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RAPAPORT... New York auction week proved satisfying as sales at Sotheby’s and Christie’s exceeded presale estimates and bidding, while not highly competitive, was steady. The action started at Sotheby’s on Tuesday as the City was being slammed by a nor’easter, making it tough to get around, so those few hardy dealers who were in the sale room were serious buyers competing with others on the phone and online.  Sotheby’s totaled up $44,151,251 against a $37 million presale estimate with a sale comprised of very wearable jewels and pieces from collections with pedigreed provenance. The top lot of the sale (pictured) was a platinum-topped gold and diamond necklace that was gifted to Helen Hay when she married Payne Whitney in 1902 — a headline society event of its day.
The necklace sold to a European dealer who was in the room, but asked not to be identified, for $3,189,000. Some of the more competitive bidding of the day came about when the collections of cosmetics mogul Estee Lauder and her daughter-in-law, Evelyn H. Lauder, went on the block. The jewels were sold to benefit The Breast Cancer Research Foundation and the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation. A Cartier Tutti Frutti bracelet was the most sought after lot of the afternoon with seven bidders competing for the piece before it sold to a private Asian collector for $2,165,000, setting a world auction record for a Tutti Frutti bracelet by Cartier. By the next day, the weather had calmed down a bit as a light dusting of snow was falling during the sale at Christie’s, where the room saw a small, but serious, crowd of buyers – especially from the trade. This sale was characterized by more large diamonds, including the 89.23-carat D/VVS1 pear-shaped diamond (pictured) on a black silk  cord pendant. Estimated at $9 million to $12 million, it was the top lot of the day and contributed $11,085,000 to the sales grand total of $66,635,375, against a presale estimate of $55 million. The diamond was purchased by an anonymous buyer who was bidding on the phone. Both sales saw the same pattern of strong prices for great jewelry and rare stones, but there were a number of passes, indicating that the market is becoming increasingly selective, yet willing to pay top dollar for top goods or, in some cases, just something they really want.
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