The Roxburghe Rubies bring the unprecedented sum of CHF 5,821,000 ($5,769,309/€3,861,602), a world record price for a Ruby Suite.
A fancy vivid yellow diamond sells for CHF 3,162,500 ($3,134,417/€2,097,975) and a magnificent vivid green diamond sells for CHF 3,106,500 ($3,078,914/€2,060,825), a new world auction record price per carat for a vivid green diamond.
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Jewels of historical importance and unique natural yellow, green and blue diamonds brought stunning prices at Sotheby’s Sale of Magnificent Jewels on Tuesday November 17th 2009 at the Hotel Beau Rivage, Geneva. The Roxburghe Rubies, an important late 19th Century suite comprising a necklace and earrings, brought the unprecedented sum of CHF 5,821,000 ($5,769,309/€3,861,602), five times the high estimate, and the sale saw high prices for yellow, green and blue diamonds as well. The entire sale brought CHF 37,011,375, $36,682,714, €24,553,028 against a pre-sale low estimate of CHF 30 million and was 79% sold by lot and 79% sold by volume.
Strong prices for fancy coloured diamonds
A very impressive fancy vivid yellow cut-cornered rectangular modified brilliant-cut diamond of 74.80 carats mounted on a plain yellow gold ring sold to Chatila for CHF 3,162,500 ($3,134,417/€2,097,975):
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One of the highlights among the coloured diamonds was a great rarity: the largest vivid green diamond ever to appear at auction, a cushion modified brilliant-cut vivid green diamond weighing 2.52 carats which sold for CHF 3,106,500 ($3,078,914/€2,060,825). The combination of the colour’s natural origin and its saturation makes it an extremely unusual occurrence in nature:
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A very attractive fancy pink cushion-shaped diamond from a private collection weighing 6.63 carats sold for CHF 1,426,500 ($1,413,833/€946,328):
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A very rare fancy intense blue brilliant-cut diamond ring of 3.17 carats is unusual in that the brilliant cut is very rarely seen in coloured diamonds from a private collection. Estimated at CHF 1,650,000 – 2,675,000 (US$ 1.6 – 2.6 million), the stone sold to Chatila for CHF 2,546,500 ($2,523,500/€1,689,326), a new world auction record price per carat for an intense blue diamond:
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Jewels of important historical provenance
Among the jewels of important historical provenance were:
The Roxburghe Rubies, a rare and highly important ruby and diamond necklace from the 19th century, property of Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe, together with the accompanying important pair of ruby and diamond earrings, also from 1884. The stunning rivière was created with twenty-four cushion-shaped rubies beautifully balanced with twenty-four similarly shaped diamonds, mounted in silver and gold, and is approximately 433mm in length:
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A sapphire and diamond demi-parure from circa 1900, inherited from Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna by her daughter Princess Elena of Greece and Denmark, Grand Duchess of Russia (1882-1957), had been consigned by its present owner, a member of a European Imperial Family. Estimated at CHF 140,000 - 180,000, it sold for CHF 482,500 ($478,215/€320,086). The jewels have an extremely important historical value as they left Russia just before Maria Pavlovna’s flight from St Petersburg during the 1917 Revolution. The Grand Duchess of Russia recovered them over two years later upon her arrival in England. The group comprises a brooch of plaque design, set at the centre with an oval Burmese sapphire within a border of cushion-shaped diamonds; a pair of ear clips en suite; as well as a later fitted case by Cartier, stamped with the crown of the Royal House of Greece:
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The sale offered a few items from the internationally admired jewellery collection of famed society figure Daisy Fellowes - acknowledged as having been one of the 20th century’s most stylish and glamorous women and editor of Harper’s Bazaar, Paris, in the mid 1930s. A sapphire brooch designed as an Iris made in Cartier’s London workshop in 1940 in which the petals are set with cushion-shaped sapphires and brilliant cut diamonds and the stem is created from emeralds entwined with baguette diamonds sold for CHF 662,500 ($656,617/€439,497), (est. CHF 155,000 – 255,000 / US$152,000 – 249,000):
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Sotheby’s Geneva Press Contact : [email protected]
