The Scoop With Christie’s Henry Bailey: On the Hidden Gem in the London Jewels Auction

I don’t know anything about auctions or really about jewelry. Could you educate me? How many pieces are in this sale? How often do you do sales? How does it all work?

So there are 197 pieces in the sale. We have a jewels sale twice a year — one in June and another in November. Often, when it comes to selling jewelry, people ask which sale is better; June or November? But there is no better or worse really. We sell in those months because we often exhibit our selection of jewels in Geneva in May and earlier in November. So it’s a good way of giving our jewels more exposure.

And I suppose a lot of curation goes into each sale?

Very much so. Since we only have two auctions a year, we need to be fairly selective about the pieces that go into them. We typically have 200 lots in each sale, which sounds a lot, but it’s actually not. We make sure those 200 lots include antique jewels, some more unusual pieces, and then obviously natural pearls and colored gemstones — like sapphires, rubies, emeralds, but also topaz, paraiba tourmalines, spinels, and aquamarines.

There also needs to be certificated diamonds; white diamonds and colored diamonds. In this sale, we’ve got a selection of pink diamonds and also a very impressive 66-carat orange brown briolette-cut diamond.

But then another tranche, if you like, is signed jewelry. By that I mean pieces by Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Boucheron, Bvlgari… there is a universal appetite for these huge brand names across the world. And we sell both contemporary jewels by these brands as well as their heritage pieces.

We have been writing so much about personal style. The algorithm and quiet luxury killed it, but it now looks like people are trying to reclaim theirs. In that vein, have you noticed a desire for more characterful pieces?

We’ve seen a heightened interest in these pieces over the last few years, but it’s hard to pinpoint that to any one reason. What I certainly have noticed change in the world of auctions is that everything turned digital in the post-Covid era.

Firstly, there’s so much information about fine jewelry available, so there is much more awareness. Secondly, and most importantly, our sales are now mostly digital. Even when it comes to live sales, a lot of the bidding takes place online. Everybody’s behavior online has become far more transactional since Covid. And now our audience has exponentially grown, too. Thirty, 40 years ago we were printing catalogs and sending them in the post to collectors who were largely experts in fine jewels. Whereas today, we put our auction online and the interest is coming from all over the world.

So there are no gavels and paddles anymore?

These are still very much part of the process. In Geneva, Hong Kong and New York we have what we call Magnificent sales, which see a small number of exceptional pieces go ‘under the hammer’. But a lot of the bidding for those sales is also done online. The pieces in these sales are generally $250,000 and upwards, so when it makes sense, we use the theater of the auction as a strategy to make it feel more special.