A rare 525carat “paraiba suite” by BFT Gems, featuring 17 gemstones and pegged at $50mn, is currently on show at the 17th edition of Doha Jewellery & Watches (DJWE) exhibition. A “suite” refers to multiple pieces of jewellery.
“This one is not only one in the world but will only be the one in the world because the gemstones have such a rarity define it and unmatched,” gemologist William Boyajian told Gulf Times on the sidelines of DJWE 2020. He was joined by BFT Gems president Peter Delisi.
Boyajian is the designer of the piece who was fully responsible for the design and manufacturing, with over 5,000 hours spent on completing it.
“It is extremely rare to find all those stones to match so this particular ‘suite’ represents probably the earth’s finest pairiba,” he said.
There are a total of 17 stones with six matched pairs. Two matched pairs in the earrings, and four matched pairs in the necklace. A matched pair in gemstones is also very rare. In this case, a once in a lifetime event, according to Boyajian.
The “suite” consists of an 18carat ring, 72carat earrings, and the main necklace is 435carat. As the only paraiba suite in the world in terms of colour, stone size, and weights, it cannot be reproduced at any cost.
While saying that “all beautiful pieces have a name,” he said that this paraiba suite, displayed at the Alfardan pavilion, has no name yet. “We are waiting for the person who is interested in it to put the name on it because anybody who is going to buy this is really gonna be about them,” he stressed.
“But it wouldn’t be just anybody. We are looking for someone who understands and appreciates things that are the rarest that you would find that the earth would make,” Boyajian said.
“It took tremendous amount of time for the earth to make this so understanding the rarity, understanding that anybody could make this necklace because of the quantity of stones necessary and that they wouldn’t even be available unless somebody took the risk of putting it all together,” he explained.
Boyajian said that this nature-inspired “paraiba suite” is a museum piece and not like a jewellery anyone would see in a regular jewellery store.
“The uniqueness about it is that all the parts of it are interchangeable, so the earrings can become individual pendants, and the necklace can be converted into a collar to a dropdown necklace and the tops of the earrings can be worn separately so that you can have a lot of versatility in wearing it, enjoying it,” he said.
Created as an object of art, Boyajian said this “suite” took about a year to create, manufacture and design: cutting of the gemstones took several months to do. “If anything went wrong through the minor cutting then it would be millions of dollars to find a replacement, might be a $4-5mn mistake,” he added. While participating at the DJWE for the first time, Boyajian said they already “heard a lot of wonderful things about Qatar.”
“We came because we had something that is very important. You go where you know people can appreciate fine things and that is why we’re here,” he added. He describes DJWE as “a very beautiful and world-class exhibition: “it lives up to the name of being world-class.” “I’ve been to a lot of shows, some shows are big, a lot of people but DJWE is very elegant and it also has all the finest jewellery.”
