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Cover
Discerning Market
The New York spring auctions proved once again that only the best will sell.
By Amber Michelle
Smaller sales and choosy customers made for somewhat subdued auctions. The finest of the fine found buyers while everything else passed. While that is not headline news in the auction market, buyers were even more discriminating than usual in their purchases. White diamonds were selling but at rock-bottom prices and only those stones with the right estimate and the color and clarity in demand for the current market sold.
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A busy room filled with dealers chattering away also marked the sale at Christie’s. With its midtown proximity to the industry, many from the trade stopped by just to see how the sale was going. The auction brought in $57,029,250 with 253 lots offered and 202 lots sold. The sale was sold 80 percent by lot and 91 percent by value. The December 2015 sale totaled $59,685,125 and the April 2015 sale garnered $41,951,125. The top lot of the sale was The Jubilee Ruby, a 15.99-carat oval-shaped Burmese ruby and diamond ring by Verdura that sold for $14,165,000 to a European private on the phone, bringing a per-carat price of $885,000. The bidder wanted the stone so badly that at one point in order to win the prize, his incremental bid was $1 million; it was also the bid that clinched the deal. According to Christie’s, this stone holds the title of the most expensive colored gemstone ever sold at auction in the U.S. The rest of the top ten lots were all diamonds, although one dealer in the room characterized white diamond prices as “catastrophically low.” “Only the best sold,” noted Rahul Kadakia, international head of Christie’s Jewelry, who went on to point out that everything has a buyer at the right price. This sale also had a selection of fine signed jewelry, which typically sells well at auction. David Webb maintained his appeal with pieces of his jewelry seeing lots of bidding. A Jean Schlumberger diamond bangle bracelet estimated at $30,000 to $50,000 sold for $161,000 proving that this segment of the market remains strong. That being said, just because it was a signed piece didn’t guarantee that it would sell, as it would have a few years ago. Now, a signed piece sells because it is a prime example of a maker’s art. “The market is well and healthy for items priced from $15,000 to $15 million. It is an active market with participation from trade and privates,” observes Kadakia. Those who buy at auction spend on the rare and the unique that cannot be found anywhere else and that pattern held true at the New York sales. Even with that in mind, this round of sales saw buying hone down to the narrowest definition of the best. It also ushers in a new era that is no longer dominated by jewels from the early twentieth century as buyers look at mid-twentieth century jewelry as collectibles and perhaps as more wearable with current lifestyles. * All prices include buyer’s premium.Article from the Rapaport Magazine - May 2016. To subscribe click here.
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