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Over the years, high jewellery has evolved from being ancient talismans and royal insignia into a geological rarity. Of all the ways humans have chosen to beautify themselves, these pieces have always been at the top of the game. Imagine, before anyone thought to write things down, we had ancestors who were stringing shells, bones, and stones together. What’s known as the oldest jewellery dates back to roughly 150,000 years and was made using perforated Nassarius shells found in Morocco. As civilisations rose, so did the artistry. Ancient Egyptians started burying their pharaohs in gold and lapis lazuli, Mughals encrusted their living emperors in kundan-set spinels and Columbian emeralds, and European royals commissioned diamond-heavy parures to signal dynasty stability through the Industrial Revolution.
This obsession with owning some of the most rare pieces eventually segued from royal treasuries to the world’s most prestigious auction blocks. Today, this shift has turned jewellery into a feat of precision, with jewellers often spending tens of thousands of hours on a single setting. But have you ever wondered what makes buyers spend so much on a jewellery piece? Well, it's the convergence of story and stone that drives collectors, museums, and auction houses to pay prices that seem to defy logic, and occasionally, to make sense of it.
The Princie Diamond, a 34.65-carat cushion-cut fancy intense pink diamond discovered over 300 years ago in the Golconda mines of South Central India, is widely considered one of the most significant Indian jewels ever to appear at auction, and its price tag at Christie's New York in April 2013 confirmed exactly that. First recorded in the holdings of the Nizams of Hyderabad, rulers of one of the wealthiest provinces of the Mughal Empire, the diamond surfaced publicly in 1960 when the Nizam quietly consigned it to Sotheby's under the listing "Property of a Gentleman," where the London branch of Van Cleef and Arpels acquired it for £46,000. Pierre Arpels named it the Princie at a Paris party that same year, in honour of the 14-year-old Prince of Baroda, son of Maharani Sita Devi, who attended with his mother. When it returned to auction over five decades later, an anonymous telephone bidder paid $39,323,750 (approximately Rs 329 crore), at a rate of over $1 million per carat, setting a record for Christie's and placing the Princie among the four largest pink diamonds in the world. The buyer was later identified as a member of the Qatari royal family. The diamond, last reported to be in storage in Switzerland, has not appeared publicly since.
In 2015, Designer Wallace Chan designed this modular necklace featuring 11,551 diamonds totalling 383.4 carats. Valued at $200 million (approx Rs 18.69 billion-18.87 billion), in the heart of the necklace lies a 104-carat D-colour round diamond cut from the legendary 507.55-carat “Cullinan Heritage” rough. Requiring 47,00 hours of labour to finish the necklace, the design features translucent green and white jadeite. But what makes this piece stand out the most is that it can be worn in 27 different configurations. The jewellery piece was commissioned by the Chow Tai Fook Jewellery Group to serve as the centrepiece of their corporate collection.
The 10-cm tall sculptural brooch was unveiled by Graff Diamonds at TEFAF Maastricht in 2013. Featuring 1,305 diamonds, the Graff Peacock Brooch was valued at $100 million (approx Rs 933-948 crore). At the focal point of the brooch is an exceptionally rare 20.02 carat pear-shaped fancy deep blue diamond, which can be detached and worn separately. Fanning out from this diamond is an array of white, pink, yellow, orange, and green diamonds.
Created by the House of Mouawad, the L’Incomparable Diamond Necklace is anchored by the “Incomparable” diamond, which is a 407.48-carat Fancy Deep brownish-yellow shield step-cut stone, which also happens to be the largest internally flawless diamond ever graded by the GIA (Gemological Institute of America). The 18k rose gold vine-like structure is further adorned with 91 additional diamonds totalling up to 229.52 carats in pear, heart, and cushion cuts. Priced at $55 million (approx Rs 458-465 crore), the necklace is currently held within the Mouawad private collection.
The Hutton-Mdivani Jadeite Necklace is a beautiful strand featuring 27 imperial green jadeite beads. Formerly owned by the socialite heiress Barbara Hutton, the necklace features a 1930s Cartier clasp set with rubies and diamonds. In 2014, The Cartier Collection outbid the world’s most elite collectors to reclaim this historic piece at Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction.
Priced at $36.2 million (approx Rs 302-307 crore), Queen Marie Antoinette’s Pearl Pendant was sold at Sotheby’s Geneva in 2018. The pendant features a large 26mm x 18mm drop-shaped pearl suspended from a diamond-set bow. Having been smuggled out of France during the French Revolution, the pendant remained hidden with the Bourbon-Parma family for over two centuries. Following a ten-minute bidding war, the pendant was acquired by an anonymous private collector, marking a world record for a pearl jewel.