Scarselli Diamonds, Inc.

Scarselli Diamonds, Inc. (Est. 1955 – ) In an undated online article, Elite Traveler described Scarselli Diamonds as a “…third-generation Italian family business [that has] gained notice for its expertise and love of colored diamonds. With its unique Olympia Collection currently housed in the American Museum of Natural History, and a heritage that goes back to serving stars such as Sophia Loren, Scarselli Diamonds is now attracting today’s celebrities and well-heeled elite travelers who value personalized service and a passion for excellence.”

In the same article, Bruno Scarselli, a managing partner of the company and one of a third generation of diamond cutters operating the business, recalled how the business was started by his grandfather who built and re-built the business several times. After World War II, he was the only jeweler in Italy licensed to sell diamonds to American troops.

Bruno’s grandfather and his wife had five children but four died. Bruno’s father was the only one to survive.

Bruno’s father launched his own jewelry stores in Italy under the Scarselli name. He wanted the pieces he created to be fashion statements, not just jewels. Through these creations he developed an exclusive clientele from all over Europe who came to summer on the Adriatic Sea. Scarselli had private windows in the Grand Hotels in Rimini and Venice. One client was Sophia Loren and another was Signor Berreta, who owned the famous gun company.

In 1955, Scarselli opened its first location in the United States and for more than sixty years second and third generations of Scarsellis have been producing and selling some of the world’s highest quality yellow, blue and pink diamonds. Known worldwide as masters in the art of colored diamonds, the company possesses an extensive inventory of special and unique stones in all colors, shapes and sizes and offers signature jewelry pieces that are highly desirable.

When Scarselli operated exclusively in Italy, Bruno’s father also represented Vacheron and Piaget. In the sixties and seventies, his father began traveling to Sri Lanka, Burma and Colombia as they were the primary sources for rubies, sapphires and emeralds.

These visits to the mines, which the other jewelers didn’t do at that time, enabled father and firm to acquire unique, amazing stones. These were the “ancestors” of today’s colored diamonds since colored diamonds were not known to exist at the time.

Among the company’s most famous work is five diamonds in the Olympia Collection at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. To create it, the company searched all continents that produce diamonds. From South Africa, they acquired an orange-colored diamond that is reminiscent of the sun, high in the sky at noon. Another diamond came from a10 carat piece of rough diamond that produced a spectacular blue at two carats.

The cutting process took six years. Ultimately, the five colors are tied to the Olympics rings with the exception that black is replaced by pink. Colored diamonds represent less than one percent of the world’s mined diamonds, and while other museums competed to house the collection, the Museum of Natural History prevailed.

Another well-known piece is the remarkable Natural Fancy Blue Diamond Floral Necklace. Since natural blue diamonds are an extremely rare natural occurrence and the round cut an even rarer shape among natural fancy blue diamonds, each diamond was acquired separately. In in a further step, these diamonds were re-cut for match and symmetry after determining that each possessed homogeneous color and tones.

It took four years for a collection of enough matching, rare colored diamonds to achieve this dream jewel project. One highlight was the acquisition of a seven carat Pear shape natural fancy blue diamond with a combination of blue color and tone.

Once work started, it took nine month to finish the necklace. The result was a statement of style and aesthetics in which the combination of hand carved mother-pearl, pink and blue diamonds would harmoniously float on a vine of precious metal.

To create the flower petals, designers chose alternative materials in addition to precious metal, then added mother-of-pearl – cut by hand – in the shape of flowers. This process not only provided contrast but allowed the brilliance of the blue diamonds to shine through against the soft luster of the mother-of-pearl.

Since the individual sheets of mother-pearl were acquired separately and each flower cut by hand, no two flowers are identical. The center seven carat pear shape blue diamond is not placed in the exact center of the necklace. It is positioned slightly toward the left side of the necklace, with a flower and precious jewel reaching closer to the heart of the wearer.

The matching earrings add a line of matching pink diamonds that surround mother-pearl petals. Each pair of blue diamonds combined in weight ranges from 0.37 carats to 2.05 carats in round brilliant GIA certified “blue” with the largest diamond in a 7 carat similarly reported as “blue” by GIA.

In 2014, the firm had a record setting year in the world of rare color and large white fancy shape diamonds. One such find was an exceptional 122.5-carat blue diamond about the size of a strawberry that was discovered at the Cullinan mine in South Africa known for producing giant gems.

It is almost unheard of to find a blue stone weighing more than 100 carats. Blue diamonds get their color from small amounts of the chemical element boron trapped in their crystal structure. The more ‘blue’ it is, the greater the value. They are the rarest of diamonds after red, which are almost never found.

Also found in 2014 was a 165 carat yellow rough stone, one of the largest discovered in South Africa, and was bought by Scarselli along with many large rough diamonds of 90, 70 and 60 carats. All were expected to produce large intense and vivid yellow diamonds that will become part of special pieces in the Scarselli collection.

Today, the company’s head office operates out of New York City and has main offices in Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Shenzhen. The company is currently best known as the owners of the Aurora Green Diamond, the largest vivid green diamond to ever sell at auction. Christie’s sold it in May 2016 for a record price per carat of $3.3 million to the Chinese jewelry company Chow Tai Fook; in total a record-breaking $16.8 million.

Scarselli also holds a diamond inventory in the $35,000 range, but the core of their diamonds range from $500,000 to millions.

The firm also owns real estate and combines its experience in that marker with what they do in diamonds. When Bruno joined his father in the diamond business in 1992, the firm consisted of just three people. Today there are twenty people in New York alone.

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