The Magnificent Jewels auction at Christie’s Geneva was livelier and better attended than previous sales that took place during the coronavirus pandemic, with many lots achieving prices comparable to those from before the crisis.
The few dozen people present in the salesroom at the Four Seasons Hotel des Bergues on July 22 included European dealers and prominent figures such as Paris-based designer Joel Arthur Rosenthal — aka JAR — and members of the Boghossian family of jewelers. Attendance was significantly higher than at the Sotheby’s Geneva Magnificent Jewels sale a month earlier, hinting that the market was slowly getting back to normal.
Ahead of the Christie’s auction, a wide array of consigned items were on show for inspection. Social distancing measures were in place; dealers examined jewelry on behalf of absent colleagues, and buyers had to register and get their temperatures taken.
Most of the items sold successfully — 88% by lot, 80% by value — indicating that the high-end auction market remained well-supported. These included the rarest and most exquisite pieces, notably signed ones.
‘A very encouraging result’
“Despite the challenging times, the jewelry market remains resilient, and collectors continue to pursue the rare and beautiful at Christie’s,” chief auctioneer Rahul Kadakia told Rapaport Magazine. “We realized $43 million in four hours, with strong prices across the board.”
And while this was “a much smaller sale in value terms than in previous years,” noted Thomas Faerber, a vintage jewelry dealer who attended the auction, it yielded “a very encouraging result in the present climate.”
Faerber, who is also a cofounder of the GemGenève trade show, noted that “nice jewelry and fine colored stones fetched around pre-coronavirus prices.” In particular, he cited a 12.44-carat Kashmir sapphire that garnered $93,304 per carat, and an octagonal step-cut, 29.54-carat Colombian emerald that achieved $60,822 per carat.
Exceptionally rare and magnificent diamonds also performed well, including a 100.85-carat, D-color diamond that jeweler Moussaieff purchased for just under $6 million — comfortably above its CHF 4.5 million ($4.8 million) high estimate.
The star lot, a twin-stone ring by A. Reza featuring a fancy-vivid-blue, internally flawless diamond of 5.34 carats and a 5.37-carat, D, IF diamond, fetched $9.3 million, falling within estimates.
“When correctly estimated, white and colored diamonds all found buyers at the current market prices,” commented Faerber.
Signature moves
Extraordinary signed vintage pieces consistently outperformed expectations. Among them was an Art Deco diamond bracelet by Boucheron with old rose- and circular-cut diamonds, which went for CHF 312,000 ($331,250), more than twice its high estimate.
“This was an exquisite example of an Art Deco piece, with an avant-garde design [and of] aristocratic origin,” said Geneva-based gemstone dealer Elke Berr of Berr & Partners SA, who attended the sale.
Berr singled out a 10.07-carat sapphire that went for CHF 212,500 ($225,250) and an Art Deco Cartier tutti frutti bracelet from circa 1930 that netted CHF 615,000 ($651,900). Both more than doubled their high estimates.
“Exceptional gems, rare in size, color and quality, keep their value and find investors or collectors,” Berr said. “The same applies to French signed pieces from a certain period (notably Art Deco) and other rare pieces,” particularly houses such as Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels.
Faerber agreed that “most signed jewels found buyers at fair prices.” The tutti frutti Cartier bracelet fetched a “surprisingly high” amount, he said, considering that it was relatively small; he noted that the piece had sold in New York in 1995 for $74,000.
Of course, some beautiful items failed to sell — a reminder that the right buyers don’t always come forward and that market conditions may not have fully readjusted yet. Among items that passed unsold were a ring featuring a rectangular mixed-cut, fancy-vivid-pink diamond with an estimate of CHF 1.1 million to CHF 1.5 million ($1.2 million to $1.6 million), and a diamond pendant necklace with a CHF 1.7 million to CHF 2.5 million ($1.8 million to $2.7 million) estimate.
There were “no ‘high-flying’ world-record results as sometimes we had before the crisis,” Berr summed up, “but prices were not low, either.”
Image: Christie'sArticle from the Rapaport Magazine - September 2020. To subscribe click here.