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Hope Diamond's "Cousin" Set for London Auction
Sep 6, 2015 5:36 AM
By Rapaport News
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RAPAPORT... The Hope Spinel, a 50.13-carat spinel stone once owned by banker Henry Philip Hope, will be put up for auction later this month at Bonhams London.
The banker's wide collection contained some 700 gems before his death in 1939, including the famous Hope Diamond, now at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
The spinel hasn't been available for 98 years, accoring to the auction house, and will be offered during the Bonhams London Fine Jewellery sale later this month for an estimated $240,000 to $310,000.
"You just don't see pieces of this quality and provenance on the open market very often. It's very exciting," Emily Barber, a representative for Bonhams, said in a statement.
Spinels have similar refractive qualities to diamonds and garnets, according to the Gemological Institute of America, and they're a fairly common occurrence in nature. Forbes noted that they're often mistaken for rubies.
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Tags:
auction, bonhams, Rapaport News
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