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Spring Auctions Showcase Part 6: A Shower of Flowers
Spring flowers were in full effect this auction season with two outstanding multi-color gemstone necklaces.
On April 17, Sotheby’s New York auctioned a beautiful necklace featuring diamonds and colored stones stylized as thirteen anemone flower heads of various hues. The necklace is a combination of 46.86 carats of round near colorless diamonds, 7.45 carats of black, pink and yellow diamonds, in addition to pink sapphires, amethysts, garnets, iolites, pink tourmalines and spinels. This Michele della Valle design sold for $149,000, in line with its estimated value of $125,000 to $175,000.
18 Karat White Gold, Diamond and Colored Stone ‘Anemone’ Necklace, Michele della Valle. Image courtesy of Sotheby’s.
On May 15th, Christie’s in Geneva auctioned a 1961 Bulgari platinum, sapphire and diamond flower necklace at their upcoming “Magnificent Jewels” sale. This necklace, much like the Michele della Valle “anemone” necklace, is designed as a series of graduated flower heads. The stunning floral design is created with circular-cut sapphire petals and pistals as well as oval-shaped diamond pistils and pear-shaped diamond petals . This outstanding piece was estimated to sell between $310,000 to $400,000, and sold for $535,061.
Sapphire and diamond flower necklace, by Bulgari. Image courtesy of Christie’s Images LTD. 2013.
As seen by the two pieces described above, jewelry design strives to mimic nature and is often inspired by nature’s boundless variation of colors and shapes.