Featured Christie's Jewels!!

Love the Tiara and the Polar Bear!!!

https://www.christies.com/features/Royal-Faberge-tiara-Christies-Geneva-May-2019-9831-1.aspx

 

Not finding a polar bear. As part of the same sale?

 

OMG on all of it but I guess my drool pice is the blue diamond ring. Love the Cartier scarab and the JAR necklace too and pretty much anything Bulgari-especially the serpent series. So many gorgeous pieces and that is one amazing tiara.

 

@Bronwen, In Magnificent Jewels.....hold on.......found it, but don't ask me how I got off track to find it!!!!

https://www.christies.com/features/5-minutes-with-a-carved-Faberge-Polar-Bear-8640-1.aspx

 

Thanks for finding it again. It must actually have been one of Faberge's more modest pieces: no gold; not gem encrusted; the rather humble onyx rather than rock crystal or jade. The way they put together the purchase record & chain of contacts was as interesting as the bear itself.

 

I looked at every lot , some magnificent jewels there. Will have to change shirts because mine is soaked with drool. If I were significantly wealthy, I would own some of those in a heartbeat. ( I collect colored Gems). Some of the emeralds, sapphires and rubies are STUNNING and of ultra high quality. I do think some of the pieces went overboard on the accent diamonds. but to each his own.

 

These are more for 'ordinary' folk, those who do not live a life that requires a tiara, but you may still need a bib:

https://www.invaluable.com/catalog/...19&size=200&page=1&categories=&searchWithAll=

 

@Bronwen, that site is most definitely droolworthy!!! I'm just not happy with Sotheby's after a bad experience with an antique item that failed to sell (it had a reserve on it) and they never told me about a bid that came in that was just under the reserve.....maybe they weren't obligated to either, but I would have sold it for that buyer's offer!!! I also didn't think their images were the best that they could have shown the jewelry at...even when enlarged.....if buying online.....I want to see crystal sharp images!!!!! But it was still a droolable site!!! Thanks for posting!!!! Now, I have to go show another one, not jewelry, others may like!!!

 

Getting ready to go to Christie's to view the Sangiorgi collection. Longer reply later. Will just say your Sotheby's experience does not surprise me.

 

There's also ONE cameo on the other site I'm posting under Antique Discussion!

 

Someone who's a contact & who tries to sell the engraved gems he finds on eBay, finally consigned a bunch of them to Sotheby's. He was not at all happy with the photos & I agreed. One cameo piece they listed without using the word 'cameo' & they blew him off when he suggested they should emend it. He was pretty disappointed overall, even though more pieces sold than not, &, if I remember correctly, one piece did much better than expected; others, less well.

 

Saw the Sangiorgi gems at Christie's & they do have people attending that section who will take anything you want to see out of the locked cases, so I did actually get to have the grasshopper & the Venus Callipygous I love so much in the palm of my hand. Another visitor who was a dealer/collector said he knew the Getty was planning to be a bidder, glumly predicting they would drive prices beyond where most individual bidders could go. @Figtree3 They told me Oxford/CARC had examined all the gems, so they know the one that was lost is now found.

Was told there was a whole case of cameos/intaglios in another part of the exhibition space. When I found it, turned out to be one person's collection consisting of 700+ pieces, a handful thought to be ancient, the rest said to be Georgian & later but I would say Victorian & after. There were a number of interesting ones, many pretty ones, but also a shocking number of badly cut navette shaped ones that had clearly come out of rings that were scrapped. Some little coral pieces, ditto. Others are clearly the rectangular warrior cameos so common in men's rings. They are to be sold as one lot. I'll have to try to keep track to see what happens to it. Was rather shocked that Christie's would accept the schlocky pieces for consignment, really lowers the tone.

Here's the lot:

https://www.christies.com/lotfinder...8753&sid=790d662a-b904-4c94-a7ba-3675edb92aab

 

Good to know. Thanks for the update!

 

And the photo doesn't help to raise the tone, either.

 

Suspect consignor insisted they all go as one lot; perhaps he's a good client of theirs. Otherwise, they would have done better, for him & themselves, if they had weeded out the ones that should have been thrown out when settings were scrapped, made a couple of lots of the ones that might still be of interest to someone making cameo rings of the standard types & sold the better pieces as a lot of their own. I don't know how bidders would have any idea of what's a good price if they can't come to see them all laid out in person & then start totting up how much they would be willing to pay for the ones they might actually want.

 

Yes, I agree. They are laid out so haphazardly in that photo that it seems apparent that the auction company doesn't think much of them. Yet the pre-sale estimate says otherwise.

 

Trying to remember what I saw & do a little mental math. Did I see anything worth $1,000? No. $500? Not to me. $250? Possibly a few. Being generous, let's say there are 6 of those, getting us to $1,500. How many pieces at $150 or $100 would I also need to be willing to pay for to get to $5,000? More than I saw. Most I would not want at any price. Really will not be surprised if lot is passed. Don't know if sale price will be made public.

 

None of the cameos are set; most are small. I'm beginning to get the vision of someone whose 'collection', at least the part being sold, comprises strictly cameos/intaglios that have been removed from their settings or were never set NOS, all acquired on the cheap from sources who scrapped the gold & placed little or no value on the stone.

 

You could say, It's Droolery.

 

BUT, what an AWESOME image to use for my jigsaw puzzles that I love to do!!!! I do them then discard them!!! Fun!