Most Expensive Jewelry

Precious and semi-precious stones are known for their beauty and their rarity. In most cases, a combination of those two things accounts for the value of a single stone. But the pricing curve isn't always as smooth and predictable as you might think. Despite its ubiquitous nature, diamonds are neither the rarest nor the most expensive precious stone available. In fact, they are at the lower end in many cases, relatively speaking.

Gemstones And Their Values

When we talk about any gemstone's value it is, at least in part, subjective. We have the 4Cs of clarity, cut, color and carat weight for diamonds, and these also apply to a lesser or equal degree for other stones. The problem is that not all gemstones are judged the same way. Rubies, for instance, are judged primarily on their color. A deep red is what makes the best rubies and, assuming the cut is of high quality, any naturally occurring inclusions are tolerated. Compare this to diamond grading, where any flaw or inclusion will affect the value greatly.

Ruby is actually a red sapphire by another name. Whereas sapphires are given their rich blue color by iron and titanium trace deposits, ruby gets its red color from chromium. Rubies are also incredibly rare in weights above 3 carats. This makes them the rarest of the 4 precious stones (the others being diamond, emerald, and sapphire) and, usually, the most expensive.

There are exceptions to that rule, however. Assuming equal quality in other ways, a ruby of excellent color will cost more than a colorless diamond. However, if that diamond is blue, it is likely to be more expensive than the ruby. But why? The most common color in diamonds, after those that are colorless, is yellow. But diamonds occur in many colors, of which red and blue are the rarest. This puts them in a classification of their own when it comes to pricing.

So just to confuse things altogether, although there's a nominal pricing scale across all gemstones, there are enough anomalies in the scale to make any valuation very difficult.

The Most Expensive Jewelry For The Top 6 Stones

In case you're wondering, our top 6 are the 4 precious stones, plus amethyst and topaz. We include amethyst because it was, until relatively recently, a precious stone. Its downgrading to semi-precious came after the discovery of large deposits in Brazil, which increased the availability of the stone. Topaz is in our list for a couple of reasons. Firstly, the color makes a huge (and we mean huge) difference to its value. Secondly, topaz polishes superbly. In larger sizes, the effect when set in jewelry can be intoxicating.

There is one problem with our list, in that it will be different to any similar lists. You would think that any lists containing the world's most expensive jewelry would all list the same pieces. But you'd be wrong. One problem is how the lists are compiled. Some go off the value of the main diamond(s), others on the actual sale price of the piece. Another might include pieces for which only hypothetical values are available. These would include, for example, pieces within many royal family collections.

Our list will contain itself to pieces with a publicly known and recorded value, whether sold or not.

Diamond

Graff Diamonds unveiled their Peacock Brooch in 2013. At its center is a stunning 20-carat blue diamond. As beautiful as the center diamond is, though, it doesn't even begin to describe the piece. Diamonds in a wide variety of colors make up the image of the peacock. Apart from the blue diamond, the colors range from colorless to yellow-brown, with a smattering of orange, pink and green stones. Altogether, the combined carat weight is 120.81. It has a value of $100m.

It is worth mentioning another Graff piece, the Graff Pink. This is a ring containing a single pink, type II color diamond. These are rare at any size, but when you consider that this particular pink diamond is 24.78ct, the value will be no surprise. Laurence Graff bought the diamond from the Harry Winston collection in 2010 for $46.2m. For you math buffs, that is the equivalent of over $1.86m per carat. The Graff Pink is the most expensive single-stone jewelry piece in the world.

Ruby

The "redness" of a ruby contributes a lot to the value of each stone. In order to improve the color, heat treatments are common and are an accepted practice. If, however, you have two identical rubies, one treated and one not, the untreated stone will carry a large premium over the price of the treated ruby. The perfect color for ruby is known as "Pigeon Blood", a color which applies to only a very few stones. Then consider that rubies above 5 carats are exceedingly rare. With that in mind, any untreated ruby of pigeon blood color and 5ct in weight will be very pricey indeed.

But the Sunrise Ruby isn't 5ct, it's over 25ct. 25.59ct, to be exact, and of pigeon blood color. A ring containing the Sunrise Ruby and two diamonds sold at Sotheby's, in 2015, for $30.42m. The price went from $12m to its selling price in just 7 minutes, increasing at the rate of $2.5m per minute. It eclipsed the previous record of $8.6m, reached a year earlier by yet another Graff ring.

Sapphire

A close relative of the ruby, but less rare, Sapphires are amongst the most popular of all gemstones. The rich, blue hue is impossible to ignore, and they are particularly spectacular when setting with diamonds. Like with a ruby, an untreated sapphire is worth more than a heat-treated one. Sapphires, though, can occur in much larger sizes than with rubies, and so the price per carat is usually lower. This, though, doesn't stop the best stones reaching eye-popping prices at auction.

The Blue Bell of Asia is a 392.52ct, untreated Ceylon sapphire. The stone is unique, and is unlikely ever to be matched. At the heart of a necklace, surrounded by diamonds, it fetched $17.3m in 2014.

Emerald

Relatively speaking, emeralds usually fetch lower prices than their 3 precious cousins. As a result, many pieces with high values, and which contain emeralds, usually do so based on what other stones are present. Emeralds are often alongside diamonds, and it can be difficult to establish how much an emerald is worth. But, in 2017, we finally had something which gave us an idea of the worth of an exceptional emerald. The 18.04ct Rockefeller Emerald was bought at auction by the Harry Winston company. The price was $5.5m, which experts state is the most ever paid for a single emerald.

If you've never seen an 18ct emerald, and not many have, it is about the size of a man's thumbnail when viewed from above. On a woman's hand, it takes up about 2/3 of the space from the base of the finger to the first knuckle.

Amethyst

Amethyst is one of the most popular gemstones. For centuries, it was a precious stone, along with the four listed above. Discovery of large amethyst deposits in Brazil sent the supply soaring and the price tumbling. What this did was to make this beautiful purple gemstone more popular than it had ever been. There are many minerals in the quartz family, but none so revered as amethyst. A deep purple which stops short of looking black in low light is the ideal color. This ideal color, when combined with excellent clarity and cut is known as "Deep Russian". So few deep Russian amethysts exist, that those that do come to market quickly disappear into private collections.

An amethyst and diamond tiara belonging to the Queen of Sweden, and once owned by Empress Josephine of France, was originally worth millions of dollars. At today's prices, without its unique history, it would probably by only in the tens of thousands. This doesn’t make the tiara any less beautiful but is an indication of how far prices have fallen in the last few decades.

Topaz

If we said that you can get a 10ct topaz for about $20, it might surprise you. But you can. Okay, the color won’t be great and the cut will be less than perfect, but they are there. The problem is that you will probably be buying a blue topaz. Topaz comes, like many gemstones, in a wide range of colors. What makes it slightly different is the range of prices which accompany the available colors. Blue is the most common color and sells for very low prices. At the other end, yellow-orange topaz can fetch up to $3000 per carat for the best examples.

The largest topaz ever sold was a staggering 9,377ct stone. It sold for $1m in 2014. Although a million dollars might be out of the reach of most of us, it is very cheap in gemstone terms. But what topaz lacks in price, it makes up for in appearance. It probably provides more shine and sparkle per dollar than any other gemstone. This makes it a very appealing stone whether in a setting or not. Its affordability means it is within reach of almost anybody and makes custom jewelry very affordable.