Anschar Diamonds Blog

"The Regent Kashmir" and "The Regal Ruby" are set to share the spotlight at Christie's Magnificent Jewels live auction in Hong Kong on May 27. Representing the pinnacle of beauty and quality, the 35.09-carat Kashmir sapphire and 13.22-carat Burmese ruby are true rarities.



Christie's classified The Regent Kashmir as a "once-in-a-generation masterpiece" and the most valuable piece of Kashmir sapphire jewelry offered at Christie’s globally in the past five years. Set in a ring, the sapphire is expected to fetch between $8.3 million and $12.2 million.



The Regal Ruby is poised to become the most valuable and largest Burmese ruby sold at Christie’s Hong Kong in a decade. Also set in a ring, the ruby carries a pre-sale estimate of $6.4 million to $10.2 million.

First discovered in the Zanskar mountain range of Kashmir, India, in 1881, sapphires from this region are famous for their intense "cornflower" or velvety blue hue and are considered the finest in the world.

Burmese rubies from the Mogok Valley in Myanmar (formerly Burma) are renowned for their richly saturated red color known as “pigeon’s blood." Top-quality unheated rubies exceeding 5 carats are remarkably rare.

Despite the eight-figure price estimates for the headliner gems, it's likely that the current sapphire and ruby record holders will retain their honors.

The most expensive ruby ever sold at auction was the "Estrela de Fura," a 55.22-carat gem, which fetched $34.8 million at Sotheby's in New York in June 2023. The record for the priciest sapphire to go under the hammer is held by the "Blue Belle of Asia," a 392.52-carat cushion-cut Ceylon sapphire, which earned $17.3 million at Christie's Geneva in November 2014.



Other highlights from Christie's Magnificent Jewels auction in Hong Kong include a 10.35-carat Colombian emerald and diamond ring (estimate: $870,000 - $1.2 million) and a pair of Colombian emerald and diamond earrings (estimate: $700,000 - $960,000). The emeralds featured in the earrings weigh 7.03 carats and 6.92 carats, respectively.



The auction will take place on May 27 during Hong Kong Luxury Week at Christie’s Asia Pacific headquarters at The Henderson, a 36-story state-of-the-art office tower that opened in 2024. The featured jewelry will be exhibited in Taipei, Bangkok, Geneva, Beijing and Shanghai before returning to Hong Kong for the sale.

Credits: Images courtesy of Christie's Images Ltd. 2025.

In honor of April's official birthstone, we present the fascinating backstory of the historic and well-traveled "Blue Heart Diamond," a 30.62-carat stunner that Smithsonian benefactor Marjorie Merriweather Post described as "prettier than that other one" while escorting guests on a tour of the National Gem Gallery. The object of her snub was the "Hope Diamond."



The origin story of the Blue Heart Diamond can be traced back to October of 1909, when an exceptional 100.5-carat deep blue diamond was unearthed at De Beers' Premier Mine in South Africa. Two months later, the crystal was sold for £3,979 (equivalent of £600,000 or $775,000 today) to a French diamond cutter named Atanik Eknayan.

Eknayan faceted the gem into a 30.62-carat heart-shaped brilliant and sold it in 1910 to famed Fifth Avenue jeweler Pierre Cartier. Cartier placed the impressive stone as the center of a luxurious lily-of-the-valley corsage that included smaller pink and blue diamonds.

In 1911, the corsage caught the eye of the Argentinian heiress and philanthropist Maria Unzué de Alvear, who owned it for the next 25 years.

In 1936, at the age of 74, she presented the piece as a wedding gift to her niece, Angela Gonzales Alzaga. In his book, Unearthed, former Smithsonian National Gem Collection curator Dr. Jeffrey Post noted that the Blue Heart Diamond is sometimes referred to as the "Unzué Heart" due to its close ties to that family.

The Blue Heart Diamond was reset as a pendant after it was acquired by Van Cleef & Arpels in 1953. A member of the Unzué family told Post that the price exceeded that of a very fine house in Buenos Aires at the time.

That pendant, which featured the 30.62-carat Blue Heart Diamond dangling below a 2.05-carat pink diamond and 3.81-carat blue diamond, was sold in 1953 to Swiss industrialist Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza. The Baron gifted the pendant to fashion model Nina Sheila Dyer, who he would marry in 1954.

The marriage lasted only 10 months, but Dyer possessed the Blue Heart Diamond until she sold it to New York City luxury jeweler Harry Winston in 1959. Winston reset the stone into a ring and surrounded it with 25 round brilliant, colorless diamonds.

In 1964, Winston sold the ring to Marjorie Merriweather Post, the heiress to the Post cereal fortune and an avid collector of high-profile fine jewelry. As Jeffrey Post tells the story, only two months after the purchase, "Marjorie Merriweather Post arrived at the office of Smithsonian secretary Leonard Carmichael bearing gifts, her bag brimming with jewelry that she was gifting to the Smithsonian Institution."

One of those pieces was the Blue Heart Diamond. Interestingly, her donation included one stipulation: That she be able to borrow the jewelry at her discretion, which she did in 1964, 1968 and 1970.

Although the Blue Heart Diamond is only two-thirds the weight of the far more famous 45.52-carat Hope Diamond, jewelry aficionados generally agree that the Blue Heart Diamond displays a more lively blue color.

Ms. Post clearly agreed.

As Jeffrey Post explains, "Once, when walking through the museum's Gem Gallery, Ms. Post was overheard saying to her guests that 'my blue diamond is prettier than that other one.'"

Marjorie Merriweather Post's donation of the Blue Heart Diamond was one of many notable pieces gifted to the Smithsonian by the Post family. Others included the “Maximilian Emerald Ring,” “Napoleon Diamond Necklace,” “Marie-Louise Diadem” and the “Post Emerald Necklace.” Marjorie Merriweather Post passed away in 1973 at the age of 86.

Credit: Image by Chip Clark, courtesy of the Smithsonian.

Love stories come in all shapes and sizes, but few can rival the grand romantic gesture of Denos Vourderis, a hardworking immigrant who made good on a fanciful engagement promise by purchasing one of New York City's most enduring landmarks.



When Denos proposed to his beloved Lula in 1948, he didn't just offer her a traditional diamond ring. Instead, he vowed to give her "a ring so big that everyone in the world would see how much he loved her, a ring that would never be lost."

That ring turned out to be none other than the Wonder Wheel, a towering Ferris wheel in Coney Island that would become both a symbol of their love and a legacy for generations to come.

Denos was a Greek immigrant who arrived in America as a 14-year-old to pursue the American Dream. Denos joined the Merchant Marines and then served during World War II. When he returned from service, he sold hot dogs from pushcarts and ran small eateries, working tirelessly to build a future. Throughout the 1940s, he and Lula would often visit Coney Island, a place of joy, excitement and wonder.

It was there that Denos first laid eyes on the Wonder Wheel, a 150-foot-tall, 400,000-pound Ferris wheel that had been operating since 1920, the same year he was born. He marveled at the 24 colorful cars, 16 of which slid on a serpentine track towards the hub of the Wheel as it rotated. Enchanted by its beauty, he promised Lula that if she accepted his marriage proposal, one day he would buy the Wonder Wheel for her as a wedding present. It was a promise she never forgot.

For decades, Denos worked to make good on his vow. He took every opportunity to grow his business, running restaurants and boardwalk food stands while continuing to dream about the Wonder Wheel.

By the 1970s, he was a fixture in Coney Island, helping manage the kiddie rides at Ward’s Amusement Park. As fate would have it, in 1983, the owners of the Wonder Wheel decided to sell. Though there were higher offers on the table, the Garms family entrusted the historic ride to Denos, recognizing his passion and dedication to preserving its magic.

With his family by his side, Denos, at the age of 63, purchased the Wonder Wheel for $250,000 and restored it to its former glory. It became the centerpiece of what would be known as Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park, ensuring that his love for Lula would be immortalized in the heart of Coney Island. The Wonder Wheel was designated a New York City Landmark in 1989.

Denos passed away in 1994, but his love story lives on. Today, Deno’s Wonder Wheel Amusement Park is still operated by the Vourderis family, who continue to share the magic of the Wheel with millions of visitors. Over its 105 years of continuous operation, the ride has been enjoyed by more than 40 million people. It also has become known as the “Most Romantic Ride in the World,” a place where countless couples have proposed, sealing their love with a spin high above the boardwalk.

In a world where gestures of love are often fleeting, Denos proved that, sometimes, the biggest promises are worth keeping. So next time you visit Coney Island remember that the towering Wonder Wheel is not just an amusement ride — it’s a symbol of devotion, perseverance and a love story for the ages.

Credit: Photo by DangApricot, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.