2.4 million. More expensive than any orange we’ve ever bought, and vastly more valuable!
Ready to sparkle? Then why not start out by going in search of a casino jackpot first. Let’s face it, when you’re looking at price tags in the multi-millions, every little bit helps – and a jackpot payout could be just the helping hand you need to own one of these creations for yourself. Good luck!
Happy Spinning 🙂