23.34-carat yellow diamond tops Phillips Hong Kong at HKD 4.3m
The fancy-intense-yellow VVS1 ring sold in line with its high estimate on 29 September. Phillips took HKD 37.2 million ($4.7 million) from 91 lots; two of the top five missed their low estimates.
By Carat Capital
What changed
Yellow led, not sapphire. A 23.34-carat fancy-intense-yellow diamond ring took HKD 4.3m at Phillips in Hong Kong. The sale made HKD 37.2m, or $4.7m, from 91 lots.
What it means
- If you trade coloured diamonds: A VVS1 fancy-intense-yellow of this size met its high estimate. No other top-five lot did.
- If you consign to Hong Kong: 2 of the top 5 lots sold under their low estimate, both coloured.
- What this is not: A sell-through rate. Rapaport gives 91 lots against the 95 catalogued.
Key figures
| Top lot, 23.34ct fancy yellow$550,810 at the outlet's rate | HKD 4.3m |
|---|---|
| Whole sale, 91 lots$4.7m | HKD 37.2m |
| Top lot's share of the sale4.3 over 37.2, Carat Capital's division | 11.6% |
| Top-five lots under their low estimate | 2 of 5 |
Source: Phillips Hong Kong Jewels, 29 September 2026 · Rapaport News 30 September · page read direct, 467,998 bytes
The top lot met its high
One diamond led. A cut-cornered rectangular mixed-cut, fancy-intense-yellow, VVS1 diamond ring took HKD 4.3m on 29 September. Rapaport reports it sold in line with its high estimate, citing Phillips' website; the estimate itself is not printed.
Eleven percent of everything. The lot is 11.6% of the sale's HKD 37.2m total, on Carat Capital's division. The other 90 lots averaged about HKD 0.37m each.
| Lot | Sold | Estimate | Against estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 23.34ct fancy-intense-yellow diamond ring | HKD 4.3m | not published | in line with the high, per Rapaport |
| Harry Winston ruby ear clips, 18.26ct | HKD 2.1m | HKD 1.3m–1.9m | 10.5% above the high |
| Fancy-brown-yellow diamond earrings | HKD 2.0m | HKD 2.2m–3.0m | 9.1% below the low |
| Mozambican ruby ring, 6.06ct | HKD 1.7m | HKD 1.8m–2.8m | 5.6% below the low |
| 15.05ct fancy-intense-yellow heart | HKD 1.6m | HKD 0.95m–1.6m | at the high |
Notes on this table
Sale prices and estimates are Rapaport's, rounded by the outlet to a tenth of a million, and the divisions inherit that rounding. The last column is Carat Capital's arithmetic: 2.1 over 1.9 is 110.5% of the high, so 10.5% above it; 2.0 over 2.2 is 90.9% of the low, so 9.1% below it; 1.7 over 1.8 is 94.4% of the low, so 5.6% below it.
Two of five missed their low
Estimates cut both ways. Of the four top-five lots carrying a published range, one cleared its high and one matched it. The other two sold under their low estimate.
The misses were coloured. A pair of fancy-brown-yellow diamond earrings sold 9.1% below their low estimate. A ring centred on a 6.06-carat Mozambican ruby came in 5.6% under its own low.
The catalogue's leader is absent
A sapphire is missing. Carat Capital reported on 11 September that a Bulgari ring with a 9.86-carat Kashmir sapphire led this catalogue at a HKD 9.5m high estimate. It is not in the top five.
No result is claimed. The fifth-placed lot made HKD 1.6m, so anything outside the top five sold at or below that, or did not sell. Neither Phillips nor Rapaport says which.
Ninety-five became ninety-one. The catalogue counted here on 11 September held 95 lots; Rapaport gives the total from 91. Whether four were withdrawn or unsold is not on the record.
What to watch
- 6 OctoberPoly Auction Hong Kong, where a jadeite necklace carries a HKD 25m high estimate.
- After the salePhillips' itemised results, which would give the top lot's estimate.
- The next Hong Kong bookWhether Kashmir sapphire keeps leading catalogues on estimate.
The story so far
Go deeper
What would change this call
Phillips' own itemised results. Rapaport is the only outlet found carrying this sale, and its top-five list is a selection, not a full lot register. A published register could show the Bulgari sapphire selling outside the top five, being withdrawn, or passing, and each of those says a different thing about Kashmir demand. It would also give the 23.34-carat ring's estimate, which would turn 'in line with the high' into a number.
Why an estimate range is the reading, not the headline
A house sets a low estimate to open bidding where it believes the lot will find a buyer, and a high estimate to mark where it believes interest stops. The gap between them is the house's own statement of how confident it is, and it is the only part of a catalogue that can be tested afterwards. A lot that clears its high tells you the room disagreed with the house in one direction; a lot that fails its low tells you the room disagreed in the other. That is why a top-five list read against its own estimates carries more information than a sale total: the total mixes the house's judgement with the size of the consignment, while the residual against estimate isolates the judgement. In this room the judgement was good at the top and poor in the middle. The 23.34-carat yellow was priced to the point where bidding stopped almost exactly. The two coloured lots beneath it were priced above where bidding stopped, by 9.1% and 5.6% of their own lows, and those two misses are the part of this sale a consignor should read before the headline.
Method
The item was read from Rapaport News, fetched direct with a browser user agent, 200, 467,998 bytes to a saved file, with all prose taken from those raw bytes. Grepped in that saved file before anything was written: '23.34' returns 10 hits, '550,810' returns 4, '37.2' returns 1. The five lot descriptions, their sale prices, their estimate ranges, the VVS1 and fancy-intense-yellow grading, the 91-lot total and the Van Cleef, Cartier and Graff names are all in the same body text. Rapaport attributes the 'in line with its high estimate' reading to Phillips' website; that page was not separately reached here, so the estimate is cited at one remove and no figure is given for it. Rapaport's headline calls the stone fancy-yellow and its body calls it fancy-intense-yellow; the body grading is used and the difference is stated here rather than resolved. Every percentage in the table is Carat Capital's division on Rapaport's own rounded figures, printed with its arithmetic beside it. The 95-lot catalogue count and the HKD 9.5m Bulgari estimate come from this paper's own 11 September preview of the same sale. The archive was checked by reading every hit rather than counting: 'Phillips Hong Kong' returns one article, opened, which is that pre-sale preview and covers the catalogue, not the result, so the verdict is advanced, not a repeat. '23.34', 'HKD 4.3' and '550,810' each return nothing.
Sources
- Fancy-Yellow Diamond Takes Top Spot at Phillips Sale, Rapaport News 30 September 2026