Last weekend an auction at New Bond St in London saw some very impressive sales, especially of Cartier jewellery.
The star of the show was a stunning Cartier sautoir, a lengthy necklace combining diamonds and sapphires with three large aquamarines. Its £15,000-20,000 estimate was smashed by the final price of £216,000.
Cartier - which has recently emerged as America's most popular jeweller - did particularly well at the auction. The other vendors, including William Asprey, Boucheron, Buccellati, Bulgari and Van Cleef and Arpels, each had a good day.
In total, 88% of the lots were sold, including diamonds, coloured stones and signed period jewels.
An extremely elegant pair of diamond earrings, each connecting a large lower diamond with a smaller diamond at the top, all brilliant cut (the classic diamond cut with many facets to maximise light return) sold for £120,000.
Another piece which far exceeded its estimate was a ring with an emerald set in diamonds, formerly sold by Cartier around 80 years ago.
The impressive 8.41 step-cut emerald is set atop diamond shoulders, weighing a total of 1.85 carats. It sold for £162,000 despite a guide price of £30,000-40,000.
From the same period, an art deco diamond bracelet with a buckle motif running through brick-line brilliant-cut diamonds (15.80 carats in all) sold for £69,000, easily surpassing its estimate of £20,000-30,000.
Another impossible-to-ignore Cartier piece was a Kashmiri sapphire-in-diamonds ring, in which the cushion cut 2.37 carat sapphire was surrounded by pear-shaped diamonds to create the effect of a beautiful blue eye.
Overall, the sales indicated a very healthy, competitive market for high-end jewellery.
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