Displaying items by tag: cartier

Fine gray pearl necklaces are rarely seen at auction, making the auction of the Cowdray Pearls one of the most exciting highlights of Sotheby’s Hong Kong jewelry sale.

With an estimate of $4.5‑7 million, the necklace was formerly in the collection of Viscountess Cowdray, Lady Pearson (1860‑1932) and was strung and mounted by Cartier. It comprises 42 natural gray saltwater pearls well-matched in luster, shape, and size, and is accompanied by a pair of natural gray pearl earrings, also by Cartier London.

More than 200 lots of diamonds, rare gemstones, and signed designer jewels brought $27.6 million at Christie’s New York sale of Important Jewels on June 16.

The top lot, a cushion-cut Kashmir sapphire of 21.71 carats, realized $4.2 million. Signed by Cartier, flanked on both sides by trapeze-shaped diamonds, and mounted in platinum, the ring was part of the collection of Margaret Adderley Kelly, which saw a 100% sell-through totaling just shy of $10 million.

Sotheby’s Jewels and Noble Jewels sale in Geneva raised a total of CHF 149.85 million (US$ 160.91 million) well in excess of its pre-sale estimate of CHF 87 million with 94 percent of the lots sold.

The result was partly attributable to the setting of a new world record for a ruby, with the "Sunrise Ruby," a 25.59-carat Burmese stone set with diamonds by Cartier, which sold for CHF 28.3 million ($30.3 million), more than double of its CHF 11.7-17.5 million estimate. The price also established a new record both for any ruby per carat and for any stone by Cartier.

The Denver Art Museum's "Brilliant: Cartier in the 20th Century" is a boon for local museum goers who are getting a rare chance to see a sparkling array of jewelry, unsurpassed in craftsmanship and historical significance, and undoubtedly worth tens of millions of dollars.

But, make no mistake, there's a bonus in it for Cartier, too, which stars in the kind of commercial money can't buy. The exhibit focuses on Cartier's success in years past, but the company is still very much in business and happy to sell today's wealthy clients the same sort of shimmering necklaces, rings and watches lit to perfection in DAM's glass boxes.

Sotheby’s announced that it will offer jewels from the collections of Mrs. Estée Lauder and Mrs. Evelyn H. Lauder as part of its Magnificent Jewels auction in New York on 9 December 2014. Thirty-three pieces from the collection of Evelyn H. Lauder will be sold to benefit The Breast Cancer Research Foundation®, an organization that she founded and championed, while 11 pieces from the collection of Estée Lauder will be sold to benefit the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation®. Sotheby’s previously auctioned jewels from the Collections in December 2012 and 2013 to benefit The Breast Cancer Research Foundation.

The jewels on offer this December include designs by Van Cleef & Arpels, Cartier, David Webb, Buccellati, and Oscar Heyman & Brothers – one of Evelyn H. Lauder’s favorite New York jewelers – and are led by one of Cartier’s rare and iconic Tutti Frutti bracelets, made circa 1928 (est. $750,000 / 1 million).

Sotheby’s  “Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels” in Geneva will offer jewels with sought-after royal provenance along with other impressive gems such as a Kashmir sapphire weighing 27.54 carats (Est. $3.0-6.0 million) and the 8.62-carat “Graff Ruby” (Est. $6.8‑9.0 million), as well as exquisite vintage pieces by Cartier and Bulgari.

In total, the 470 assembled lots of the November 12 sale are expected to bring in excess of $62 million.

“We’ve always seen the biennale as an event that requires the exception. We can’t present at the biennale what we would present in our boutique, so our entire collection of over 100 unique pieces has been especially created for the event,” explains Pierre Rainero , image and heritage director at Cartier.

Befitting its nickname of ‘jeweler of kings and the king of jewelers,’ the French house will be presenting at the prestigious Biennale des Antiquaires in Paris a “Royal Collection” inspired by spectacularly-sized gemstones.

Masterpiece London, a high-end art and antiques fair offering an eclectic mix of paintings, design, furniture, and jewelry, kicked off its fifth edition with an exclusive preview on Wednesday, June 25 at the Royal Hospital Chelsea. The fair, which is located near London’s posh Chelsea neighborhood, got off to a strong start thanks to impressive sales and record attendance. Noteworthy visitors included collector Charles Saatchi, interior designers Ellie Cullman and Scott Snyder, fashion designers Zandra Rhodes and Tom Ford, and a number of museum leaders such as Jeffrey Munger, The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Curator of European Porcelain, and Stephen Harrison, the Cleveland Museum of Art’s Curator of Decorative Art and Design.

A positive tone was set early on when Symbolic and Chase (London) sold a 1912 Cartier Corsage for more than $20 million. Other sales highlights during the preview included a pair of chinoiserie cabinets by Vile and Cobb sold by Apter Fredericks (London) to an American collector for a seven figure sum; a portrait of the Countess of Craven sold by Elle Shushan (Philadelphia) to English actress Diana Rigg; and Lynn Chadwick’s “Back to Venice” sculpture that was sold by Osborne Samuel (London) for £250,000. Strong sales are expected to continue through the weekend.

Museums and jewelry enthusiasts are no strangers to Cartier’s greatest bijoux creations, but now, a different sort of show lends insight into one of the house’s greatest American clients and collectors, Marjorie Merriweather Post, once the wealthiest woman in the United States.

Founder of General Foods Inc., Post was a socialite and art collector who in 1973 left her estate with a sizable and exquisite French and Russian art collection featuring the work of Fabergé, Sèvres porcelain, French furniture, tapestries, and numerous paintings. But it is her collection of precious jewels, frames and objets d’art that she amassed from the Parisian jeweler that is on exhibition in “Cartier: Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Dazzling Gems” at her former home, the Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens in Washington D.C., until December 31.

Since Swatch Group purchased Harry Winston in January 2013, it hasn’t revealed much about its plans for the luxury retail brand. However, one thing it has openly done is keep with the Harry Winston tradition of flamboyant purchases of statement diamonds and gems.

On Wednesday, Harry Winston purchased the largest known flawless vivid blue diamond in the world for nearly $23.8 million at Christie’s Geneva Magnificent Jewels sale. The nearly $1,800,000 per carat price paid for the 13.22-carat diamond represents a world record for a blue diamond.