Important diamond with a bowtie?

[rockysalamander]

Just for interest and education. I ran across the amazing stone while surfing. Is the black hourglass-ish shape in the center I'm seeing a bowtie? open culet? reflection? 17 carat 2.9 million was the selling price. Wow.

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21035/lot/179/

 

[kenny]

Not bowtie.

I believe the lower black shape is the culet (which is just windowing and revealing the black behind the stone) and the upper black shape is reflection of the black camera, in front of the stone.
Diamonds just reflect what is in their environment, color of walls, your shirt, your hair, the camera, etc.

Move the camera back and put on a longer lens or move the diamond around and the upper black area may reflect light instead of the black of the camera.

 

[rockysalamander]

Cool. I love how generous everyone is with the knowledge. I figured a stone of that value would not have such a huge flaw. Makes sense once you explain it.

 

[Rockdiamond]

Just for interest and education. I ran across the amazing stone while surfing. Is the black hourglass-ish shape in the center I'm seeing a bowtie? open culet? reflection? 17 carat 2.9 million was the selling price. Wow.

http://www.bonhams.com/auctions/21035/lot/179/

First off- thanks for posting- wow what a diamond!
The larger black area is definitely a large culet. Personally, I love it.
The dark area going from the culet up to the top is a likely large facet on the bottom of the stone is in a position to reflect black back to the camera, as Kenny suggests.
It's extremely likely he's also correct that that area will indeed light up with a small bit of movement.
This is not what is commonly referred to as a bow tie- but there's aspects of the on facet we're looking at that are similar in theory to what is referred to as a bow tie.