Jeweller - September 2023

THE GOLDEN EMPRESS
132.55-carat fancy yellow diamond
Graff Diamonds
THE ARGYLE VIOLET
2.83-carat fancy deep grayish bluish violet diamond
LJ West
THE GRAFF PINK
23.88-carat flawless fancy vivid pink diamond
Graff Diamonds
Priests were limited to white, clear diamonds, while
warriors and landowners were permitted to own brown
diamonds, described as ‘the colour of the eye of the hare’.
Nearly 1,000 years later, the rough that would become the
Hope Diamond was discovered in the Kollour Mine in India.
Today, the 45-carat dark greyish-blue stone is regarded by
many as the most famous diamond in the world.
The origins of the diamond are somewhat unclear; however,
it’s believed the stone was obtained by French gemstone
merchant Jean-Baptiste Tavernier around 1666.
Tavernier travelled with the rough to Paris, where it
was cut into a crude triangular shape and named the
Tavernier Blue.
This diamond was eventually sold to King Louis XIV;
however, the circumstances of the sale are also unclear.
In 1678, King Louis XIV commissioned court jeweller
Jean Pitau to recut the Tavernier Blue, resulting in a
67-carat diamond which royal inventories listed as the
Blue Diamond of the Crown of France.
Fancy colour diamonds were particularly popular with
French aristocrats, and diamond cutters would use the
term ‘fantaisie’ when describing these stones.
When translated to English, fantaisie can be interpreted
two ways – ‘fancy’ and ‘fantasy’.
The term fantaisie was used by these craftsmen because
of the ‘otherworldly’ nature of these diamonds. Indeed,
when compared with white diamonds, fancy colours do
feel like the stuff of fiction.
Of all the diamonds mined each year, a mere 0.01 per cent
are fancy colour. That’s roughly one in every 10,000 carats
extracted from the Earth!
Nearly 300 years later, a US jeweller – Robert Shipley –
established the GIA in 1931, hoping to address what he
perceived as a lack of scientific expertise within the industry.
In 1953, the GIA developed its International Diamond
AT THE FRONTLINE
Experience Speaks
FP
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GARRY HOLLOWAY
HOLLOWAY DIAMONDS
“It’s possible that ‘fancy’ simply
sounds boring or trite to many
these days; however, it has a
meaning and values are based
on the words that come after."
NIC CERRONE
HOUSE OF CERRONE
“We convey the exact
information and terminology that
is stated on the certificate of the
diamond to our customers.”
ROB BATES
JCK ONLINE
“I agree ‘fancy’ is a bit redundant,
but as we have seen many times,
trade terminology and customs
take on a life of their own, and can
be hard to change.”
Grading System and introduced the four Cs – colour,
clarity, cut, and carat. The first diamond reports were
issued two years later.
According to a 1994 issue of Gems and Gemmology,
it was around this time that interest first began to
increase in fancy colour diamonds.
“The GIA’s interest in the colour origin of coloured
diamonds was initially sparked in 1953 when staff
members were first shown diamonds treated to
‘yellow’ with cyclotron irradiation,” the report reads.
“As news of the availability of cyclotron-treated diamonds
spread in the trade, the GIA began to receive large
numbers of colour diamonds from clients wanting to
know whether the colour had been altered by laboratory
irradiation and annealing.
“Almost as soon as it was introduced in 1956, the GIA’s
origin of colour report began a process of the systematic
standardisation in describing coloured diamonds.”
The report clarifies that the term ‘fancy’ was first used
on GIA reports to describe natural faceted diamonds that
exhibited colour appearance when viewed either face-up
or simply displayed any colour other than yellow or brown.
The GIA’s colour grading system was further refined in the
1960s and 1970s, with several ‘master comparison stones’
used to judge other diamonds against a ‘standard’.
Interestingly, much of this research was spurred by
frustrations within the industry about the lack of a
standard definition for a ‘canary’ coloured diamond –
further highlighting the timeless importance of language
and terminology.
GIA researchers established boundary distinctions and
expanded the collection of master stones; however, there
were significant hurdles to overcome – namely, the lack
of availability of master stones to cover the wide variety of
diamonds that occur in nature.
“Grading the colour of coloured diamonds is one of the
greatest challenges in gemmology. The description must be a
49 | September 2023