Each year an exclusive collection of the best pink diamonds found are sold in the Argyle Pink Diamond Tender. This event is accessed by invitation only to some of the most highly regarded diamond companies in the world. In fact, simply acquiring the Argyle Pink Diamond Tender Catalogue and accessing the Argyle Pink Diamond Tender section of the Argyle website is considered quite prestigious in and of itself.

Leibish & Co. has had the pleasure of taking part in this event for several years. Each participant is allotted a specific time frame alone with an Argyle representative and the full tender collection. Without knowing any of the other bids, each participant provides a single offer of the highest price they are willing to pay for each stone. The highest bid wins.

Leibish & Co. was delighted to receive word that out of only 55 stones that were sold in the 2011 Argyle Pink Diamond Tender, they won six beautiful diamonds. This is consecutively after winning one stone in 2009 and another six stones in 2010.

The six winning bids of Leibish & Co. are shown below.  

Lot # 11 - A 0.36-carat, Fancy Vivid Pink, SI2 , square emerald. Arglye graded 1PP, SI2, Inscrition identification number 8166.

Lot # 8 - A 0.42-carat, Fancy Deep Pink, SI2  square emerald. Inscrition identification number 63029, a GIA graded and an Arglye graded 1P, P1.

Lot # 21 -  A 0.65-carat, Fancy Intense Purplish Pink,  I1, emerald,. Arglye graded 2P, P1, Inscrition identification number 14762.

Lot # 36 - A 0.66-carat, Fancy Vivid Pink, I1, oval. Arglye graded 3P, P1. Inscrition identification number 15760,

Lot # 50 - A 0.80-carat, Fancy Red, I1 ,oval. Arglye graded 1PR, P1, Inscrition identification number 43050.

Lot # 6 - A 1.71-carat, Radiant. Fancy Intense Purplish Pink, I1 , Arglye graded 3PP, P1. Inscrition identification number 43044. This amazing stone was recently re-polished by Leibish & Co. to a 1.68-carat, Fancy Vivid Purplish Pink diamond.

One of the highlights of the diamonds Leibish & Co. walked away with this year was lot #50, a remarkable 0.80 carat, Fancy RED, Oval-Shaped diamond. Shmulik Polnauer, GIA GG and Leibish & Co.’s Chief Buyer who participated in this year’s tender and won this stone, said “I have seen a number of beautiful red stones during my career. I found the color of this diamond incredibly rich and immediately saw the stone had a fantastic make. There were not many pure red stones like this sold at the Argyle tenders in the past and this was the only Red stone sold in the tender this year. To me, this stone reflected power and contained a dominating, alluring affect.”

Red diamonds are far and few. Another famous red diamond is the Hancock Red, a 0.95 carat, Purplish Red, Round-Shaped diamond that was sold at Christie's New York in April, 1987 for the record price of $880,000 ($926,000 per carat) to the Sultan of Brunei.

Another one of the highlights Leibish & Co. walked away with was lot #6. This amazing 1.68-carat, Fancy Vivid Purplish Pink diamond was named the Leibish Prosperity Pink for its weight is considered extremely lucky by many of the Chinese persuasion.

Shmulik said "The exceptional size of the 1.68-carat stone with such pure vivid color saturation is in of and itself a rarity. We haven’t seen a vivid Argyle pink diamond over 1.5 carats for a long time in the market. The reddish color flashes and the exiting strawberry touch are unique markers of a real Australian Argyle Pink diamond. With its combined magic and lucky number 168, recognized by those of the Asian persuasion as a “Road to Prosperity,” we decided to call this amazing stone The Leibish Prosperity Pink Diamond."

The Argyle Diamond Mine in the East Kimberly region of Western Australia is known to produce some of rarest and most beautiful diamonds in the market today.  As one of the world’s largest diamond suppliers, they produce approximately 20 million carats each year. 
 

Diamonds were first seen in the area in 1979, when a geologist happened upon a diamond embedded in an anthill. Rio Tinto Limited jumped on the opportunity of a lifetime and in 1982 started mining the area. They were already fully operational only one year later. The Argyle Diamond Mines Joint Venture (ADMJV) produces close to 600 million stones each year, of which just one tenth of one percent found is actually pink.