Auctions

Another Top Lot Fails to Sell, This Time at Sotheby’s HK

AuctionsOct 11, 2016

Another Top Lot Fails to Sell, This Time at Sotheby’s HK

A jadeite bangle predicted to go for up to $9 million didn’t sell at the Oct. 4 auction, just two weeks after a headlining piece in New York also failed to meet its reserve price.

20161011_Jadeite-bangle.jpg
This circular jadeite bangle of high translucency and intense emerald green color, which Sotheby’s called “highly important,” was estimated to sell for up to $9 million. It failed to meet its reserve price Oct. 4 in Hong Kong.

Hong Kong--It appears the buyers at auction and the experts giving the jewelry lots their pre-sale estimates are on different pages these days.

For the second time in about a two-week period, the predicted top lot of a jewelry auction failed to sell.

At the Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite sale held at Sotheby’s Hong Kong Oct. 4, the auction house predicted that a “highly important” jadeite bangle would lead the event with a pre-sale estimate of between $6.4 million and $9 million.

Instead, it failed to meet its reserve price, just like a 27-carat oval diamond ring recently did at Sotheby’s New York.

Sotheby’s Hong Kong did not respond to a request for comment on the failed sale by press time.

The top lot of the sale turned out to be a colored gemstone, also mirroring the results of the New York sale.

A ring featuring a 5.07-carat ruby surrounded by four pear-shaped diamonds weighing 7.56 total carats, accented with circular-cut diamonds and mounted in platinum and 18-karat yellow gold, sold for about $1.9 million.

Following the ruby ring were more colored stones, with a matching Bulgari set comprising an emerald and diamond necklace and earrings falling just behind when it garnered approximately $1.8 million, surpassing its pre-sale estimate of $1 million.

A Cartier ring set with a 13.60-carat cut-cornered rectangular step-cut diamond sold for $1.7 million, a VS2 clarity oval fancy vivid yellow diamond of 10.81 carats followed behind at $1.2 million, and two brilliant-cut unmounted diamonds weighing 5.96 and 5.86 carats garnered $1.1 million.



Two jadeite pieces did appear in the top lots--a pair of highly translucent jadeite double hoop earrings surmounted by an oval diamond each weighing 1.01 carats went for approximately $815,000, and a necklace composed of 47 translucent jadeite beads with a clasp set with circular-cut diamonds and calibré-cut rubies sold for about $737,000.

Rounding out the top 10 were a pair of earrings featuring pear-shaped diamonds weighing 5.10 and 5.07 carats that garnered about $691,000; a bracelet comprised of 28 emerald-cut diamonds weighing 57.75 carats total that sold for about $614,000; and a fancy intense yellow, fancy yellow, fancy light yellow and white diamond necklace and earring matching set from Graff that also went for about $614,000.

The sale generated revenues of more than $24.8 million but was only 60 percent sold by lot, with 115 out of 192 lots on offer finding buyers.

The
full list of results from the Oct. 4 auction can be found on Sothebys.com.
Brecken Branstratoris the senior editor, gemstones at National Jeweler, covering sourcing, pricing and other developments in the colored stone sector.

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