£10 Car Boot Sale Diamond

You may have spotted in the news that a diamond ring, bought for £10 at a car boot sale 30 years ago, has sold for £656,750 at auction, almost double the pre-auction estimate of £350,000 (May 2017).

The 26 carat ring is a cushion-shaped diamond, from the 19th century, and the owner wore it daily for decades, unaware of its value.

£10 Car boot sale diamond

Because of the cut, the gem reflect less light than we expect to see in diamonds cut more recently, and the owner thought it was a diamond-alternative, just costume jewellery.

Gem cutters in the 19th century tended to cut for maximum carat weight, not maximum sparkle, which is why such a huge diamond went un-recognised for so many years. Plus you just don't expect to see diamonds as large as your thumbnail in every day life!

The Ethica Diamonds that feature in much of the Ethica Diamond range are cut with the ‘hearts and arrows’ cut. This is an Ideal cut, meaning that the light enters and exits the diamond from above, rather than leaking away through the sides, which is what happens if the diamond is cut too shallow or too deep. This ensures maximum sparkle, which is, after all, what you want in a diamond!

See our page about the 4 Cs of Diamonds for more about this.