RAPAPORT... Was it only this past May when Sotheby’s triumphed over Christie’s at the Geneva jewelry sales? Just six months later, the tables turned with a vengeance. Christie’s scored one of the biggest successes in the jewelry auction scene, knocking down previous records like dominoes.
Dealers traveling from around the world to attend the sales, held in mid-November, needed plenty of room in their suitcases. Four stupendously heavy catalogs were needed to follow the two auctions.
Topping the superlatives, Christie’s opened with its anonymous single-owner sale, offered in a hardbound catalog that is, itself, destined to become a collector’s item. The 314-lot sale fetched $31,360,932, the highest total for such a sale at Christie’s and the highest total anywhere for the past 15 years. The Duchess of Windsor sale in Geneva in 1987 still holds the record at $50.3 million. There was absolutely no provenance to help the jewelry along. Identified only as a “Royal House from the Middle East,” the jewelry had to stand on its own merits. It did that in dramatic fashion, with a 100 percent sold sale. The sale was so hotly contested, with bidders from around the world vying for the diamonds, pearls and jewels, it took the auctioneers an exhausting nine hours to complete. Eric Valdieu, Christie’s Geneva jewelry department head, said, “We were selling 40 lots an hour,” compared with the usual 60 to 80 lots per hour. The pace would have seemed glacier were it not for the stupendous prices being realized.
The final lot of the sale brought the highest price: the “Gulf” natural pearl and diamond parure by Harry Winston. Confidently estimated to bring $4 million to $6 million, it did just that, coming in at $4,189,320*. Another pearl and diamond parure, by Gerard, had already excited the crowd, coming in at $1,467,720, well over the high estimate. Christie’s had gauged its audience well; this jewelry sold itself. The success it scored with pearls throughout the sale spoke to a connoisseurship that is not always seen at auction. The secret was in the buyers: It was the trade, not privates, paying top dollar for natural pearls. According to Valdieu, “The trade won so many of the top ten lots. The pearls were the most important sector in the collection. They were very difficult to value. A private has no clue as to what something is worth when it comes to natural pearls.” But the buyers are out there, in the Gulf region itself, as well as in India, where Valdieu said, “Their rulers have been wearing them for centuries.”
MORE TO COMEChristie’s followed the single-owner sale two days later with its Magnificent Jewels sale, including the second half of the Van Cleef & Arpels Centennial Tribute sale. The house made another bold move, offering a 37.01-carat, D-flawless, heart-shaped diamond at an estimate of $3 million to $3.5 million. The buyers responded, swooping this up at $3,282,120, or $88,700 a carat. This was a price more often associated with a 50-carat stone, according to Valdieu. In this supercharged atmosphere, it stole some anonymous buyer’s heart. The 299-lot sale brought in $30,998,214, although it was only 74 percent sold by lot. Of the total, 222 lots were sold.
While the jewels were of splendid quality, the sale benefited from two correlating factors. There continues to be a scarcity of goods in the market across the spectrum, including important diamonds, colored gemstones and signed period jewelry. Coupled with this is a widening of the pool of potential buyers, particularly the Russians and Indians. That makes for lots of competition for increasingly difficult-to-find merchandise.
The atmosphere for the Van Cleef & Arpels 50-lot sale was “electric,” Valdieu noted. “Bids were coming from everywhere.” The sale didn’t end until 11:30 at night, but he says, “It was exhilarating.”
MEANWHILE AT SOTHEBY’SThe Magnificent Jewels sale at Sotheby’s Geneva took place on November 15, between the two Christie’s offerings. Considering that the house didn’t have a blockbuster single-owner sale, or a name-brand collection, it still managed to sell $27,647,909 worth of goods, with 72 percent sold, by lot. Of the 467 lots on offer, 338 were sold. The trade was very active here as well, picking up six of the top ten lots, including the highest-priced item, a D, IF pear-shaped diamond weighing 34.21 carats. David Bennett, Sotheby’s chairman of jewelry for Europe and the Middle East, said “The stars of the show were colored stones. With the two rubies, people thought I had been very ambitious, but they were extremely rare.
A ruby of this size is very hard to find.” Bennett was referring to a Burmese ruby weighing 18.28 carats set in a ring, which went to a private American buyer. It brought $1,682,261, just over the high estimate. A 9.24-carat Burmese ruby, which he describes as “rich, blood-red color” was sold for $1,367,038, just under the high estimate. It, too, went to a private buyer.
One of the other highlights was the cover lot, a bracelet of Kashmir sapphires and diamonds from a “noble European family.” It brought $1,276,974 from a European trade buyer. This bracelet featured 25 sapphires, 19 of them certed as Kashmir. They were collected over a period of time, and set into the bracelet circa 1910. “It is almost impossible to imagine making a bracelet like that now,” said Bennett. “In all my years in the business, I had never seen one like that.”
DIAMONDS FARED WELLDiamonds did extremely well, Bennett noted, due again to that scarcity of stones, “especially over 10 to 20 carats.” Many of the stones did not even carry certificates, but, he added: “The size alone is enough to bring in the buyers. There aren’t many on the market. They’re not being bought to improve. They were bought as gemstones;people wanted a big stone.” And, he said, even a J color is still a good-looking stone when it has a good make.
Sotheby’s would have added substantially to its bottom line had it managed to sell two very rare colored diamonds. One, a vivid green-blue weighing 2.6 carats, was cut in the very popular Asscher style. The other, a fancy deep blue pear shape, weighing 3.11 carats, was set with a white diamond to wear from a chain.
But there was great enthusiasm for an Art Deco-era Cartier diamond bracelet, circa 1935. “It made three times the low estimate,” Bennett said. “That surprised even me. It was lovely. The market is beginning to realize these things are getting really scarce.” The bracelet sold for $173,694 over an estimate of $48,000 to $73,000.
With the continued burgeoning of newly wealthy clients around the world and the continuing scarcity of goods, the jewelry market should continue to see great strength at auction.
Article from the Rapaport Magazine - December 2006. To subscribe click here.