RARE COIN Mesquite TX

IN A COMMODITIZED WORLD, MANY JEWELERS ARE DISCOVERING THE ONE-OF-A-KIND CHARMS OF YELLOW, PINK, GREEN, AND EVEN BLUE DIAMONDS. FOR MANY FANCY COLORS, IT'S NAME YOUR PRICE.

"When there's a smell of inflation," says New York fancy color specialist Raphael Maidi of Maidi Corp., "people go to hard assets. For diamonds—at a time when retailers are no longer making margins on the average white stones—fancies are key. When I first got into diamonds, I thought people were crazy, paying fancy prices: half a year's salary for a 30-point green. I was wrong."

"I think the industry's movement downstream into jewelry has helped the public's love of fancies and acceptance of price," says Jordan Fine, vice president of New York's Amgad Natural Diamonds and president of the Natural Color Diamond Association, which has done much to promote these rarest of stones. "After all, what do you do with a 30-point vivid green? If it's two carats, you mortgage your house. But what about the smaller green, that has a color you've never seen before and never will again? We have a lot of smaller fancies that are unusual and very beautiful."

In the past year, Amgad has moved strongly into fancy color diamond jewelry, taking the lead "from more and more jewelers who either requested outright, or strongly inferred the demand from their clients. It's a very real trend. Independent jewelers and designers are putting their stake in the fancy ground."

Amgad's catalog includes the fancy yellow pieces that have become an industry standard, but many more hail from Fine's love of assembling rare color combinations. "We're working on eternity band concepts that mix capes, light pinks, greens, intense yellows, even blacks in the same ring, 24 stones at 20 points or so apiece, or combining two rare fancies for a one-of-a-kind cocktail ring." He shows me a stunning $16,000 ring that accents a .48 point fancy light yellow of highest make with an exceptionally rare .40 point fancy light blue with a carat or so of melee.

And you have no worry about sitting on that piece? "None whatsoever. There's been a 70 percent increase in blues over the last two years alone," he says. "It's name your price for blues."

How does a retailer get started in the fancy game? "Probably with yellows, which is probably the only color most retailers have seen, and I think every door should have one or two in stock. The question then is: How do you get past yellow? I think, by working backward. Look at what your customers are spending on their big annual buy. If it's, say $45,000, there will be so many choices in fancies—some not so obvious," he adds, showing me a stunning 24 carat champagne emerald cut. "This would be over budget, but it gives you an idea of how wide the palette is. I'd also suggest showing color for something typically white, the diamond engagement ring—an expression of love for someone who loves pink, for example."

ENTERING THE MARKET

Many jewelers start in yellows with the same supplier they use for their whites. New York's Abe Mor has made a successful business from fancy yellow diamond jewelry priced on a strict cost plus labor formula.

Chicago-based diamantaire William Levine has gone into fancy jewelry with flair by mixing fancy colors and colored golds in settings. It never ceases to amaze how endearing such pieces can be and how much perceived value is thus added (and perceived savings achieved) to fancy colors. Affordable luxury is embodied in shoulder-dusters that feature 3.70 carats of rose cut pears and marquises in 2.61 carats of melee, at a low cost of $15,000. For only $1,000 more is a companion necklace with 23 daisy-shaped stations, each formed by seven 5 point fancies—161 diamonds totaling 8.95 carats. Price is achieved both by the rarity of the pinks, yellows, oranges, and blue-grays of the daisies, and the elegance of design in white, pink, and yellow gold settings, which add to the impression of color. A similar piece, with two dozen heart stations formed by 15-10 pointers, doubles the price, but remains a tremendous value.

New York's SES Creations, long a byword for fancy yellow jewelry, has recently expanded into pinks in unique ways. A very rare, beautiful half-carat fancy purplish pink square radiant is the center of a typically affordable ring: $8,263, with 18 and 56 points, respectively, of pink and white melee. Designs often incorporate colored golds and melee accents for a bigger, more affordable pink look, but also keep pink prices down by way of unusually shaped stones.

A lovely piece (and price) is a $15,088 necklace that centers a 1.02 GIA light pink pear in concentric pear hoops of rose gold accented with, respectively, 42 points of fancy and 21 points of white melee. The piece hangs from a bale with a top-shelf 27 point fancy pink radiant, whose color greatly aids the eye in appreciating the light pink. What makes SES's piece stand out, however, is the pear center, which is simply the "biggest" carater I have ever seen. I guessed it, initially, at 2 carats, then went up to 2.5 when shown it recently. Clearly, a pear on the shallow side, likely taken from a piece of "problem" rough, but more important, a standout of affordable luxury from a company that prides itself on exactly such paths toward fancy margins.

Hong Kong's Dehres, twice a sightholder, and long a leading vendor to the world's top jewelry houses, recently opened a New York office, selling for the first time to higher-end independents. Fancy jewelry is prominent in the catalog. The firm maintains its position at the highest rungs. Total carat weight jewelry for them can be an 11.56 carat ring, featuring a 10 carat vivid yellow flawless radiant, with the side stones an intense purplish pink. On a recent visit, president Simon Abraham Zion kept me on the edge of my seat for two very privileged hours, looking at many of the rarest and most expensive fancy colors in the world.

But Zion has also found interesting ways of creating value in fancy color pieces, not only with floral designs incorporating colored golds and fancy accents to bolster the color of smaller main events, but by incorporating a great collection of those rare smaller stones that have always bedeviled the fancy dealer. "My grandfather, back in Hong Kong," remembers Zion, "had a box he put these kinds of stones in, 18 point forest greens, etc." He shows me a few. Some are too rare and valuable to incorporate in these pieces—they're the orphans of an extremely high society—but others have made their way in, making for truly one-of-a-kind pieces, at extraordinary prices, should their owners ever realize how rare these small stones are.

And they point to the great conundrum of fancy colors, one that every retailer entering the market anew should beware of. Fancy color diamonds can exert a spell like no other precious gem, and you never know which stone—a 30 point pure orange radiant so unlike anything you've ever seen, or even a 2 carat fancy yellow round brilliant—will push you over the edge. "Unless you're committed to fancy colors," says Maidi, "it would be dangerous to dabble on a truly rare stone. Fancy colors are or could very well be good investments, but you have to be so knowledgeable, or have access somehow to so many stones, on a regular basis, before you'd be able to do it safely."