Expensive Places

A pearl, diamond and emerald art deco brooch by the renowned jewelers Van Cleef & Arpels was just sold for $1.83 million at Bonhams Fine Jewelry sale. The brooch was estimated at £250,000 – 350,000.

The surmount designed as a geometric labyrinth of old brilliant, step, square, baguette and single-cut diamonds, suspending similarly set highly articulated diamond cascades of unequal length with arrow-shaped terminals, one side with a detachable drop-shaped emerald pendant with rose-cut diamond cap and double-sided lozenge-shaped diamond surmount, the central chain of five natural pearls terminating in a detachable drop-shaped pearl pendant with pierced rose-cut diamond cap and sugarloaf cabochon emerald surmount, diamonds weigh 17.70 carats total, emerald drop weighs 13.57 carats, emerald sugarloaf cabochon weighs 0.70 carat, drop-shaped pearl approximately 56 grains, mounted in platinum, signed Van Cleef & Arpels, numbered 28051, French assay marks, length 11.7cm

A strong demand for works from the Arts & Crafts period could be seen throughout the Bonhams fall auction of 20th Century Decorative Arts (October 1). This sale brought more than $1.1-million and one of the highlights was ‘Bead Bird’ figure by Finnish artist, Birger Kaipiainen (est. $20,000-30,000, sold for $55,000).

The bird was acquired by the consignor in 1960 at the Arabia store in Helsinki, Finland.

In 1958 Kaipiainen returned to Arabia and this is when he began work on his famous beaded birds. These rare birds were crafted out of thousands of handmade beads created by Kaipiainen’s assistant, Terho Reijonen. In 1960, Kaipiainen’s large bead birds (curlews) were exhibited at the Milan Triennale where they won a Grand Prix. A version of the bird in the offered lot was put on a Finnish stamp, a testament to Kaipiainen’s notoriety in the region.

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A rare bottle of Rémy Martin Black Pearl Cognac (estimated at US$ 7,900 – 11,000) will be offered at Bonhams Fine & Rare wines sale on 13th September at New Bond Street, London. The history of this unusual Cognac is very interesting: after several years traveling the world on a luxury cruise-liner in the on-board shopping mall it was purchased by an experienced South African bar manager. He spotted the bottle while cruising across the Mediterranean and, realizing its importance and rarity, he bought it and sent it from Greece to South Africa for safe-keeping.

The Cognac, a ‘Louis XIII de Remy Martin’, is made using a special blend of 1200 eaux de vie, between 40 and 100 years old and is aged in ancient oak barrels. It is produced from grapes grown in the Grande Champagne territory, at the innermost heart of the Cognac region.

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After Bonhams May sale, which included sixty-four pristine Hermès bags, realizing a total of £562,750 now all eyes are on the Bonhams Jewelry sale in Knightsbridge, London on 28th November, where eighteen iconic Hermès handbags from a private collection will come to auction.

One of the highlights of the collection for sale in November is a red crocodile Birkin bag (named after British actress Jane Birkin), estimated at £28,000 – 30,000. Other handbags cover a range of Hermès most popular designs, including a mini Kelly bag (named after Grace Kelly, who in 1956 had just become Princess of Monaco) in miel crocodile, estimated at £15,000 – 20,000, a blue ostrich Bolide bag, estimated at £6,000 – 8,000, several Constance bags and a custom-made special order Birkin bag.

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On August 17th in Carmel, California, The 1895 Buffum 4-Cylinder Stanhope, the world’s oldest four-cylinder car will be presented at auction by Bonhams.

Displayed for decades at the Princeton Auto Museum in Massachusetts (one of the first auto museums in the country) and later at the Owl’s Head Transportation Museum in Maine, now it is for he first time it has ever been offered for sale to the public.

The estimate value of this rare Buffum automobile is US$ 250,000 – 350,000.

According to Bonhams (one of the world’s largest auctioneers of fine art and antiques), ‘Birkin’ Bentley at £5 million is most expensive British car ever sold at auction.

The ex-Sir Henry ‘Tim’ Birkin 1929 4 ½-liter supercharged ‘Blower’ Bentley single-seater, which when new raised the Brooklands Outer Circuit record to 137mph. It sold for £5,042,000, the highest price achieved for a British car sold at auction.

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