Rock Solid

November 2009 Datebook

Bucking Convention

Miles of Aisles

My Brilliant Career: Lynda Benglis

Movers & Shakers

Remembrance of Things Past

Christopher Brown

Unfamiliar Territory

Conversation With RoseLee Goldberg

A Man of Many Stripes

Shattering Stereotypes

Secret Stash

Good Times

Elevating Iron

In the Air

Also This Month

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Christie’s Geneva: Judging by the enormous, and enormously pricey, diamonds in the upcoming sales, confidence has returned to the jewelry auction market. The November 18 Christie’s sale in Geneva contains a D-color flawless pear-shaped diamond weighing 62.30 carats, estimated to bring between SF6.6 million and SF8.8 million ($6-8 million). "It’s sensibly priced at $100,000 per carat, which for such a rare stone is excellent value," says Raymond Sancroft-Baker, the house’s European jewelry director. "And there is nothing of this size or quality readily available elsewhere in the market."

Christie’s Hong Kong: Color reigns in the Christie’s Hong Kong sale on December 1. Here, a five-carat vivid pink cushion-cut diamond ring, from the renowned London jeweler Graff is estimated to bring $5 million to $7 million, while an eye-popping 16.65-carat cushion-cut Kashmir sapphire ring by Van Cleef & Arpels, is estimated to fetch $700,000 to $1 million.

Sotheby’s Geneva: Sotheby’s is counting on stunning period jewelry with elite provenances to carry its November Geneva auctions. The house’s November 17 session features glittering treasures from the collection of the legendary tastemaker Daisy Fellowes, heiress to the Singer sewing machine fortune. Among the 400 lots are 25 from Cartier, the French-American fashion icon’s favored purveyor, including an exquisite 1940 iris brooch by that jeweler, set with sapphires, emeralds and diamonds (est. SF160-260,000; $150-250,000). A late 19th-century ruby and diamond necklace from the estate of Mary, duchess of Roxburghe carries a wide-open estimate of SF540,000 to SF1 million ($500-950,000), indicating that the auction house hopes to lure jewelry dealers after the stones as well as collectors interested in the piece as an antique.

"Rock Solid" originally appeared in the November 2009 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's November 2009 Table of Contents.