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Geneva - Nice Jewels, Good Humor but Weak Business
Dec 6, 1996 12:16 PM
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The good news about this year's autumn Geneva Jewelry Sales is that in
four days about 1,400 pieces of jewelry, including some 381 lots of
Cartier jewelry and watches sold for approximately $93 million. But
the bad news is that more than 35 percent of all the 2,200 total lots
offered during these days by Sotheby's, Christie's, Phillips and
Antiquorum did not sell.
Actually the Phillips sale, which took place in the company's new
Geneva sale room on November 18 set the pace for most of the rest of
the business. Long known as a supplier of attractive lower priced
jewels during the multinational Sotheby's and Christie's sale in
Geneva, Phillips now makes considerable efforts to be part of the more
profitable big boys' jewelry league. Therefore Georges de Bartha, the
first head of the Geneva office and former Art Nouveau and Art Deco
specialist of Christie's and later Habsburg, appointed Rolf Schweiger
as new Jewelry Department head. His is a quite familiar and respected
name in the business as he worked many years under the unforgettable
Hans Nadelhoffer at Christie's and at Gubelin. But the much improved
catalogue did not help to prevent some heavy, yet not really
surprising disappointments at the sale itself: Most of the top lots,
from an important emerald and diamond necklace by Cartier, Paris,
1922, with an estimate of $400,000 to $450,000, comprising two pear-
shaped diamonds of 15.02 and 15.21 carat (J, VS1/VS2) and several
smaller stones between I, SI1 and F, VS1, totaling about 45 carats.
Mystery Provenance Hurts
Furthermore there seemed to be no bidding interest at all for a group
of eight important Parures made by Robert Mouwad in the estimated
range of $20,000 to $800,000, although several important dealers like
Lady Moussaieff from London or Ronny Totah from Horowitz & Totah where
present. Possibly the cryptic catalogue entry of those pieces as "the
property of a gentleman" discouraged some potential private bidders,
as this fitted also with some strictly unconfirmed speculations, that
these pieces were actually sold by Mouawad and that one could get
them, or other, more personalized jewels, directly from Robert Mouawad
himself.
But finally, with the successful sale of a spectacular kashmire
sapphire and diamond bracelet for 1.4885 million Swiss francs or $1.2
million -- doubling the higher estimate -- to the London trade and
marking a diamond-like carat price of about $17,600/ct for its 25
sapphires, Phillips could count this sale still as a reasonable
success totaling about $5 million.
Cartier Sale a Success
The following day was devoted to the thematic sale "The Magical Art of
Cartier", organized by Osvaldo Patrizzis of the specialized watch-
auction house Antiquorum, in collaboration with auctioneer Jacques
Tajan from Paris. One of its main lots -- after an important sapphire
and diamond bracelet from 1923 was stolen during the international
viewing tour -- was a spectacular necklace with 29 graduated baroque
emerald drops made for the British actress Merle Oberon in 1938, which
sold for $2.112 million, realizing the highest price attained by any
lot during this autumns Geneva sales week.
Although only around 381 lots from the offered 625, or around 61
percent of the offer was sold, this Cartier-auction totaled amazing
$14.8 million and proved that such small but specialized and competent
auction houses like Antiquorum still can successfully compete with
multinational giants like Sotheby's and Christie's. This success was
to a large extent due to a perfect preparation, which attracted a good
lot of private interest outside the professional clientele usually
dominating the Geneva sales. This started with a lavish catalog and
ended with a fashion-show-like presentation of some lots during the
sale by two spectacular professional models, reflecting the refined
exoticism in Cartier's work and creating an atmosphere more
reminiscent of the typical St. Moritz February sales than a typical
sober Geneva event.
But the highlight of the day came in the evening with Christie's
separate hard -cover catalog sale titled "Superb Jewels from a Private
Collection," which was 100 percent sold. The most expensive of its
146 lots was a suite of fancy yellow diamond and diamond jewelry by
Tabbah containing a detachable heart-shaped fancy yellow diamond (VS1)
of 51.05 carats. With a price of $1.498 million, which significantly
exceeded the estimate and was greeted by some amazement by many
dealers, this lot added nearly one eighth to the sales total of $12.13
million. It was bought by New York dealer Lee Siegelson, whose
resemblance to tennis star Boris Becker caused some turmoil,
especially among the female audience.
Immediately after that, a private bought a rectangular-cut G, VS2
diamond ring weighing 31.19 carats marked by Harry Winston, priced at
$794,800 ($25,483/carat) after he already had bought a heavy sapphire,
diamond and cultured pearl choker necklace by Bulgari for $310,800 and
a suite of rectangular-cut diamond jewelry by Tabbah for $425,200.
Actually this important international jeweler was the winning star of
this evening, as even Robert Mouawad honored him by buying, for
$513,200, an important suite of emerald and diamond jewelry signed by
him, as well as an impressive emerald and diamond choker necklace by
Alberto Elina with a Columbian rectangular-cut emerald of 101.10
carats for $530,800.
The ratio between dealers and private buyers in this sale was
unusually balanced, and the most admired Tabbah work, a pair of
spectacular diamond cuff bracelets, went for $372,400 to an anonymous
American private. But the real sensation of the evening was the price
of $108,400 for an elegant pair of amethyst briolette, diamond and
sapphire ear pendants made by Joel Arthur Rosenthal, aka JAR, which
was attained in a fierce telephone fight in which the price tripled
the average estimate. The bidding went on without knowledge of the
weight of the two amethyst briolettes and ended up setting a new
carat record price for amethyst.
The potential market stimulation from this remarkable success was
dampened by the fact that Christie's was not allowed to put the name
of the collection's owner on the catalog. Added to the fact that some
of the sales material seemed quite familiar to the market, the
anonymity gave birth to some dealer speculation that this was in fact
not really a "private collection" but rather a sophisticated
assemblage of high value jewelry from the stock of one or several
dealers. Christie's disarmed such rumors immediately after the sale
by identifying officially Mrs. Mouna Al-Ayoub -- the ex-wife of Naser
Al Rahcid -- as the very satisfied vendor of the jewelry, who was
willing to donate an unspecified "substantial percentage" of the sales
proceeds to charities. But without giving a name -- even a fantasy
name -- to this collection, none of those jewels will ever be able to
benefit from their provenance, as it is usually the case with pieces
from famous collections like Windsor and others.
Lalique Jewelry Sets Record
The next day, November 20, was devoted to Sotheby's jewelry sale ,
culminating in the traditional evening session. It was led by the
separately catalogued collection of 43 jewels from Rene Lalique from
the Japanese Minami Art Museum. Followed by an unusually mixed
audience made of privates, art nouveau specialists and some of the
traditional diamond dealers like Isi Fischzang from New York and
Hassan Ahmad from Triple A Diamonds, this sale was a splendid success
with 90 percent of all lots sold. At a price of $319,600, an amazing
suite of diamond star sapphire and enameled gold jewelry from around
1903 to 1905 set a new auction record for Lalique jewelry.
But after that glamorous intermezzo, the hard real market routing took
over: Even the perfect poker face of Sotheby's auctioneer David
Bennett could not hide from the audience in the well packed room that
many of the more important lots, carrying estimates above $250,000 did
not sell. Actually the two presenting models of Sotheby's, an elegant
professional together with Helen Williams from Sotheby's jewelry
department, helped considerably to maintain a good and sympathetic
sales room atmosphere. The importance of an attractive, entertaining,
yet never aggressive presentation to keep sale rooms' attention was
apparent during some repetitive and otherwise potentially depressing
periods, and also during some long stretches when the room was
waiting for some Far Eastern telephone bidders fighting each other in
slow motion. But even Helen's truly unmatched charms failed sometimes
to convince bidders to step over their preset personal price limit.
Although there was often quite lively bidding in the room and on the
telephones, it regularly stopped below the lower estimates, stopping
short of most of the reserve prices.
Naturally nobody was really surprised when an important Van Cleef &
Arpels ruby and diamond necklace from around 1935 from the former
collection of Helen de Beaumont estimated at $650,000 to $750,000
remained unsold, after it was sold as recently as in May 1994 in the
same place for $702,000.
Not Even History Could Help
But even for the generally acclaimed historical pieces there was an
amazingly selective demand. An emerald and diamond necklace from
around 1830, going back to Empress Catherine the Great who presented
it to John Hobart II, Earl of Buckinhamshire and then the British
Ambassador to St. Petersburg did not sell. A cushion-shaped pink
tinted diamond of about 12 carats, mounted en tremblant as the head of
a hair pin and dating back to the French Queen Marie Antoinette sold
without any problems for $1.41 million or about $117,500/ct.
One of the most successful elder jewels and one of the most expensive
colored diamond lots was a French colored diamond pendant from around
1905 with two beautiful colored diamonds --one kite-shaped fancy blue
of 1.60 carats, the other pear-shaped fancy intense blue of 3.98
carats -- ended this sale by selling far above the estimate for $1.59
million or $283,000/ct to a Hong Kong dealer. It was surpassed only
by a ring with two fancy intense pink step-cut diamonds weighing 3.04
and 3.09 carat -- likely to have originated from Australian Argyle
Mines -- which went for $2.03 million or $333,000/ct. This was the
second most expensive lot of the whole week, and it went to an
anonymous Hong Kong Private on the telephone.
Otherwise there were few real surprising prices, like the $442,800
offered by written bid from an American dealer for a 12.04 carat
step-cut diamond ring by Harry Winston. This E color stone of VVS2
clarity, possibly enhanced, fetched a price of $36,777/carat.
And finally one of the most beautiful lots of this sale, an unusual
harmonic natural pearl and diamond brooch of around 1880, was not
bought by one of the traditional jewelers or diamond dealers but by
the London firm S. J. Phillips, famous specialists in silver, gold
boxes, Faberge and old jewelry, offering far over the estimate
$258,000 for it.
Dependence on Superdealers Cited
After the sale, none other than Sotheby's president and CEO Diana D.
Brooks explained to journalists in sympathetically open terms, that
the evening's sale gave reason to think over the general strategy of
these jewelry sales, which have in recent years become too dependent
on a few top dealers, mainly from the Middle East David Bennett added
that the lack of presence and the bidding abstinence of some super
dealers was not yet clearly understandable; neither Sheik Ahmed A.
Fitaihi nor Lawrence Graff from London showed up in the sale rooms of
Sotheby's and Christie's, although they may have been participating by
telephone. Unusually strong bidding from Far East clients -- among the
most prominent in the room was Ronald Abram from Hong Kong -- and
strong selective buyership from Italy, from Bulgari and others,
prevented this evening's sale from becoming really disastrous.
Including the Lalique sale, Sotheby's jewelry sales still totaled a
respectable $31 million while the sales ratio for the 540 lots of
general jewelry, excluding the Lalique sale, was about 35 percent by
lot and 41 percent by value.
After this highly ambivalent and difficult Sotheby's sale, one was
naturally even more anxious to see the outcome of the following day's
Christie's jewelry sale. And as most of the dealers predicted, it was
quite similar to that of the Sotheby's sale. Its 464 lots made a
total of $30.5 million with rather similar ratios of 31 percent by lot
and 43 percent by value. Including the $12.13 million from the Mouna
Al Ayoub Collection, Christie's jewelry total rose to $42.6 million.
Christie's Gets Similar Results
Also here, Middle Eastern presence and bidding was weak, but was
replaced partially by strong buyers from Far East. If one disregards
some other disappointments in the top price region, there were
actually even fewer surprises. Here, too, some historical pieces
were bypassed because of highly selective interest: while a pair of
antique pearl and diamond ear pendants from around 1890 once in the
possession of Queen Margherita of Italy sold for $346,000, the next
lot, an emerald and diamond brooch with a Columbian rectangular-cut
emerald of 47.76 carats with the same royal provenance, did not sell.
The highest price of this sale was paid by Robert Mouawad, represented
by one of his sons, who offered $1.01 million or $30,167/carat for a
cut-cornered rectangular-cut fancy intense yellow diamond of 33.64
carats and VS2 clarity. Four lots later a pair of pear-shaped diamond
pendants weighing 24.02 and 25.68 carat with I color and VS2/VS1
clarity sold for $970,800 or $19,533/carat. Two lots later a cut-
cornered rectangular cut D color, VS1 clarity diamond of 36.74 carats
fetched by telephone bid $838,000 or $22,830/carat. And immediately
after this, one of the most interesting diamonds of this sale, a
cushion shaped D color, VS1 clarity stone of 17.04 carats with the
sought after characteristics of the "Golconda-Type" diamonds set by
Chaumet as a ring sold for $530,800 or $31,150/carat to a French
private on the telephone.
Humor Helps
Christie's Francois Curiel's antics and the models' good humor kept
the sale room's atmosphere relaxed despite the many visible bought
ins. At one point, Curiel tried to coax the next move from a telephone
bidder by asking the model to show the lot, a Bulgari bracelet, to the
telephone, evoking a burst of laughter from the tense room.
Therefore at the end nobody was surprised by the good humor Curiel
displayed at the end of the event. "If there would have been no
bidding interest at all in the lots unsold, then I probably would be
concerned..." he explained to the Rapaport Diamond Report . "But we
really did not have such a no-bid situation. There was active and
lively bidding on many of these lots, which only stopped typically
about 10 percent below the limit prices of the vendors." Actually this
exactly paralleled the situation the day before at Sotheby's.
Perhaps one of the most noticeable elements at all these Geneva sales,
which where characterized by a strangely ambivalent combination of
optimism and skepticism, was the way Sotheby's and Christie's tried to
enhance their presentation of the auction goods before and especially
during the sale itself. Behind that strategy is the goal of attracting
more potent private clients in these sales, which were until now
traditionally dominated by professional dealers. Although this
strategy will certainly not be greeted enthusiastically by
professional jewelers, who often are themselves clients of these
sales, it is an understandable response to the dangerous dependence on
a small elite of international superdealers. But with the potential
rise of the profile of private buyers, the entertainment value of the
auction will become an increasingly important issue.
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Tags:
Argyle, Bulgari, Collections, Graff, Harry Winston, Hong Kong, Jewelry, Sotheby's
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