jewelry auction

Duchess of Windsor's Jewels Sell High At Auction

An onyx and diamond panther bracelet once owned by Wallis Simpson set a new world record for the most expensive bracelet ever sold at auction. The bracelet sold for £4.5 million ( $7.036 million) at Sotheby's London on Tuesday. The bracelet was part of a collection of jewels once owned by King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson, that brought in almost £8 million, far above estimates that topped out just over £4 million. The sale was 100% sold.

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David Webb Estate Jewelry Up For Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Auctions

The beautiful gold and diamond David Webb necklace above is just one of the pieces being sold an an auction of estate jewelry on September 29 at Doyle New York. The necklace is part of the estate of the Honoroable Florence P. Shientag, a very accomplished woman with some lovely taste in jewelry. During her 101 years, Judge Shientag led the way for women in law, mentoring women lawyers, and protecting the rights of filmmakers and artists. She was the first female federal prosecutor in New York State and one of the first in the country. She was also a patron of the arts and a woman with a strong sense of personal style as is shown through her exquisite taste in jewels.

The piece shown above is gold, platinum and diamond bib necklace with diamond-set platinum leaves, rope-twist stylized acorns tipped with diamonds and gold leaves that is estimated to fetch $20,000 to $30,000. It's just one of Judge Shientag's David Webb pieces. Also up for auction is a rose diamond flower clip-brooch (estimated at $30,000 to $40,000); a gold, platinum, turquoise and ruby chain necklace (estimated at $12,000-18,000) and matching clip brooch (estimated at $6,000-8,000); a pair of diamond flower earclips (estimated at $6,000-8,000); and a gold, platinum and diamond bracelet fashioned as textured branches (estimated at $5,000-7,000).

The top lot in the sale is a platinum ring with a rectangular step-cut diamond of approximately 16.74 carats, L color, VS1 clarity, formerly Property of the Scripps Estate and estimated at $125,000-175,000.

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Blue Diamond Sets New Per Carat Price Record

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

Prices for blue diamonds continue to rise. At the Sotheby's auction in Geneva a 7.64 carat fancy intense blue cushion-shaped diamond mounted in yellow gold and platinum sold to an anonymous client for $8,034,503. That number sailed above the estimate of between $4-6 million, setting a new record price of $1,051,636 per for carat for a fancy intense blue diamond sold at auction. Sotheby's was the previous record holder with $796,178 per carat for a 3.17 carat fancy intense blue diamond in November 2009 in Geneva. Last May a 7.03 carat stone sold for $9.49 million.

Sotheby's says this is the largest cushion shaped stone of this color grading ever to appear at auction. The diamond is graded as a Fancy Intense Blue, Natural Colour, VVS2 Clarity, and comes with an additional GIA worksheet stating that the diamond may be Potentially Flawless after repolishing. The Sotheby's Spring Sales of Magnificent and Noble Jewels brought a total of $53,976,331, handily above pre-sale expectations of $32.4-46 million with most lots selling and more than 74 percent of the lots sold achieving prices in excess of their high estimate.

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Rare Red Diamond Fails To Sell At Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry, Auctions

The first auction of a red diamond in Australia gathered a lot of attention but at the end of the day there was no sale. The Sotheby's Australia's April 12 sale featured the first red diamond ever offered for public auction in Australia. The stone in question is a 0.82-carat, fancy purplish-red Argyle diamond set into a ring with a pair of fancy blue diamonds all surrounded by brilliant-cut white diamonds mounted in platinum. It was estimated at between 700,000 and 1 million Australian dollars (between about $645,065 and $921,556) but although there was a lot of interest before the auction the bidding started at $480,000 and stalled out at $490,000.

Red diamonds are exceedingly rare. It's not known exactly how red diamonds are produced in the earth, it is believed that plastic deformation of the stone's crystal is the cause. As diamonds were pushed up kimberlite pipes from deep inside the earth toward the surface they were exposed to tremendous heat and pressure. This can cause areas of deformation in the crystal structure thereby changing it so that it can only absorb light in different areas of the visible spectrum. Instead of a rainbow you get a single color, often a pink, purple or red tone. This is different from other colored stones such as blue diamonds which form because of the addition of boron or green diamonds which are impacted by natural radiation. There are only around 100 natural red diamonds believed to have been discovered and just three over five carats: Moussaieff red, the Kazanjian red and the De Young red diamond.

ABC News in Australia reports that all is not lost for this red stone, it will likely sell behind the scenes, albeit for less money. The website reports that Margo Fitzgibbon, a diamond collector from Sydney, will make another offer for the ring and believes that there will be others who will be looking to buy as well. She predicted it will sell for around $800,000 or $900,000 Australian, possibly to an overseas buyer.

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Rare Opal Necklace Up For Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

As with art, provenance in jewelry can be important. But sometimes it can be a bit of a challenge to know where a piece came from. The piece above, a gorgeous Art Nouveau-style gold necklace embellished with 45 carats of fine Australian fire opals, diamonds and freshwater pearls is an interesting case. It is said to have maybe been the property of interior designer Elsie de Wolfe, America's first famous interior decorator to the rich and famous. The Vanderbilts, the Fricks, the Morgans and the Duchess of Windsor were among her high-profile clients. The piece, which goes up for auction on April 18 at Austin Auction Gallery was purchased by the consignor in 1976, at an antiques show in Hillsborough, California. At that time it was sold as being de Wolfe's personal jewelry . De Wolfe, who later became Lady Mendl after marrying British diplomat Sir Charles Mendl did have an extensive and noted jewelry collection.

The necklace will be offered with an opening bid of $30,000. It appeared in an episode of Leigh and Leslie Keno's television show Find! The Keno brothers brought in jewelry expert Peter Shemonsky for a specialist appraisal. Shemonsky said the necklace of 23 opals, 52 diamonds and 19 freshwater pearls was unique and gave it an insurance value of $60,000-$80,000 on the necklace. A video of the TV show appraisal is after the jump.

Tags: Art Nouveau, elsie de wolfe, jewelry auction, opal necklace, opals

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The Vivid Pink Diamond To Go Up For Auction

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

This bubblegum pink stone up for sale in Christie's Hong Kong in December isn't just a fancy vivid pink diamond, it is known as 'The Vivid Pink' an expression of its exceptional color. The stone, which has been set in a ring by Graff, comes from a private collection. It is estimated to sell for $5 million to $7 million at the auction on December 1. The stone weighs a neat 5.00 carats and Christie's says it is the largest Fancy Vivid Pink Potentially Flawless diamond to ever be offered for sale at auction. 'The Vivid Pink' is particularly prized because it shows no trace of any secondary color for a truly deep saturated pink shade rarely seen in diamonds. Only one in one hundred thousand diamonds has a color deep enough to qualify as 'Fancy.' In advance of the sale the diamond will be going on a display tour in New York, Singapore, Bangkok, Geneva and Taipei starting in October.

[via National Jeweler]

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Annenberg Diamond To Be Sold At Christie's

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Jewelry

Christie's and Sotheby's art sales use the Warhols, Van Goghs and Monets to attract attention. For the jewelry sales it's all about the diamonds. The Christie's Jewels: The New York Sale to be held on October 21 will feature the Annenberg Diamond, a square 32.01-carat, emerald-cut diamond graded D color, flawless, the rarest of the rare. The Annenberg diamond is flanked by two pear-shaped diamonds, of 1.5 carats and 1.61 carats, respectively mounted in a ring by David Webb. It is part of the Leonore Annenberg collection. The ring has an estimated value between $3 million to $5 million. Rings like this get their own world tour and Christie's plans to showcase the diamond in Geneva, London, Hong Kong and Los Angeles before winding up back at Christie's Rockefeller Galleries as part of a viewing of the entire sale from October 16 to 20.

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