Sparkling like sunshine on water on a bright day, yellow diamonds bring cheer into our lives. Yellow diamonds are part of the colored diamond family, which includes blue, green, pink, red, orange and brown predominantly. According to the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), only one in every 10,000 diamonds found has a color, with yellow being the most abundant of the hues. When a diamond has a noticeable color, it is called a fancy color diamond.
What Makes a Diamond Yellow?
Natural mined diamonds are formed in the earth over billions of years under high heat and high pressure conditions. While the gems are forming, trace elements of nitrogen give the diamonds their yellow hue. The more nitrogen in the stone, the more yellow it appears.
Yellow diamonds, and all colored diamonds for that matter, are cut to bring out the most color in the gem, but not all yellow diamonds are the same shade. In fact, there are many different factors that impact the color of the diamond.
Often times, a colored diamond will have another color that modifies it, shifting the hue of the stone and its value. A yellow diamond may have a green, orange or brown modifier. You will know that the gem has a modifying color because the name will tell you. For example, a diamond may be described as greenish-yellow. That means that the diamond is predominantly yellow, but has a green secondary, or modifying color. The second color mentioned in the description is always the main color, with the modifier mentioned first. The modifying color may have an impact on the price.
Grading Yellow Diamonds
Colorless diamonds are graded on a scale of D through Z with D being the one with the least color. By the time you get down to Z, the diamonds are no longer colorless, but are often tinted with yellow. The yellow tones can start to be noticeable when a diamond is in the J color range and becomes more pronounced as you get closer to Z. These yellow diamonds are known as “Cape” diamonds because historically they were from South Africa’s Cape Province and they tend to be very pale in hue, without enough color to be considered a “fancy” color diamond.
When the diamonds exhibit more color, then they get the “fancy” moniker. Color saturation is very important, it’s also a delicate balance, it shouldn’t be too light or too dark. Yellow and other colored diamonds are sorted into categories to describe the degree of color saturation. The categories are Fancy Light Yellow, Fancy Yellow, Fancy Intense Yellow, Fancy Vivid Yellow, Fancy Dark Yellow and Fancy Deep Yellow.
The diamond color that you may like is very subjective. Some people prefer a more pastel diamond, while someone else may like a more vibrant hue. The degree of color saturation will greatly affect the price. If a stone is very light, it will be less money, same for one that is very dark. The sweet spot tends to be the Fancy Yellow, Fancy Intense Yellow and Fancy Vivid Yellow diamonds. These are all considered the most desirable because the color is neither too light, nor too dark.
Famous Yellow Diamonds
Perhaps the best known yellow diamond is the Tiffany Diamond. The 287.42-carat rough yellow diamond was found in the renowned Kimberley Mine in South Africa in 1877. Charles Lewis Tiffany purchased it in Paris a year later for $18,000. In 1879 Tiffany & Co., gem expert, George Frederick Kunz, supervised the cutting of the rough. Kunz and his associates studied the rough diamond for about a year, before the cutting process began. The uncut gem was transformed into a 128.54-carat cushion-cut diamond with 82 facets, 24 more than the usual 56, giving it spectacular sparkle and depth of color. It is currently on permanent display at the Tiffany & Co. store in New York City.
The Donnersmarck diamonds, a pair of yellow diamonds, one an 82.48 pear shape and the other, a 102.54-carat cushion shape, have a fascinating story. The diamonds were a gift from Count Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, one of the world’s wealthiest men at the time, to his bride the celebrated courtesan La Païva. The couple built a home in Paris and allegedly La Païva matched the color of the marble used in the staircase of the house to the color of the diamonds. When La Païva died, the Count remarried and his new wife added the diamonds to her jewelry collection. The two diamonds were last seen at Sotheby’s Geneva auction in 2017.
The color of sunshine combined with brilliant sparkle makes yellow diamonds one of the most intriguing and joyous gemstones.
Top of Page: Antique 2.62-carat cushion cut fancy yellow diamond, white diamond and silver over 18-karat yellow gold, contemporary setting, courtesy Richard Bounomo (@gemstoner_nyc).
Authored by Amber Michelle