The Lesotho Brown Diamond
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When talking about The Lesotho Brown Diamond people usually refer to the lesotho 1, an emerald cut pinkish brown diamond weighing 71.73 carats. It was discovered back in 1967 in the Letseng mines which are located 3100 meters above sea level in the Lesotho kingdom in South Africa.
When the Lesotho was found, the rough diamond's weight was an incredible 601 carats (above 120 gr) and it was cut and polished into 18 different diamonds in which the biggest and most famous is indeed the Lesotho 1 - a 71.73 carats emerald cut diamond. However, all of the 18 are remarkable. Each diamond is unique and different, just for example, the Lesotho 3 is a marquise weighing 40.42 carats - a famous diamond on its own that got its fame when was bought by the Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis that gave it as a present to his wife Jackie Kennedy Onassis. Kennedy mounted the diamond in a platinum ring that was estimated at $600,000 and was sold at an auction for the unbelievable price of $2,587,000 back in 1996. When considering the amazing price, keep in mind that it is only the third largest diamond in the group.
Later, during 2008, the Lesotho 1 was auctioned by Sotheby's at the Magnificent Jewels sale. The price estimation was approximately 5,000,000 Swiss Francs. According to the listing, it was offered by its original owner who held it since 1969. Unfortunately, it wasn't sold so the price tag remains unknown...
As far as we know, the Lesotho brown was never actualy graded by a gemological institute so the pinkish brown color description is an unofficial (yet professional) assesment. For some reason, it is not the only famous colored diamond that has no official color grading.
Below you will find samples from the Naturally Colored stock of pinkish brown diamonds with different intensities going from fancy light to fancy and fancy dark pinkish brown.
As we mentioned, the Lesotho Brown's color intensity is not specified but when it is not mentioned it usually means fancy, same as the middle picture.