
Come to think of it, you rarely see any of the lower color options when looking for, say, a 
yellow diamond antique ring.
The reason behind this is that at those times in history when these 
gems were produced, warmer 
yellow colors did not pay much. When the Ideal 
round brilliant came on the scene, most of the colorless 
antique diamonds were taken back in, or bought, to be 
cut into this 
shape. Doing the same to the 
yellow varieties being unviable, those stone have survived in their relatively irregular 
shapes, up until now.

The most famous instance of a rare 
antique stone of the old mine 
cut being saved this way was the Wittelsbach Blue 
Diamond, a 36.56-
carat gem that was bought by a diamantaire in the nick of time and preserved just as it was. Laurence Graff bought it from him and had a re-
cut done, but the original 
shape survived. That means today, anyone seeing the 
stone can easily connect it to the famed piece it once was.