Colored Diamonds Lead Phillips Hong Kong Auction
A blue-diamond ring was the top lot at the latest Phillips Hong Kong jewelry auction, which brought in a total of $3.4 million.
The ring — featuring a brilliant-cut, 1.63-carat, fancy-intense-blue, VS1 diamond — brought in $942,848 at last week’s Hong Kong Jewels sale, the auction house announced. The achieved price fell within estimates.
The October 5 event saw strong online bidding, with 77% of the items finding buyers.
This sale “reaffirmed the strength of the market for rare and important colored diamonds across the board,” according to Benoît Repellin and Louisa Chan, respectively Phillips’s worldwide head of jewelry and head of sale for jewelry in Hong Kong.
Here are the rest of the auction’s top five pieces:

This pair of earrings features two brilliant-cut, fancy-intense-yellow diamonds, respectively weighing 9.69 and 9.71 carats. It sold within estimates at $536,488.

An oval modified brilliant-cut, 5.41-carat, fancy-orangy-pink diamond sits between two trapezoid diamonds on this ring, which went for $422,656 — within its presale price range.

Phillips sold this ring — which features a cushion-shaped, 5.39-carat Kashmir sapphire in a setting of single-cut and oval diamonds — for $325,120, close to its upper estimate.

This necklace contains 37 graduated oval and cushion-shaped Burmese rubies totaling approximately 40.35 carats, suspended from a single line of brilliant-cut and pear-shaped diamonds. It garnered $178,816, just under its $180,000 low estimate.
Main image: The 1.63-carat blue diamond ring. (Phillips)