SOTHEBY'S HONGKONG SOLD KASHMIRI SAPPHIRE RING FOR RM 30 MILLION AND NATURAL GREY PEARL NECKLACE FOR RM 22 MILLION, EACH SETTING A NEW WORLD RECORD

KEE@FSWMAG.COM

Sotheby’s Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels and Jadeite Autumn Sale on 7 October Totalled HK$486.5 m / US$62.3 m / CHF 60.6 m* 

Top Lot The Jewel of Kashmir, a 27.68-carat Kashmir Sapphire and Diamond Ring Sold for HK52.28 m / US$6,702,564 / CHF 6,517,510 (US$242,145 / Carat) World Auction Record Price Per Carat For A Kashmir Sapphire  

The Cowdray Pearls Sold for HK41.08 m / US$5,266,667 / CHF 5,121,257 World Auction Record For A Natural Grey Pearl Necklace

  

The Dowager Viscountess Harcourt Diamond Necklace  Purchased By Tiffany & Co.  For HK$12.08 m / US$1,548,718 / CHF 1,505,959     
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 at HK$41.08 million and a 27.68-carat Kashmir sapphire achieving a world auction record price per carat for Kashmir sapphire at US$242,145 per carat. 

"This is 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 ten 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 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.” 
    

 Previous World Auction Record for a Natural Grey Pearl Necklace - The Cowdray Pearls sold for US$3,353,661 in London in June 2012.
  
 Previous World Auction Record Price Per Carat For A Sapphire - A circular-cut Kashmir sapphire of 10.33 carats sold for HK$19,160,000 / US$2,483,136 (US$240,381 per carat) in Hong Kong in May 2015.  This came after an incredible string of record-breaking Kashmir sapphires.  

In April 2014 in New York, Sotheby’s set a price-per-carat record for any sapphire at US$180,731, with a 28.18 carat Kashmir sapphire ring.  

That price-per-carat record was broken twice in the same sale in October 2014 at Sotheby’s Hong Kong – first with lot 1752, a Cartier ring centering a 12.00-carat Kashmir sapphire that brought US$193,975 per carat, and then later in the sale with lot 1938, a ring centering a 17.16-carat Kashmir sapphire that brought US$236,404 per carat.
    
 Tiffany & Co. and The Dowager Viscountess Harcourt Diamond Necklace - The Dowager Viscountess Harcourt Diamond Necklace features 28 diamonds from the French Crown Jewels auction in Paris in 1887.  

Tiffany, the famed American jeweller purchased at the auction 28 old mine-cut diamonds, from the diamond chains of the Great Comb à Pampilles.  These diamonds were sold a week later to Junius S Morgan, patriarch of the famous banking family in England.  

They were later passed on to Morgan’s young granddaughter, Mary Ethel Burns in 1888.  Mary Burns, who became Viscountess Harcourt upon her marriage, had the diamond chains remounted into the present necklace around 1900.      
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