The Royal Purple Heart

This is a diamond I am still in the process of researching. The article I found with the stone reads "The Royal Purple Heart Diamond is the largest fancy vivid purple diamond known to exist, weighing 7.34 carats. This unique stone has been expertly cut and polished into a perfect heart shape to allow the striking natural purple color to dazzle to maximum effect. Natural purple diamonds are among the rarest and most highly sought after color in which diamonds occur. Large pure purple diamonds (i.e. stones over 5 carats) are especially prized. The Royal Purple Heart Diamond was cut by and is a joint venture with the Julius Klein Diamond Corporation." The gem has a clarity of I1.

British gemologist Michael Hing was able to examine the stone in person sometime around 2002. It is among a series of famous diamonds he has been fortunate to examine. "The stone has diagonal surface graining that is clearly visible to the naked eye on the table facet if you look at it under a glancing light," Mr. Hing writes, describing the stone. "It is not as blue as in your photo [shown above], it’s more purple than lilac. The girdle is very thick in parts, they were obviously trying to retain weight. It was mined in Russia."