Origin of name
The name "Pumpkin" is a rather unusual name for a
diamond, but this was the name selected for the diamond by it's purchaser
Ronald Winston, of the House of Harry Winston, who bought the stone at a
Sotheby's auction, just one day before the Halloween Day in 1997. A hollowed
out pumpkin, carved with a demonic face, and lit with a candle inside, known
as a "jack-o-lantern" is a popular symbol of the Halloween Day, which falls
on the 31st of October each year. Another possible reason for the selection
of the name "Pumpkin", would have been the fancy vivid orange color of the
diamond which almost resembles the color of a cut pumpkin.
Characteristics of the
diamond
The diamond is a 5.54-carat, fancy vivid orange,
cushion-cut stone. In spite of it's smaller size, the extreme rarity of the
orange color in diamonds, makes the "Pumpkin" a notable and famous diamond.
In fact the G. I. A. had reported that the "Pumpkin" diamond was one of the
largest fancy vivid orange colored diamonds rated by them. Fancy vivid is a
high color rating for any colored diamond, and stones of this color grade
are rare and unique. The combined rare color grade, in an extremely rare
color, orange, makes the "Pumpkin" one of the "rarest of the rare" of colored
diamonds.
History
The diamond was mined in South Africa in 1997, but the
mine of origin is unknown. It may have sometimes originated in the alluvial
deposits of Southern Africa, because the original owner of the stone is
believed to be an unnamed farmer.
The rough stone was cut and polished by William Goldberg
and later put up for auction at Sotheby's, on October 30th, 1997, when it
was purchased by Ronald Winston of the House of Harry Winston for a price of
$ 1.3 million. Winston later set the diamond in a ring between two smaller
white diamonds. Halle Berry is reported to have worn the ring to the 2002
Oscars, where she won the Academy Award for the best actress for her role in
the film Monster's Ball.
The official website of the G. I. A. states that the
"Pumpkin diamond is one of the largest fancy vivid orange, naturally
colored, diamonds in the world." At the time the diamond was purchased by
the House of Harry Winston, the Gemstone Forecaster referred to it as "the
only vivid orange ever graded by the G. I. A." The Colored Diamond
Encyclopedia refers to the Pumpkin diamond as the "worlds largest fancy
vivid orange diamond."
The "Pumpkin" diamond was displayed as part of the
Smithsonian's "Splendor of Diamonds" Exhibition, held between June 27th and
September 30th, 2003, which also featured other famous diamonds, such as the
Millennium Star, the Alnatt diamond, the Heart of Eternity, Steinmetz Pink,
and the Ocean Dream.
Last transaction and
present owners of the diamond
The diamond's estimated value was around $ 3 million, and
was rumored to have been sold to an anonymous buyer in March 2005.
Chemistry of Orange
diamonds
Color in diamonds is caused by impurities, structural
abnormalities, or natural irradiation. The commonest impurity found in
diamonds is Nitrogen. Almost 98 % of all natural diamonds contain Nitrogen
as impurity, and this property is made a basis for the classification of
diamonds. Diamonds that contain detectable quantities of Nitrogen are called
type I diamonds and those that do not contain detectable quantities of
Nitrogen are called type II diamonds. 98% of all natural diamonds are type I
and the remaining 2% are type II.
Type I diamonds are again sub-divided into two depending
on whether the Nitrogen atoms are found in groups or scattered as single
atoms.
Type Ia - Nitrogen atoms are found in groups or
aggregates of two or more atoms. Almost 98% of type I diamonds belong to
this sub-group.
Type Ib - Nitrogen atoms are scattered as single atoms.
Only 0.1% of type I diamonds belong to this sub-group. Orange diamonds also
belong to this sub-group. The Nitrogen atoms absorb visible light in the
blue end of the spectrum producing the intense yellow color known as canary
yellow, orange or sometimes brown colors. As only 0.1 % of all naturally
occurring diamonds belong to this group, the canary yellow and orange colors
are extremely rare in diamonds.
Thus orange diamonds are the rare type Ib diamonds.
