GENEVA.- Hot on the heels of the $21.5 million sale of The Mediterranean Blue in May — the most valuable diamond or gemstone sold at auction this year — Sotheby’s Geneva is set to unveil another of nature’s rarest treasures: The Glowing Rose, a magnificent 10.08-carat cushion brilliant-cut Fancy Vivid Pink diamond of exceptional quality. The Glowing Rose is only the third vivid pink cushion cut diamond over 10 carats to come to market in 10 Years.

Named after its luminous and pure pink colour – a supremely rare occurrence as most pink diamonds display secondary modifying hues – this utterly dazzling diamond will be sold on 12 November as part of Sotheby’s High Jewelry Sale to be held at the Mandarin Oriental in Geneva with an estimate in the region of $20 million / 16 million CHF. Ahead of its auction, The Glowing Rose will be exhibited in Singapore on 17 and 18 October and in Taipei on 23 and 24 October, showcased in a presentation mount specially designed by British heritage jeweller Boodles, one of the world’s foremost purveyors of pink diamonds.

“Boodles is delighted to partner with Sotheby's in bringing our distinctive design and exquisite setting to this most spectacular and important of vivid pink diamonds. This is a high watermark in a longstanding relationship we have both enjoyed over very many years.” -- Jody Wainwright, Managing Director, Boodles Ltd.

With cushion shaped diamonds benefiting from global peak attention following the recent unveiling of Taylor Swift’s engagement ring, The Glowing Rose, with its cushion shape, has everything to appeal to the most discerning of diamond collectors — a wonderfully saturated colour, very high clarity and, at just over 10 carats, a fabulously rare size for a pink diamond of this quality. Often chosen for its ability to best showcase the diamond’s colour saturation and brilliance, the cushion cut is especially admired in pink diamonds, as its rounded corners and unique facet arrangements amplify depth and warmth of hue. Gemological studies and market trends consistently confirm the preference for cushion cuts in coloured diamonds for this very reason — a marriage of form and fire that heightens visual allure.

The Glowing Rose, with its spectacular beauty and rarefied intrinsic structural qualities, comes from a 21-carat rough extracted in 2023, which was responsibly mined in Angola and traded under the Kimberley Process Certification Scheme, ensuring it is ethically sourced. In an era when transparency and sustainability are as prized as rarity, this provenance provides assurance to international collectors sensitive to exemplary sourcing.

Less than 0.01% of all diamonds are coloured diamonds with pink being one of the rarest colours to occur naturally in diamonds. Of all the diamonds submitted to Gemological Institute of America, less than 3% are classified as coloured diamonds, and of those less than 5% are considered predominantly pink – less than 0.15% of all diamonds graded by GIA. And even of the miniscule number classified as pink, only the tiniest proportion have a strong enough colour to be classified as ‘Fancy Vivid Pink,’ most of which are under 1 carat in weight. In fact, vivid pink diamonds are estimated to make up a fraction of the 0.0001% of the world's diamond supply.

A Fancy Vivid Pink diamond, such as The Glowing Rose, weighing over 10 carats is therefore of the utmost rarity. Not only has the diamond received the highest colour and very high clarity grades, but it has also been found to be part of the rare subgroup comprising less than 2% of all gem diamonds - known as Type IIa. Stones in this group are chemically the purest of all diamond crystals and often have extraordinary optical transparency.

Natural pink diamonds owe their mesmerizing colour not to trace elements, but to minute distortions in the crystal lattice during formation — an extraordinary quirk of nature that bends light to produce a vibrant blush unseen in any other gemstone. At over ten carats, this stone stands among the rarest of the rare, comparable to the celebrated pink diamonds that have set records at international auctions including most recently The Williamson Pink Star (11.15 carat) sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2022 for $57.7 million, and The Eternal Pink (10.57 carats) sold at Sotheby’s New York in 2023 for $34.8 million.

The Presentation Mount Design by Boodles

The shape of the extraordinary 10.08 carat pink diamond inspired the design for the ring that would showcase it. Boodles designers created a geometric star pattern on the collet, rising up from the finger and set with Argyle pink diamonds to mirror the gemstone that sits within it. The platinum band features baguette and brilliant cut white diamonds which flow seamlessly away and around the finger to create a contrast to the spectacular pink hue of the diamond. A subtle chevron of pinks at the end of the row of whites adds a finishing touch and acts a nod to the geometry of the collet. By setting the pink diamonds in Single Mine Origin pink gold further emphasises the vibrancy of the pink diamonds, and the contrast between the platinum and the pink.