FLOAT 100 · Jewelry · No. 90
The Tiffany Yellow Diamond
Charles Lewis Tiffany paid $18,000 for a 287-carat yellow rough in 1878, had it cut to make it glow rather than flash, and his company has never let it go: in nearly 150 years only four women have worn it.
- Year
- acquired 1878
- Maker
- Tiffany & Co.
- By price in jewelry
- 58 of 100
Create a free account to see every recorded price and every grade.
Create a free account- Weight
- 128.54 carats, cut from a 287.42-carat rough
- Color
- Fancy yellow
- Cut
- Cushion-shaped brilliant; Tiffany gives 82 facets, while some references give 90
- Origin
- Kimberley mine, South Africa, discovered in 1877
- Bought
- 1878, by Charles Lewis Tiffany, for $18,000
- Cutting supervised by
- George Frederick Kunz, in Paris
- Owner
- Tiffany & Co.; never sold
- Worn by
- Mary Whitehouse (1957), Audrey Hepburn (1961), Lady Gaga (2019), Beyonce (2021)
- Settings
- Five in its history, most recently a Bird on a Rock-inspired design unveiled in 2023
A yellow giant from Kimberley
The stone was found in 1877 in the Kimberley mine of South Africa, a rough yellow crystal of 287.42 carats. One encyclopedia account dates the discovery to around 1878 and places it, probably, in the French-owned concession at Kimberley. A year after the find, by Tiffany's own telling, the company's founder, Charles Lewis Tiffany, bought it for $18,000 through his Paris agent. One reference gives the purchase year as 1879; Tiffany and most accounts give 1878.
At the time, as one history puts it, only royalty was known to own diamonds that large, and the purchase helped earn Tiffany the nickname 'The King of Diamonds.' The rough was sent to Paris for cutting rather than to New York.
The South African diamond rush was barely a decade old. That may explain why, by one account, the cut stone was little publicized when it reached New York in 1880: Tiffany reportedly worried that it might be seen as just one more of the many yellowish diamonds then coming out of South Africa. Its size and deep color soon set it apart.
Cut to smolder, not to flash
The cutting was supervised by George Frederick Kunz, whom Tiffany describes as its chief gemologist. One account describes him as a 23-year-old at the start of his career who had just joined the firm, and says he and his team studied the rough for a year before cutting began.
More than half the weight was cut away to leave a cushion-shaped brilliant of 128.54 carats. Tiffany and most published accounts give it 82 facets, roughly two dozen more than a standard round brilliant. One reference instead describes a cushion Stellar Cut Brilliant with an extra step in the crown, taking it to 90 facets.
Kunz later explained, in a passage widely quoted, that the extra facets were meant to make the stone less brilliant, not more: for a yellow diamond, he judged a smothered, smoldering fire better than flashing radiance. Tiffany's chief gemologist today, Victoria Wirth Reynolds, says its sparkle can be seen from far across a room.
A stone that travels but never sells
For most of its life the diamond was shown loose. It was exhibited at the 1893 Chicago World's Fair, the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, Chicago's Century of Progress in 1933 and 1934, and the 1939 New York World's Fair. In 1971 it went to South Africa for the centenary of the Kimberley mine, in 1986 it was shown in London when Tiffany reopened on Old Bond Street, and in 2007 it was displayed at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History, where the gem curator called it the largest diamond on view in the United States.
In 1955 it starred in a window display at the New York flagship designed by Gene Moore. Two years later it was set for the first time, in a diamond necklace worn by the socialite Mary Whitehouse at the Tiffany Ball in Newport, Rhode Island, in 1957. In 1961 Jean Schlumberger set it in his Ribbon Rosette necklace, which Audrey Hepburn wore in publicity photographs for Breakfast at Tiffany's.
In 1972 Tiffany ran a tongue-in-cheek newspaper advertisement offering the diamond for sale for 24 hours only at $5 million, adding that it would easily be worth $10 million a century later. No sale followed. The stone was reset in Schlumberger's Bird on a Rock for his 1995 retrospective at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, and in 2012 in a new necklace of more than 100 carats of white diamonds for the company's 175th anniversary.
That necklace brought it onto a red carpet for the first time. Lady Gaga wore it to the Academy Awards on February 24, 2019, the night she won an Oscar for best original song. A press report that night said one estimate put the stone's value at $30 million, while Tiffany executives called it priceless. In 2021 Beyonce wore it in the company's 'About Love' campaign with Jay-Z, the fourth person ever to wear it.
The fifth setting
For the reopening of the Fifth Avenue flagship, renamed The Landmark, in spring 2023, the diamond was reset for the fifth time. Designed by Nathalie Verdeille, the company's chief artistic officer for jewelry and high jewelry, the new piece is a transformable pendant in which five diamond-set birds circle the yellow stone, a nod to Schlumberger's Bird on a Rock.
Tiffany reported that the design took 2,000 hours, with 1,384 hours of making, 407 hours of setting and 190 hours of polishing. Chief executive Anthony Ledru described the diamond as one of the most important in the world.
In 2022 the film Death on the Nile used a Tiffany-made replica of the diamond and its necklace, worn by Gal Gadot; the real stone stayed in New York.
A brand in one stone
The Tiffany Diamond has never been sold and is not for sale. It became part of how Tiffany presents itself as a seller of the finest diamonds, and its permanent home is the New York flagship, where it is normally on display.
Its rarity as a worn jewel is part of the legend: in nearly a century and a half, only Mary Whitehouse, Audrey Hepburn, Lady Gaga and Beyonce have worn it. Every public price attached to it, from the 1878 purchase to the 1972 advertisement to the 2019 press estimate, has been a figure on paper rather than a sale.
The numbers
- Carat weight
- 128.54 ct (from 287.42 ct rough)
- Color
- Fancy yellow
- Cut
- Cushion-shaped brilliant, 82 facets per Tiffany (90 in some references)
- Mine
- Kimberley, South Africa
- Cutting
- Paris, supervised by George Frederick Kunz
- Current setting
- 2023 transformable pendant with five diamond birds, designed by Nathalie Verdeille
Timeline
A 287.42-carat yellow rough is found in the Kimberley mine, South Africa.
Charles Lewis Tiffany buys the rough for $18,000; it is cut in Paris under George Frederick Kunz.
The cut 128.54-carat stone arrives in New York with little publicity.
It is exhibited at the Chicago World's Fair.
It is shown at the New York World's Fair.
It appears in a Gene Moore window display at the New York flagship.
Mary Whitehouse becomes the first person to wear it, at the Tiffany Ball in Newport, Rhode Island.
Audrey Hepburn wears it in Jean Schlumberger's Ribbon Rosette necklace for Breakfast at Tiffany's publicity photos.
It travels to South Africa for the Kimberley mine's centenary.
A Tiffany advertisement offers it for 24 hours at $5 million.
It is reset in Schlumberger's Bird on a Rock for his Paris retrospective.
It is exhibited at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History.
It is set in a new diamond necklace for Tiffany's 175th anniversary.
Lady Gaga wears it to the Academy Awards.
Beyonce wears it in the 'About Love' campaign.
It is reset for the fifth time, in a Bird on a Rock-inspired pendant, for the reopening of The Landmark on Fifth Avenue.
The world in 1878
Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.
Russia and the Ottoman Empire sign the Treaty of San Stefano.
Electric lights are used for the first time at the Palace of Westminster.
The Exposition Universelle, a world's fair, opens in Paris.
Gilbert and Sullivan's H.M.S. Pinafore opens in London.
Eadweard Muybridge photographs The Horse in Motion in California.
The Treaty of Berlin redraws the map of the Balkans.
Price record
| Date | Price | Kind |
|---|---|---|
| 1878 | $18,000 | Private saleCharles Lewis Tiffany's purchase of the 287.42-carat rough; one source gives the year as 1879. |
A realized private sale is a completed transaction outside an auction room. The amount is what changed hands on the date shown. Private sales are reported less consistently than auction results, so a single comparable carries less weight than a run of them.
By reference price, The Tiffany Yellow Diamond is number 58 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (90 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
Did you know
- Kunz cut extra facets to make the stone less flashy, aiming for a smoldering glow.
- In 1972 Tiffany jokingly offered it for 24 hours at $5 million.
- It is roughly three times the weight of the Hope diamond.
- Lady Gaga's 2019 Oscars appearance was the first time it was worn on a red carpet.
- Beyonce was the fourth person ever to wear it.
- Its 2023 setting took 2,000 hours to make, by Tiffany's count.
- The diamond in the 2022 film Death on the Nile was a Tiffany-made replica.
How this page is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. An asking price, an estimate and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- The story
- Researched from published records and checked fact by fact. Updated Oct 3, 2026.
- Archive
- Oct 5, 2026