AMR's Certified Diamond Edition

Gary Roskin, G.G., FGA -- JCK Online, 5/1/2001 2:00:00 AM

The December 2000 "millennium" edition of the Auction Market Resource concentrates on certified colored and colorless diamonds. It reviews all the certified diamonds offered and sold at major national and international auction houses from October 1994 through October 2000.

The 600-page AMR diamond millennium edition lists 718 colorless and 450 fancy-color diamonds, sorted in several different charts: by shape, color, and price per carat as well as auction date. Fancy colors are sorted by color and saturation and also by price per carat. The "Auction Records & Photographs" section (sorted by shape, size, and color) begins with a 46.53-ct. fancy black barrel briolette. The huge opaque diamond was graded by GIA in July 1996 and sold at Christie's in October 1996 for $112,500, or roughly $2,400 per carat.

Color expert Howard Rubin reviews every item in the book and describes the difficulties inherent in color nomenclature. He discusses AMR's use of GemDialogue color descriptions to understand what a laboratory's graded color actually represents. The AMR includes provenance, when noted by the auction house, and lists GIA and other laboratory certificates along with details of the lab reports. The book also offers professional comments, by AMR's team of preview associates, about the condition and quality of each item.

For more information, call Gail Brett Levine at (718) 897-7305, or e-mail 76766.614@compuserve.com.