Displaying items by tag: pearl

An 8.62-carat ruby set a record auction price as Sotheby’s (BID) concluded a $95 million sale of jewelry last night in Geneva, including a pearl necklace probably once owned by Napoleon Bonaparte’s first wife.

British billionaire jeweler Laurence Graff bid $8.6 million for the Graff Ruby, which he had previously owned, and he also spent $3.2 million on a 3.16-carat intense-blue diamond ring, the auction house said. The necklace, made of 111 pearls, sold for $3.4 million, more than double the high estimate.

Bonhams raked in a total of £4.2 million ($7.1 million) at its fine jewelry sale on April 30 in London, on the back of its top three lots doubling and tripling their estimates.

The star of the sale was an exquisite Colombian emerald ring, of 10.49 carats and set between diamond shoulders, that brought $610,039, or more than triple its high estimate.