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Pink Diamonds
The story of pink splendour begins in the ancient mines of South India, the land known for producing the world’s purest and most famous diamonds and the only source of diamonds known to man before the 18th century.
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Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, a French merchant and adventurer best known for acquiring the Tavernier Blue Diamond, which he later sold to Louis XIV, was among the first to refer to rose diamonds in the early 17th century.
According to Tavernier, during his second voyage to the East in 1642, he was shown an enormous rough pink diamond weighing over 200 carats by moguls in the Kingdom of Golconda. Valued at 600,000 rupees nearly four hundred years ago, this diamond, known as ‘The Grand Table’, remains the largest pink diamond ever discovered. In his book, ‘The Six Voyages’, Tavernier later included a drawing of two pale rose-coloured diamonds he purchased in India around 1668.
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Many of the world's most famous pink diamonds, including the Darya-i-Nur, Agra, Le Grand Condé, The Hortensia, and Shah Jahan, likely originated from the renowned Kollur mines near Golconda in Southern India. During that period, these diamonds adorned the crowns and jewels of kings and moguls. Some of these gemstones made their way to Europe, where they were sold or presented as gifts to monarchs and royals. The exact origins of other notable pink diamonds remain unknown, and in more recent times, several large pink diamonds have been discovered in alluvial deposits in Brazil and Africa.
Natural pink diamonds larger than one carat are extremely rare; some might even say they are beyond rare. The famous "Williamson" pink diamond, currently part of the British crown jewels, was presented to Princess Elizabeth (later Queen Elizabeth II) on her wedding day, November 20, 1947. Named after its discoverer, Dr. John Williamson, this pink diamond is one of Tanzania's most illustrious modern-day finds.
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Pink Diamond Formation
Research shows that the colour of 99.5% of pink diamonds is due to distortions in their crystal structure rather than trace elements like nitrogen, which gives yellow diamonds their yellow hue, or boron, which creates a blue colour. In pink diamonds that contain nitrogen, the colour is usually concentrated in narrow, parallel bands known as glide planes, lamellae, or pink/brown graining, depending on the specific colour. These lines can be seen under a microscope, and diamond cutters position them perpendicular to the table to enhance the overall body colour.
Cut for Colour
The perfect cut can further intensify nature’s ambitions, making the beauty of pink diamonds an exquisite combination of both science and art. The unique stress in the crystal structure that gives these stones their colour also gives them their Achilles heel: they are hard to cut and polish. The invisible stresses within the stone can lead to them shattering during cutting, making finished examples a testament to the skill of the stone cutters.
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Argyle
The Argyle Pink Diamond originates from a remote corner of Western Australia's east Kimberley region, 3,040 kilometres from Perth. This unique landscape is home to the iconic Argyle mine, discovered in the late 1980s. The mine became a significant source of pink diamonds created over 1.6 billion years ago under extreme conditions, supplying about 90% of the world's pink diamonds. However, despite this significant output, only 0.1% of the annual 20 million carats produced are pink diamonds.
The first Argyle Pink Diamond was discovered in 1979. The Argyle Diamond Mine is considered one of history's most important diamond discoveries. Since production began in 1983, the mine has captivated the world by producing diamonds with a depth, range, and intensity of colour that had never been seen before or since.
The mine closed in 2020, leading to a significant reduction in the supply of pink diamonds.
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