This one was truly a diamond in the rough. Thirty years ago, a woman in west London uncovered a giant ring at a "car boot sale," which is similar to a swap meet, that caught her eye. Believing it to be costume jewelry, she bought the shiny ring for ten pounds, roughly $13.
That same gem was auctioned by Sotheby’s London in July 2017 for nearly half a million dollars. It was expected to fetch more than $450,000.
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The gem, which the owner had assumed was fake, had been part of her daily outfit for decades. She wore it casually around town, never suspecting its true value. The ring is actually a giant, 26-carat cushion-shaped white diamond dating back to the 19th century. The antique shape and older style of cutting had disguised its true brilliance, leading her to believe it was just an ordinary piece of costume jewelry.
"They’d been to quite a few car boot sales over the years. But they don’t have any history of collecting antiques and they don’t have any history of collecting diamonds. This is a one-off windfall, an amazing find," said Jessica Wyndham, head of jewelry at Sotheby’s London, in an interview with the BBC.
The owners have chosen to remain anonymous but are understandably thrilled about the prospect of the sale.
Wyndham noted the excitement surrounding the auction, saying, "It’s a life-changing amount of money." Despite the impressive size of the ring, the owner will be parting with one of her staple pieces of jewelry. The revelation has understandably left her both shocked and delighted.
While this 26-carat diamond is impressive, other diamonds have fetched even higher prices at auction. The Oppenheimer Blue, for instance, set records with its $57.5 million sale price in 2016, despite being just under 15 carats. The Pink Star diamond wowed the world when it sold for $71 million in 2017; that gem is a massive 60 carats.
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For the woman in west London, what seemed like a modest purchase turned out to be a life-altering discovery. Her tale adds a touch of magic to the mundane, proving that sometimes, the most extraordinary gems can be hiding in plain sight.
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