Diamonds are still the ultimate in jewels. They are timeless. They hold their value. The coloured diamonds, those Blue, Pink or Yellow freaks of nature are in a league of their own. Good pieces of jewellery by well-known designers such Cartier or Van Cleef & Arpels have appreciated enormously in last ten years. Items bought for ₤10,000 - ₤15,000 in the mid 1990’s would now be worth ₤50,000 - ₤60,000. Jewellery has for years been considered the vulgar end of the art investment world. But it is now taken much more seriously, because values among pieces have appreciated enormously. People buy jewellery to wear. But at the top end of the market, there are people who might consider buying a diamond, a ruby or a sapphire for a very large amount. Jewels are well chosen and are of good quality in terms of craftsmanship and design, do turn out to be a good investment. Not many fall into this big league of buyers, but there are plenty of investors, often surprisingly young, who might invest in a piece and then spend time trying to identify where the next trend will lead them, in order to build up a coherent portfolio of gems as they are attractive in investment because they are portable.

Famous beauties like Kate Moss and Nicole Kidman have wearing dangly earnings recently and this has translated into demand for these of kind of gems. At the moment strongly coloured jewels are popular, lot of different colours put together and also dangly earnings. White diamonds are the world’s most expensive gems. The ideal stone is like a piece of ice whiter than white, graded ‘D’, the purest possible grading, and cut with exquisite precision. Only handful of exist.