It sold comfortably within hopes of £900,000-1.4m after a brief flurry of phone bidding.
The primary stone in this modern ring is a 43.59ct radiant-cut Fancy Intense Yellow diamond and it comes with a GIA report dated July 14, 2014, stating that the colour is natural and the clarity rated VS2. Yellow diamonds get their extraordinary fiery colour from the inclusion of nitrogen atoms during their creation. Dealer Laurence Graff is credited with generating the surge in their popularity in the 1970s.
The price has smashed Fellows’ previous house record – £131,000 for a platinum diamond single-stone ring sold in 2013. The sum including buyer's premium was £1.31m.
It is also the top price in the UK regions this year and the first seven-figure bid from a regional saleroom since 2012 when Woolley & Wallis in Salisbury sold a pair of pearl earrings for £1.4m and Tennants of Leyburn took £2.6m for a Yongzheng (1722-36) mark and period blue and white bottle vase.
The current auction record for any yellow diamond is held by the 100.09ct Graff Vivid Yellow, which sold for CHF14.5m ($12.4m) at Sotheby’s Geneva in May 2014.
