New York–An array of flawless colorless diamonds, artistic works by master jewelers such as Cartier, JAR and Louis Comfort Tiffany, and an offering of jewels from the collection of a late fashion model will be among the highlights of Sotheby’s New York sale of Magnificent Jewels.
The Dec. 9 auction is expected to bring in more than $20 million, Sotheby’s said in a media release, with pieces of exceptional provenance and craftsmanship defining the sale.
“From the perfection of flawless diamonds and the rarity of natural pearls to the originality of one-of-a-kind pieces, our sale this season presents a captivating array of jewels that can only be found at auction,” Lisa Hubbard, chairman of Sotheby’s International Jewelry Department, North and South American divisions, said in a media release.
Hubbard added that after the success of the auction house’s recent sales in Hong Kong and New York, it has been clear that buyers are actively seeking diamonds with an extra something special, whether that be the stone’s inherent charm, rare shape or perfect quality.
Among the important colorless diamonds set for auction is a magnificent and rare oval diamond weighing 30.48 carats, of D color, with flawless clarity and type IIa “Golconda-like” classification, estimated to sell for more than $3.3 million.
Additional unmounted specimens worthy of attention include a round diamond weighing in at 18.11 carats, of H color and graded triple-X with excellent cut, polish and symmetry, as well as a pear-shaped diamond cut for candlelight and weighing 13.85 carats, with D color and VS2 clarity. The stones are estimated to fetch between $750,000 to $1 million, and $400,000 to $500,000, respectively.
As for mounted stones, highlights include a square emerald-cut diamond of 9.69 carats set as a ring and estimated between $350,000 and $450,000. The stone has E color, VVS2 clarity, is potentially flawless and certified type IIa.
Works of art by 20th-century master jewelers that are slated for the auction include two seminal pieces from Cartier’s famed 1920s period, including an Egyptian-style jeweled scarab belt buckle ($250,000-$350,000) and an Egyptian-style lapis lazuli, turquoise, diamond, black onyx and enamel bracelet ($75,000-$100,000).
The pieces feature exceptional provenance: The belt buckle was purchased in 1926 by Mrs. Cole Porter, and the bracelet was made by special order for her in 1929. Prior to her death in 1954, Porter gave the jewels to her friend, Princess Natalie Paley, in whose family collection the jewels have remained to the present day.
A rare and important, fancy intense-yellow diamond and emerald ring from Tiffany and Co., designed by Louis Comfort Tiffany circa 1915-1920, will also be featured ($200,000-$300,000), as well as a colored-stone and diamond bracelet designed by Van Cleef and Arpels, dating to 1930 ($100,000-$150,000). The yellow diamond in the Tiffany ring weighs in at 11.05 carats and is decorated with calibre-cut emeralds, while the Van Cleef bracelet incorporates 11.25 carats of colorless European-cut diamonds accented with sapphires, rubies, emeralds and onyx.
Also highly anticipated are pieces from the collection of Lucia Moreira Salles, a former model from Brazil and a dedicated philanthropist. Salles began her career in Paris at the end of the 1950s, and became a muse for both Valentino and Coco Chanel.
Highlights from her collection include three gemstone rings accented with diamonds and mounted in platinum by Paris designer JAR: one featuring a 27-carat cabochon Colombian emerald ($400,000-$600,000); another featuring a sugarloaf cabochon Burmese ruby weighing approximately 16.3 carats ($150,000-$200,000); and the third, a diamond “String” ring set with a 16.04-carat oval diamond of F color, SI1 clarity and type IIa ($350,000-$450,000).
Salles’ collection also features a selection of pearls, including a natural-pearl and diamond necklace ($250,000-$350,000) and a natural-pearl and diamond ring ($30,000-$50,000).
“Lucia Moreira Salles’ very personal collection offers a window into the innate style and elegance for which she was revered,” Hubbard said in the release. “She did not collect to impress; these are pieces that she loved to wear and which were part of the remarkable style that enabled her to work for two of the most influential fashion designers of all time during a legendary era in Paris.”
Prior to the December pre-sale viewing, highlights from the Magnificent Jewels auction will be exhibited in Geneva, Hong Kong and Los Angeles.
You have to be a very important collector to get your own sale at Christie’s. Most collections are amassed into larger sales but a single owner collection of 10 jewels is set for December 10, is set for the same day as the New York Jewels sale at Christie’s New York. This smaller sale features some big stones. The most important is the “Evening Star” diamond, a pear-shaped, 39-carat, D-color diamond mounted in a platinum pendant. This stone is a type IIa diamond the type which was found in India’s famous ancient Golconda mines. It is certified to be VVS1 clarity and is accompanied by a working diagram indicating that the clarity may be potentially internally flawless.
The Evening Star alone is estimated at $3.6 million to $5.5 million. The name comes from the owner’s habit of wearing the stone to evening galas. She wore the stone suspended from a diamond necklace that consisted of 68 graduated pear-shaped diamonds. That necklace is also for sale with an estimated value of $400,000 to $600,000. And to complete the parure you can pick up the matching pair of diamond ear pendants with two pear-shaped, D-color diamonds of 10.21 and 10.51 carats. The earrings which are also type IIa stones are estimated to bring in $1.7 million to $2.5 million.
Other diamond pieces in the sale include a diamond bracelet by Van Cleef and Arpels and a 36.78-carat, rectangular-cut, D-color, internally flawless diamond ring mounted in platinum with an estimated value of between $2.75 million and $3.5 million. If diamonds aren’t your favorite you can bid on an a rare color-change alexandrite ring. The 3.6 carat stone show teal in daylight and purple in incandescent light.
Sorry for not announcement the endure few weeks. Among added things, I was in Europe, talking actuality and there about the Invasion of the Third Screens…
While Europe is way advanced of the U.S. in plain-old cellular service—an added $65 to AT&T for the ages got me all-you-can-eat adrift abstracts on my iPhone throughout Europe, with all-over 3G advantage from Munich to Geneva to London—it’s abaft us in the about-face to e-readers and tablets. This is mainly due to burst markets; there are so abounding carriers, publishers and languages that it’s harder to see how any one belvedere will appear any time soon. The Kindle, which was just launched abroad, is still advised cutting-edge technology and is wowing the masses, admitting books are alone accessible in English for now.
I had one tiny epiphany I capital to share, however. I was arrive to appear an centralized appointment at Richemont, the aggregation that owns some of the world’s best-known affluence brands. Throughout the day, the agenda cast managers were assuming off some of their Web-based projects and, as I watched some of the absolutely gorgeous, accurate getting that they were doing, I accomplished that one day soon, these sorts of things will advance from getting Web pages to getting the ad pages that beautify agenda magazines.
This is in fact a actual big deal. It agency that affectation commercial will plan again.
Right now, the archetypal doesn’t plan because you accept to go to, say, Van Cleef & Arpels’s website to see its ad. But what if the ad came to you, just as it does in a magazine. Alone it’s way bigger than a annual because it’s activated and compelling. Imagine account your admired annual on a tablet, and you hit this bobcat (Now, on the Web, you’ve got to let it amount first; that won’t be a botheration on a downloaded e-mag.) How could you not stop and collaborate with it? Commercial will plan so abundant bigger in the tablet-mag world.
Van Cleef & Arpels Feerie is aggressive by the Midsummer Night’s Dream adornment collection. This aroma is an boastful affectation of breeding and luxury.
Feerie eau de parfum (2008) was advised by perfumer Antoine Maisondieu while the eau de toilette – launched a year afterwards – was created by Olivier Pescheux. The bogie account affair is attraction and adroitness in one admirable scent. The bulb-shaped flacon, in azure blue, appearance a bogie sitting aloft a twig.
Feerie is “a sparkling aroma with a alloy of violets, blackcurrant, Bulgarian Rose, Egyptian Jasmine, and Iris Butter that circle with whimsy aural the amazing bota to acknowledge the around-the-clock spirit of Van Cleef & Arpels.” It’s floral-fruity in agreement but on my derma however, the violets at the top came off as admitting it had been covered in candies. The floral aspect seemed to accept drowned in the berry-sweetness. The promised vetiver at the abject didn’t accomplish able-bodied to aphasiac the candied accords. This alluringly candied aroma is not that bad. Just bethink that overapplication is absolutely a no-no.