By David Brough
Rare shapes in coloured diamonds achieved strong results in Sotheby’s live Geneva Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels sale Part II on June 23, 2020.
The top-selling lot, a marquise-shaped, 7-carat, fancy-intense-pink diamond ring, sold for $2.8 million, within its $2.4-3.4 million estimate.
“The marquise intense-pink sold, compared to other pinks such as a 4-carat fancy-pink pear shape (that didn’t sell),” Bruno Scarselli of New York-based Scarselli Diamonds said in a Jewellery Outlook webinar on June 24.
“Seeing a marquise in such a colour and saturation is quite rare.”
A grey-blue diamond outperformed for similar reasons, added Scarselli.
The pear-shaped, 5.29-carat, fancy-grey-blue diamond ring fetched $2.1 million, beating its $1.2 million high estimate.
Such intensity of colour is rarely found in an old cut pear shape, Scarselli said.
“It is easier to derive colour from a radiant or a cushion, but it is pretty tough to contain the right amount of colour in a pear shape that is cut according to ancient rules of manufacturing,” he said.
A number of exceptional jewels failed to sell, underlining that the market is still hard hit by COVID-19. The Sotheby’s sale, the first live auction since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic, took place under strict social distancing measures. Sotheby’s Part I sale was held online.
In late April, at the height of the lockdown, Sotheby’s sold a Cartier 1930s Tutti Frutti bracelet for $1.3 million, the highest price achieved for a jewel sold online, underscoring the resilience at the top end of the high-value jewellery auctions market.
