Jewellery and watches sparkle at Olympia
Olympia Auctions said that their recent biggest ever sale of jewellery and watches saw results reflecting a strong, international revival of interest in antique and period jewellery.
The sale was the second one this year held by the auction house, with two more due in September and November.
Perhaps inspired by the current V&A Cartier exhibition with its emphasis on Art Deco creations and the use of pearls, bidders fought for the sale’s top lot, a 1920s Cartier pearl necklace. Composed of a graduated row of 87 natural pearls measuring from 8.6 to 3.8mm with a natural pearl and circular-cut diamond cluster clasp, signed Cartier, London, the necklace hammered to a UK dealer for £30,000 – more than double its high estimate.
Olympia Auctions expert Justin Roberts said: “This Fine Jewels and Watches auction realised positive results for antique and period jewels. Natural pearls are seeing continued success at auction along with rare and unusual antique jewels by known goldsmiths with rare provenance.”
Buyers came from the UK, France, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Monaco, Sweden, Kuala Lumpur, USA, Australia, Greece, Dubai, Japan, Belgium. Half of the top 10 lots went to UK trade. UK private buyers accounted for another three, with the remaining two highest lots going to French and Italian private buyers.
Demonstrating the demand for fine period pieces by named goldsmiths, a Louise Weise gold Gothic Revival guard chain of the 1890s sold to a UK dealer for £17,000. The chain is a series quatrefoil links, accented with 14 lozenge shaped links centring on a profile in Medieval headdress and is signed Wiese, the maker’s mark for Louis Wiese 1852-1923.
Louis was the son of Jules Wiese, 1818-1890, principal goldsmith to the Paris firm of Froment-Meurice until the 1860s when he established his own business. In 1862, he exhibited in London winning a gold medal for jewellery in the 16th-century style.
Louis Wiese took over the firm from his father in 1880 and continued replicating jewels in a neo-Classical Renaissance and Gothic taste set with unfaceted stones and treating gold with mercury oxide to create an antique finish.
Also from the 1890s, a Victorian emerald and diamond ring, set with a square emerald between two old mine-cut diamonds, sold for £5,500, well over its estimate of £2,000-3,000, to a UK dealer.
The sale included necklaces of all different styles, periods and materials. A rare “Queen Anne” aquamarine paste necklace from the 1750s sold for £4,800 over an estimate of £1,000-1,500 to a UK dealer. Designed as a uniform row of 19 oval mixed-cut aquamarine pastes with ribbon loop attachments and a detachable pear-shaped aquamarine paste pendant, this was the oldest piece of jewellery in the sale.
By contrast among the top lots were a 21st century diamond line necklace, sold to a private UK buyer for £7,700, and a gold necklace of 1988, designed as a series of brick link panels interspersed with annular connecting links, stamped DM for David Morris which sold to a UK dealer for £5,000.
The market for high quality watches in good condition and by well-known names remains reliably strong and the star of this sale was a McCabe McCarty gold wristwatch, circa 1985, which sold for £13,500, soaring above its £400-600 estimate. McCabe McCarty was a partnership of two bench trained goldsmiths, Peter McCabe and David McCarty, established in 1973. Peter was trained at the Central School of Arts & Crafts, and David worked at Cartier until 1973 when he left to establish his own company. The partnership soon flourished and during the company’s heyday they were supplying all the principal houses in Bond Street including Cartier, Garrard and Asprey, as well as a retail outlet in Japan. With the death of Peter in 1991, David continued the business and the firm still produces special commissions for Heads of State under David McCarty Ltd.
Two gentlemen’s Rolexes performed well. A GMT Master II stainless steel bracelet watch circa 1994 sold for £7,500 to a French private buyer and a Rolex Oyster Perpetual Day-Date gold bracelet watch circa 1974 sold for £7,200 to a UK private buyer.
A good selection of pocket watches proved popular and a Patek Philippe Swiss gold pocket watch, Geneva circa 1922, selling for £4,000 against an estimate of £2,000-3,000. It came in its original brown leather covered box with red velvet lining complete with original replacement glass and, behind the cream silk lining of the lid, its original “Certificate of origin & warranty” signed and dated March 28th. 1922.