Green Diamonds

The Dresden Green diamond is a 41 carats  natural green diamond, which originated in Kollur mine in state of Andhra Pradesh in Indian subcontinent. It has a historical record dating back to 1722, when a London news-sheet carried an article about it in its 25 October-27th edition.

It is named after Dresden, the capital of Saxony, Germany where it has been on display for most of the last two centuries. In 2000, American jeweler, Harry Winston arranged to display the Dresden Green in his New York store and then at the Smithsonian in Washington DC, USA, where it was displayed in the Harry Winston pavilion next to the largest blue diamond in the world, the Hope diamond.

Natural green diamonds are so rare that most jewellers have never seen one, and will never own one. In recent years, methods of producing intensely coloured diamonds, including fancy green, have been developed. We believe that the process probably recreates the conditions which existed millions of years ago to produce natural fancy coloured stones

Quality for good quality, fancy green diamonds are more expensive than ordinary near-colourless ones. The processing adds to the costs, so it is generally only worth treating diamonds of high clarity. The diamonds selected for treatment usually start off a one of the less desirable colours such as brown or yellow. There is no certainty about the final colour that any particular stone will be after treatment.

There is quite a variation between different shades and hues of green. Although most of the green diamonds we have seen have been intensely coloured, some colours are definitely more attractive than others. There is bound to be an element of personal preference when it comes to choosing your favourite colour of green diamond. This heart shaped green diamond reminds us of peridot, a very bright apple green, with perhaps a hint of neon. It's the only one of its colour we have yet seen. It was brighter and more attractive than our photograph shows it, due to the limits of our photographic skills.

The green diamonds we currently have available are enhanced or treated. If this fact puts you off owning one, then please stop to consider that every diamond has been enhanced by facetting, and most coloured gemstones are heat treated to enhance their color.

The green color is usually caused by the crystal's coming into contact with a radioactive source at some point during its lifetime, and in geological terms, this is measured in millions of years.