Carat39 of 48 lots away in Sydney, and the diamond still waits
Bonhams' Fine Jewellery sale opened in Sydney at 18:00 AEST with 135 lots. At New York press time 39 of the first 48 had sold. The AU$120,000 to AU$180,000 diamond had not been reached.
§1Reading the board mid-sale.
Bonhams began its Fine Jewellery sale in Sydney at 18:00 AEST on 25 August, which is 04:00 in New York, and this desk read the house's own live board two hours later. Of the first 48 lots, 39 carried a result. Lot 11, a Concord 18ct gold and diamond lady's bracelet watch estimated at AU$10,000 to AU$15,000, is marked withdrawn. The remaining eight showed their estimates and no price. This desk states that as what the board showed rather than as eight lots bought in, because a live page can lag the room. All prices below are as the house publishes them, inclusive of a buyer's premium it states at 23% on the hammer.
The headline lot had not been reached. The unmounted diamond leading the sale is a 4.74 carat round brilliant, D colour and internally flawless, and Bonhams' own catalogue carries it at AU$120,000 to AU$180,000. Rapaport reported the sale on 23 August with the upper estimate alone, at AU$180,000 or about $129,030, and this desk adds the lower figure from the house. It is the only lot in a 135-lot sale estimated above AU$100,000, and the house's own filter confirms the catalogue's range runs from AU$1,000 to AU$180,000. A single six-figure stone in a sale of that length is the shape of a volume auction with one trophy attached, not a trophy sale.
§2What cleared in two hours.
What sold in the first two hours priced like a retail floor rather than a saleroom. Two lots tied for the top of the run at AU$55,350, a Van Cleef & Arpels white gold and diamond Frivole necklace and an Alhambra necklace from the same maison, both estimated at AU$30,000 to AU$50,000 and both clearing above the high estimate. A Hardy Brothers emerald and diamond ring took AU$19,680, a Cerrone diamond ring AU$18,450 and a Chopard Les Chaines bracelet AU$15,990. Below that the sale ran in the low thousands: a Bulgari B.zero1 pendant necklace at AU$4,920, a Mouawad diamond pendant at AU$2,337, a cultured pearl necklace at AU$1,599.
The market is buying a maison, not a carat weight.
§3The eight without a price.
The eight lots without a result do not sit in one price band, which is the finding. They run from a gem-set, cultured pearl and diamond bracelet estimated at AU$2,000 to AU$4,000 up to a diamond line bracelet at AU$40,000 to AU$60,000, and they include a sapphire and diamond cluster ring at AU$25,000 to AU$35,000, a colour-change sapphire pendant at AU$16,000 to AU$19,000 and an emerald and diamond ring at AU$15,000 to AU$20,000. So the run did not fail at the top and clear at the bottom. What is true is narrower and still useful: the three largest estimates anywhere in the first 48 lots are all among the eight without a price, and none of the eight carries a maison name. Bonhams does not publish estimates against lots once they have sold, so this desk cannot say what the 39 that cleared were expected to make, and does not.
This is a sale being decided by names rather than stones. The two lots that beat their high estimates were both Van Cleef, and the unsigned goods in the same price band went unsold. A branded quatrefoil necklace clearing AU$55,350 while a diamond line bracelet estimated at AU$40,000 finds no bidder is a market telling you it is buying a maison, not a carat weight. The 4.74 carat D internally flawless stone still to come is the test of that reading, because it has no name on it at all. This desk will carry the result when the house publishes it, and not before.
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