Largest ever “heart-cut” diamond La Legende put up for sale at Christie’s:

On 17 May at Christie’s Geneva branch, a Boehmer et Bassenge piece is to be put up for sale, boasting a 92.15-carat heart shaped diamond. This is the largest D-Flawless diamond of such cut to ever appear at auction.

The unique stone bears the name “La Légende”. Its name corresponds to its status, as it is almost impossible to find a diamond of such weight with ideal parameters of colour and purity. This stone is a one-in-a-million, and according to Jasmine Hubjer, co-founder of the Boehmer et Bassenge jewellery house, it is a stone that needs no intricate frame. The heart-shaped beauty has become the central feature of a rather minimalistic string of pearls that are matched perfectly in colour and luster.

“We work with large, important and unique stones, every jewel starts from a gem, as well as a certain theme,” Jasmine says about the piece. With regard to especially valuable stones, she means diamonds of the highest colour category, D, with Flawless purity, with a perfect cut and with no fluorescence. The founders of the house select even the smallest diamonds within these same parameters.

We are the only jewellery house right now. If you go to any respectable company out there that offers fantastic jewellery , the chances of finding pieces with large D-Flawless stones are very slim. My business partner and I felt that there was a gap in the market for the very specific type of clients who are sophisticated and look for the best of the best, Jasmine continues.

The name Boehmer et Bassenge is familiar to jewellery connoiseurs, thanks primarily to the 18th-century jewellery masters Charles Boehmer and Paul Bassenge. Under the orders of King Louis XV of France, they were to create an incredible diamond necklace that surpassed all others in its wealth and beauty. Several years, along with two million livres, were spent translating the royal fantasy into a reality.  It was in honour of the two brave jewellers that the modern jewellery house was named, and it continues to create between 10-12 masterpieces every year.

The predicted price of the necklace sporting La Légende varies from 14 million dollars to 20 million dollars. No matter how extraordinary that may seem, there will always be the right buyer: a true connoisseur of flawless diamonds. For comparison, consider that in November 2016 Christie’s sold a pair of Boehmer et Bassenge earrings with two “pear-cut” diamonds for 17.5 million dollars.

I cannot stress enough how rare diamonds of significant sizes are. If you ask me to re-create the same necklace, I would not be able to do it at any foreseeable time. Even if we tried, first we would have to be able to access the rough stone, which wouldn’t come up on the market often. Then we would have to win the tender and after be able to cut the rough to get the best out of it, which you can imagine is a tough and not a very fast process, explains Jasmine.

In addition to the necklace at the May auction, you can also buy the Boehmer and Bassenge earrings ‘La Vie Bohême’, with two “marquise-cut” diamonds weighing 10 carats, for between two to three million dollars.