Magnificent jewels from the collection of the late Begum Sultan Mohamed Shah Aga Khan recently auctioned by Sotheby's in Geneva sold for $4,559,553 (€5,251,126), with one item fetching more than $2.7 million and all 19 lots being sold.
Other jewellery sold the same day at Sotheby's in Geneva included an auction of jewels which raised $17,395,063 and an Au Courant auction of contemporary jewels created by leading international jewellery designers which made $1,385,956.
Highlights from the collection of jewels included a magnificent emerald-cut diamond ring by Harry Winston, weighing 51.85 carats. It fetched $2,743,590 and was bought by an anonymous bidder.
Other highlights included a magnificent French diamond necklace from the 1960s which was purchased for $496,660 by the international trade. A pair of 1960s French diamond pendant earclips fetched $453,090 (international trade), while a fine sapphire and diamond two stone ring went for $235,250, sold to a private buyer.
Private collectors acquired a French cultured pearl and diamond necklace for $179,230 and a pair of earrings of cultured pearl and diamonds for $116,990.
Born Yvette Blanche Labrousse in 1906 in Sete, near Merseilles, Begum Sultan Mohamed Shah was the fourth and last wife of the late Aga Khan III, the 48th hereditary Imam of the Shia Ismaili Muslims. The sale benefited the Aga Khan Foundation, a non-profit organisation established in 1967 by the present Aga Khan to address problems of poverty, illiteracy and ill health in places like Central and South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa.
Another jewellery auction at Sotheby's in Geneva held the same day realised $17,395,063, confirming the strength of interest in the high end of the market, with buyers coming from Europe, the Far East, North America and the Middle East.
The top lot of the auction was a superb ruby and diamond ring which sold for $3,303,770 to a private buyer. The 32.67 carat ruby came from the Mogok region of Myanmar, which is some 90 miles northeast of Mandalay and regarded as the world's most important source of gem-quality rubies. The ruby had a velvet-like saturation of colour and was free of any imperfections visible to the naked eye. Claw-set, the oval ruby was flanked by half-moon-shaped diamonds, mounted in platinum and 18 carat gold.
An impressive diamond necklace sold for $1,280,910. Its front was embellished by a fancy intense yellow pear-shaped diamond drop weighing 50.05 carats, supported by floral clusters set with oval marquise and pear-shaped diamonds.
Another leading lot was a claw-set 22.54 carat cushion-shaped ruby and diamond ring mounted in platinum. Kite-shaped diamonds accented the shoulders of the ruby. It went to a US private buyer for $1,000,820.
Meanwhile, the most expensive lot of the Au Courant auction of contemporary jewels created by leading international jewellery designers was the Nebuleuse ring by Chanel; a brilliant-cut diamond of fancy grey, set within a mount encrusted with small intense pink diamonds. The piece, which weighed 18.17 carats, was inspired by a shooting star, a motif echoing Coco Chanel's jewels of the 1930s. It fetched $415,750, purchased by a private buyer in the US.
The second highest price at the Au Courant auction went for a demantoid garnet and diamond lotus flower brooch by Japanese jeweller Gimel. Mounted in 18 carat gold and platinum, it was bought by an Asian private buyer for $216,570, exceeding its estimate of $120,000-$150,000.
jmarms@irish-times.ie
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