RAPAPORT... Throughout the fall months, in anticipation of the holidays, collectors have been exploring antique and estate jewelry shows, browsing for gifts they’d like to give — and receive. This year, it seems, the rare and the unusual are topping their wish lists.
WHO’S WHOMark Schaffer, a principal of A La Vieille Russie in New York, found that most of the clients he met at The International Fine Art and Antique Dealers Show in October were collectors looking for the unusual. “They were interested in colorful center-stone pieces, from aquamarines to rubies to opals. We sold a bracelet, circa 1860, which folds up into a pendant.” Schaffer notes that his sales were in the $10,000 to $15,000 range.
The New York firm of James Robinson was also in attendance at the show. Principal Joan Boening recalls that “They weren’t buying for the holidays, but they were definitely looking. People are now just beginning to come into the shop and inquire, after the fact.” Jewelry from the 1940s did well; buyers took home gold and diamond earrings, bracelets and large center-stone rings, one mounted with a beautiful blue-green tourmaline and another, with an amethyst. Thanks to the recent wave of Ralph Lauren ads featuring Scottish pebble jewelry, buyers snapped up prime examples of this form, which was made popular by Queen Victoria in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. Boening also sold two pairs of important Victorian drop earrings, each for about $50,000. She was surprised by what she saw as a recent trend development in the collection of Victorian jewelry; these jewels crafted of silver-topped gold and diamonds predate the perennially popular diamond and platinum jewelry of both the Edwardian and Art Deco eras.
A proclivity for the Victorian was observed by Marcia Moylan of The Spare Room Antiques, located in Baltimore, Maryland. During the month of October, she attended both the Gramercy Park Antiques Show and the Antiques and Fine Arts Fair in New York as well as the Philadelphia show “Treasures…From the Silk Road to the Santa Fe Trail.” “Dark-hued jewelry was taking off,” observes Moylan, “long jet chains, gunmetal, tortoise and gutta-percha” — a naturally occurring form of dense resin that can be sculpted. Moylan’s clients seemed to be buying for special occasions rather than the holidays and a few rationalized their purchases, even if the celebration was not quite imminent, but the jewelry was just too tempting. “I had someone buy a ring that she had seen before,” says Moylan, “but she decided that day that she wanted to buy it for her 40th wedding anniversary. When I asked her when she would be celebrating the special day, she replied, ‘Next June!’ ”
WOMEN BUYINGMore and more women are buying jewelry for themselves. A Spare Room client bought four rings for herself at one show, spending roughly four thousand dollars. Most sales, on average, rang up in the two to three thousand dollar range. Lisa Stockhammer is the owner of The Three Graces — www.georgianjewelry.com — a website devoted primarily to jewelry of the Georgian and Victorian periods. “I have a huge return clientele and several of them buy things for themselves for the holidays,” she says.
During the autumn, Stockhammer’s clients buy what’s unique and rare. “Sales to my clients are more predicated on what I’ve brought back from my shopping trips than anything else,” she explains. The autumn antique shows haven’t proved to be successful across the board for her. The internet, however, has: “The ease of shopping online is a big factor because you can explore the internet without pressure.” As far as holiday sales, Stockhammer went on to say, “People have been buying jewelry with heart motifs and I sold a beautiful pair of Victorian diamond cluster earrings that date from about 1885 for $8,500 and another pair of 1820 cannetille earrings.” Many times, she receives requests for engagement rings during the preholiday season. Budgets range from $5,000 to $10,000. “Most of the time, they want a period mounting and period center stone,” Stockhammer says. “I’ve had requests for Art Nouveau and Edwardian period pieces. Sometimes, they want something very unusual, like a Georgian ring.”
RARITY RAISES PRICERare or unique pieces sell quickly and the prices commensurate for these singular items are not a deterrent. “It’s usually closer to the holidays when people buy less expensive things,” says Stockhammer. “It’s more last-minute shopping than splurging.”
According to Marcie Imberman, owner of Kentshire Galleries in New York City, many clients wanted antique diamond jewelry at the San Francisco Fall Antiques Show. “We sold several diamond brooches at the show,” she says. “One man bought an exceptional gift for his wife for Christmas: a French, circa 1880, 18-karat gold bangle bracelet set with tiger’s-eye cabochons and diamonds. Interestingly, we sold more bracelets at this show than anything else.”
Bill Drucker of Drucker Antiques, located in Mt. Kisco, New York, sold high-end, studio artist jewelry at both The Modern Show and the Gramercy Park Antiques Show. Drucker specializes in Scandinavian silver, American and European Arts-and-Crafts period jewelry. “Clients want something distinctive and there is a very strong interest in bold things,” he says. “People bought 1960s and ’70s gold items by Georg Jensen.” He adds that awareness of jewelry from these periods is indisputably on the rise. “Astrid Fog worked for Jensen and her designs are something of a precursor to kinetic jewelry; they have a distinctive style. We also had the same Jensen bracelet, one in gold and the other in silver. It’s a link bracelet that looks like it’s woven, which gives the metal a textile-like appearance. We sold the gold piece right away for $14,000 and the silver one later on for $6,000.” Gold pieces of Georg Jensen are rarer and the company’s jewelry is primarily known for its silver designs. This would explain why a collector swiftly purchased the gold example from Drucker, while the silver bracelet was bought later in the show — as a “self-purchase.” While holiday gifting was not the motivation for purchasers, collecting wearable, high-quality jewelry was and Drucker notes that few sales were under $2,500.
The recent exhibition at the Neue Galerie New York — Gustav Klimt: Five Paintings From the Collection of Ferdinand and Adele Bloch-Bauer — had an unexpected, but discernible effect on Drucker’s sales at these shows. Included in his inventory were strands of bead necklaces created by the Wiener Werkstätte, a cooperative Viennese Arts and Crafts workshop cofounded by Klimt. Drucker sold six of these necklaces, for $5,000 to $6,000 each.
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - December 2006. To subscribe click here.