Soon the world will see a rare 50-carat Hope Spinel appears on the market going for approximately $310,000. The diamond piece is a part of the rarest collection to be seen globally and will be put on sale after 98 years of remaining in the family hands.

On September 24 of this year, the Hope Spinel is expected to be put on sale by Bonhams London Fine Jewelry Sale. Experts are predicting that the 50.13 cut spinel diamond gold piece should fetch a pretty penny in the region of $24,000 to about $310,000. Still, the merchandise might go for a lot more than anticipated according to Bonham’s jewelry director Emily Barber.

Barber said, “It not only had the amazing provenance but it is also an exceptional gemstone in its own right”. She went on to add, “You just don’t see pieces of this provenance on the open market very much. It’s very exciting”.

The masterpiece is a family member of the Hope Diamond and hence it gets its name Hope. The Hope Spinel can be dated to Henry Philip Hope who gathered the gem collection and owned it until 1839 when he died. Before transitioning into the afterlife, he willed his jewelry collection of 700 gems over to his nephew to avoid paying inheritance tax. However, family feud caused the jewelry collection to be shared between his two nephews.

History showed that in 1917, the 50-carat Hope Spinel changed ownership when it was auctioned off for $1,600, which is worth about $120,000 today. It eventually ended up into the hands of Lady Mount Stephen who is the wife of a philanthropist of Canadian birth but residing in the UK. Before Stephen’s death, she willed the merchandise to Elsie Reford her niece by marriage. It later was passed down to the granddaughter of Reford who is incidentally the goddaughter of Stephens.

Barber explained, “The current owner is a direct descendant who has always known it as being ‘Aunt Gian’s (Lady Mount Stephen) Hope spinel”.

As an exceptional piece of diamond jewelry, it was accessed by the famous gem laboratory SSEF, which is located in Switzerland. On checking, it was confirmed that the diamond originally came from the same Kuh-iLal mines in Tajikistan where crown jewelries were known to come from.

Barber explained again, “The mines are geographically difficult to get to and politically in the 20^th century weren’t being used. That makes spinel like these exceptionally rare”, she went to on say. She further added, “The Hope Spinel is a fabulous story; it’s always exciting to re-discover something that has been lost”.