Sotheby’s Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite autumn sale held on 7 October 2015 achieved a total of HK$ 486,476,250 with exceptional results. The Jewel of Kashmir, a 27.68-carat Kashmir sapphire and diamond ring, and the Cowdray Pearls, natural grey pearl necklace smashed world auction records.
The top lot sapphire ring was sold for HK$ 52.28 million and US$ 242,145 per carat, hitting a world record price per carat for a Kashmir sapphire. Apart from the emerald-cut sapphire weighing 27.68 carats, the ring was surrounded by a double set of pear-shaped diamonds weighing approximately 5.70 carats, mounted in 18-karat white gold.
The Cowdray Pearls necklace and earrings mounted by Cartier London andsold for HK$ 41.08 million fetched a world record for a natural grey pearl necklace. Thenecklace is composed of 42 graduated natural grey pearls measuring approximately 12.90 to 6.65mm, completed by a clasp set with a rectangular mixed-cut diamond. The pair of earrings was set with a button-shaped natural grey pearl, surrounded with single- and brilliant-cut diamonds.
Quek Chin Yeow, deputy chairman of Sotheby’s Asia and chairman of International Jewellery, Asia said: “We are very much delighted with the results of this sale, with the Cowdray Pearls setting a world auction record for natural grey pearl necklace and the Kashmir sapphire achieving a world auction record price per carat for Kashmir sapphire – the latest of an incredible string of records since our October 2014 sale in Hong Kong in which the same record was broken twice, illustrating the rapidly growing demand for sapphires from this prestigious origin. Throughout the sale there was broad-based participation by Asian privates along with international trade. The top 10 lots show a great variety ranging from coloured stones, diamonds, and pearls to jewels of aristocratic provenance, with coloured diamonds selling well over their high estimates. We are also particularly pleased that the historic Dowager Viscountess Harcourt Diamond Necklace went to Tiffany & Co, who first purchased the 28 diamonds on the necklace at the 1887 French Crown Jewels auction in Paris.”
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