When I heard over the summer that another auction of Elizabeth Taylor’s possessions was taking place in December I was elated! I remembered her last sale and the fun I have had since see her jewelry reappear on the auction block.
This sale was a little different. It was suppose to show the star’s fun side. So when the catalog appeared on Julien’s Auction website I combed through looking at the history and for the jewelry. There were a few pieces but not to the level of her last sale.
The Piece That Didn’t Sell
I did think that most if not all pieces would sell. So I wasn’t surprised to see a few unsold items but did wonder why a particular item went unsold. The item I am referring to was the first item up for auction. The Cartier belt engraved as a gift to Elizabeth’s mother. The estimate was $10,000-$20,000.
The engraving was written in Elizabeth’s own hand. The inscription reads: “To My ‘Hippy’ / Mom / All my love / Elizabeth” . A sentimental piece that was the first item to be passed over at the auction.
Is the Marketing Wrong?
If you are in the retail business or follow marketing articles, retailers are always being told that a compelling story can set your product and business above the rest. A way to differentiate your self is to have a unique story. You probably have read other articles with the same advice.
Over the next year I am going to look deeper into this auction and the other Elizabeth Taylor auction that was over 8 years ago at Christie’s. I will also be looking at other auction data and seeing if there would have been a better way to have presented this item so it might have sold or is this an indication of something else.
Thank you for reading. I plan to get back to a regular blogging schedule for 2020! Happy Elizabeth Taylor Tuesday!
Recently I saw an Instagram Ad by the company Invaluable, about looking at some of their auction pieces. They picked a few pieces from the estate of Elvis Presley to display to me. I have looked at some of Presley’s estate pieces on auction before. I looked at the auction in total and saw an interesting article from the past, a restraining order given to Eddie Fisher by Elizabeth Taylor! A little bit of research had me discovering that 55 years ago this month Taylor and Fisher were finally divorced. The exact date is March 6, 1954.
I’m going to look at some of the jewels Eddie Fisher bought for his
second wife, Elizabeth Taylor. The story behind the jewels and the end of the
marriage that lead to the restraining order on auction now.
Birthday Surprise
The story told by Taylor was that she and her new lover Richard Burton agreed to take a break from their affair about the time that Taylor was celebrating her 30th birthday. Burton did not send so much as a flower over to Taylor in recognition of her birthday. Eddie Fisher was aware of the affair his wife was having with her costar and wanted to try and save her marriage by buying some jewelry from Bulgari. The three pieces below consist of colored and white diamonds.
End of the Marriage
These pieces did not change Taylor’s mind about the marriage and soon
she had left Fisher and wanted a divorce. In Taylor’s book, My Love Affair with
Jewelry, Taylor claimed after the separation Fisher sent her the bill for the
pieces. She did pay it. They are beautiful pieces that were seen from time to
time on Taylor.
The Bulgari jewels that were the more iconic pieces of Taylor’s were the emerald pieces bought by Burton. The prices at auction for 5 of the Bulgari emerald pieces ranged from $3 million- $6 million. There was one emerald piece that was Bulgari but only sold for $1.5 million (buyer’s premium included). This emerald and diamond flower brooch. It was purchased by Eddie Fisher, you can read more on it here.
Elizabeth is wearing the brooch with earrings bought by Burton and you can feel the tension as Fisher tries hard to keep Taylor happy. The brooch still did well above its $200,000-$300,000 estimate. For those interested the emerald earrings did 16 times better than the high estimate of $200,000!
The Current Auction
The restraining order has Eddie Fisher as the plaintiff with a signature by Elizabeth Taylor-Burton as the defendant. A restraining order filed after she married Richard Burton, which I found interesting. The end of the relationship with Eddie was frightening for Elizabeth. An article claims that Taylor woke up with a gun to her head by Fisher. Fisher didn’t pull the trigger saying she was too pretty to kill. Taylor left with her children after that. This is not the only restraining order, Heritage auctions sold one from around the time of this one several years ago.
Will be interesting to see if anyone bids on the document and how much
it goes for. What do you think of the jewelry Eddie picked? If you had the
funds would you have paid the bill in the divorce? Thank you for visiting and I
hope you visit Data in the Rough next week!
From my last post, I mentioned going to New York at the beginning of the week to buy a book at Tiffany & Co and to see the previews of the auctions at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. As I wait for the dust to settle on the auctions, I want to point out a piece I saw while at Christie’s that I had seen before. I went to view the Exceptional Watches at Christie’s after seeing the Magnificent Jewels. I like historical pieces and found a few watches that were owned by famous people. One was a pocket watch owned by former President Franklin D. Roosevelt; the other a Cartier tank watch owned by former first lady Jackie Kennedy.
You may remember this watch featured prominently in articles a little over a year ago when it was auctioned in June of 2017. It also made headlines when the highest bidder was identified as Kim Kardashian. I will be honest, that news did not make me happy. Seeing this watch that belonged to a classy, dignified woman now owned by a woman that would not know class or how to spell it if her life depended on it was a bit depressing. Imagine my surprise and delight to see the watch back in the case at Christie’s on Monday!
I shared the find with my friend and fellow blogger Jill of Everything Just So, who wrote an amazing article on Jackie Kennedy’s Cartier watch when it was auctioned last year, click here to read her piece and see some great detailed photos!
I went back online to see if I could find more details to Jackie Kennedy’s Cartier watch and came up short. I decided to write Christie’s about seeing the watch and got the answer I was looking for. It was for sale but is not being auctioned. It is going through Christie’s Private Sales to find a buyer. I would need to contact a specialist if I was interested in purchasing it, I did not go any further in my contacts, so I do not know what price the seller is looking for or why it is for sale.
Here are some details from the auction in June 2017.
As you can see the watch went for over 3 times the high estimate (buyer’s premium included).
If this was an investment piece, I feel it is a little early to turn it back to the market. I have looked at some articles on investing in watches. This one answers the question Are Watches a Good Investment? I know that luxury goods like handbags are a way to diversify your investments. The other article I looked at lists 12 Things to Consider before Investing in Watches. The last point being patience when selling.
Let me know your thoughts on Jackie Kennedy’s Cartier watch. Do you invest in watches or other luxury goods? Return for more Data in the Rough, as I look at the auction results with a deeper analysis next week!
Sotheby’s first online auction dedicated to a single designer, Michele della Valle ended last Monday. In this post I will look at the results of the auction and what can be learned.
Non si può mai attraversare l’oceano se non si ha il coraggio di perdere di vista la riva.
The above saying in English is: You can never cross the ocean until you have the courage to lose sight of the shore. That saying feels right when talking about the recent online fine jewelry auction held by Sotheby’s. I will look at the sold versus unsold items and their statistics as a whole, then break it down by type and finally look at some individual pieces that did well at the auction. Also read my predictions and thoughts before the results here.
Sold vs. Unsold (All)
Out of the 111 items designed by Michele della Valle for this online auction only 66 sold. The percentage was 59% sold, 41% unsold. So over half meet the reserve and were sold. The items bid on meet reserve, but what were some of the basic statistics like average dollars of the sold item or number of bids? Below is a table answering that. Note dollars in Swiss Francs (CHF).
The average item sold for 7,884 and had about 6 bids. The most frequent price that sold was 7,500 and the lot had only 2 bids.
To get more detailed we need to look at the results by type.
Sold vs. Unsold (by type)
Above is a table with the counts of lots by type. Earrings were the biggest category at 44 out of 111 lots, next were brooches, then rings. Rings did very well, all but one lot were sold. A table below looks at it by percentage.
Only 38% of brooches sold, earrings saw 32% of their lots unsold. I’m looking more closely at types with ten or more lots to get a better feel of the category. I also looked at the min/max dollars for the sold lots.
Earrings had the largest range, going for as low as 3,000 CHF up to 27,500 CHF.
So, what were some of these high priced items?
Lot with the highest bid
That was a pair of earrings, lot 22, that sold for 27,500 CHF
Lot with the most bids
Lot 14 that had 24 bids, a blue topaz ring.
Piece highest above estimate
There are pieces that are unexpected in what they go for. In this auction a few types did better than others. A table with the break out below.
The rings did the best overall, being 1.6 times higher than the estimates. Earrings were next at 1.33 times. The piece that did better than estimated was lot 97, a pair of earrings that sold for 8.2 times above what Sotheby’s estimated. The final price sold was 21,500 CHF. The estimate was between 1800-2600.
Final thoughts
Obviously, the sale could have gone better, more pieces sold, bids higher, etc. Sotheby’s did a lot right in promoting this auction; they put the auction in their emails and had a video highlighting some pieces. What do I think they could have done better? Educating people on who Michele della Valle is and why his work is something that should be collected. Town and Country just put out about designers to collect, giving some context to where the market is going.
From my quote above, somethings you take those risks and swim out alone. Sometimes those risks work out and other times you need a life guard to steer you to a better path. If you are looking for some guidance in your small business strategy send me an email ([email protected]). Let me know what you’re thinking of trying or challenges you are facing. Until then thank you for reading and I hope you return soon for more Data in the Rough!
Skinner Important Jewelry Auction results are in! There are many ways to look at the data. In the interest of time I am focusing on how signed pieces did versus the unsigned pieces offered. I will look at my previous observations on Evelyn Clothier and Aldo Cipullo, the top 5 items above their estimate, and overall signed versus unsigned.
A look back at my highlights
In my previous post, Evelyn Clothier had the most signed pieces at the Skinner Important Jewelry Auction. So how did her pieces do? Below is a table showing how her pieces sold at auction. Note results do not include buyer’s premium.
Evelyn’s pieces did well 18 out of 19 pieces sold. The piece that did better than its estimate, Lot 220 the gem-set necklace I highlighted in the other post. This necklace was only expected to bring in around $7,000 it brought in $18,450, 2.6 times better than the high estimate.
Gem-set Necklace, Evelyn Clothier
A little over half exceeded the high estimate. The item that didn’t sell was also the only bracelet offered by the designer. I tried it on and thought it was a sweet piece, so that was a little surprising.
The results of the next designer shocked me, Aldo Cipullo. The monkey and unicorn brooches that I was excited to see, were beautiful in person. A few pictures of them below.
Neither of these pieces sold. I really thought the unicorn would with an estimate between $5,000-$7,000, seemed reasonable. The monkey I thought was a bit too high, estimated for $15,000-$20,000. Still the unique design I thought would drive some interest.
Included is a table with designers that had more than 1 piece at auction and what percent sold.
There are several designers that either sold 100% or they sold less than half. David Webb had 3 pieces but only 1 sold. Are there other designer’s above that you wonder about the results?
Top 5 Lots
What were the top 5 items that did better than estimated? The top item was Lot 24, an Art Nouveau Turquoise Necklace.
Below is the table with the details.
If you notice only one designer made this list. One pair of Opal earrings by Andrew Grima. Andrew Grima has done well at past auctions in London and New York. Seeing his name make it in the top 5 did not surprise me. I was intrigued that a few more signed pieces did not do better than the unsigned ones.
18kt Gold and Opal Earrings, Andrew Grima
Signed versus Unsigned
How important is it that a piece is signed? The best answer is it depends. For example, pieces attributed to a designer, especially a well known designer like David Webb, that are not signed would not be as valuable to a collector. For Skinner the unsigned pieces sold better than the signed ones. I broke the numbers into three parts.
Top: The actual numbers, there were more unsigned pieces than signed. There were also more sold than unsold.
Middle: Percent of Sold and Unsold, overall 80% of the items sold, which is where the number is usually at from previous auctions.
Bottom: Percent of Signed/Unsigned lots sold vs unsold, Of the Sold Items 60% were unsigned, for Unsold the percentage is the same at 59% for unsigned pieces.
Platinum and Diamond Pendant/Brooch, set with old European-, full-, and rose-cut diamonds
So are unsigned pieces better? Skinner has lots of lots that are antique from Edwardian to Art Nouveau at their auctions, these pieces are usually unsigned and highly desirable for their design and beauty. The other side is that the signed pieces are not always as flashy as pieces from Christie’s or Sotheby’s, they are a bit more every day.
Conclusion
Storytelling is important. The designer pieces, especially Evelyn Clothier’s could have sold much better if there was a bit of context about the designer and pieces. This 19-piece collection was the perfect opportunity to spotlight the designer and make her story known. This collection was also owned by the same person. A talk or interview from the owner on what their relationship was and why so many pieces were bought, would have been one idea I would have tried to get more interest. I feel Skinner dropped the ball on this unique opportunity to focus on an American woman designer that has won several design awards and had her jewelry used on the red carpet. If you struggle to think of ways to differentiate yourself or your product contact me for ways to break out of the same old gimmicks and try something else.
Thank you and I look forward to you reading more from Data in the Rough!
If you follow my Instagram you probably have noticed I skew a little to the Italian designers. When I saw this auction of one of my favorite Italian jewelry designers, Michele della Valle I knew I would need to share it on my blog. I’m going to focus on what is being offered and what this type of auction means for the future of online auctions.
The Designer
Michele della Valle, opened his first shop in 1978 located in Rome. He work some with Bulgari before moving to Geneva in 1987. His work is frequently found in auction houses. I learned about him from seeing his work first hand at Christie’s and Sotheby’s. His work is not only inspired by nature but he likes to feature modern icons and pop culture references, like the Facebook ‘like’ pin below.
Lapis lazuli, enamel and diamond brooch, ‘I Like’
His jewelry is fun and bright. I imagine the designer as fun and not taking himself or his jewelry too seriously. Below are a few pieces from the auction that caught my eye. All photos from Sothebys.
Pair of cultured pearl, tsavorite garnet and ruby ear clips
Pair of tsavorite garnet and ruby ear clips, ‘Frogs’
Ruby and diamond ring
Pair of gem set and diamond pendent ear clips, ‘Fragoline’
The Auction
This is not only the first online-auction of Michele della Valle at Sotheby’s but I can not recall an auction dedicated to one designer. There are auctions of celebrities and personal collections of prominent people but not of a lone designer. Not only is this the first one dedicated to a designer, the auction house collaborated with him to create pieces to sell in this online auction. I find that interesting. Sotheby’s has really been trying new ideas to get more interest in auctions. They even have had auctions with no buyer’s premium, which I love that idea. I’m not sure what the process was for picking Michele della Valle for this trial run in the online market, but I am excited to see how the auction turns out.
Gem set and diamond pendant, ‘Cat’
I have done a little analysis on what is being offered. I am only looking at lots and estimates, the auction does not close until October 1. Below is a table with the type of jewelry, number of lots, and minimum/maximum estimates. As you see earrings top the number of lots at 44 of 111 offered. I think this makes sense earrings are easier to fit than a ring. The prices range from $630-$21,000. The currency is actually in Swiss Francs (CHF) but I converted to USD for this post.
Future Trends for Auctions
This auction I think will be the beginning of more collaborations between designers and auction houses. What does this mean to a designer that wishes to be involved in something like this? One, branding will be more important to a designer and an auction house wanting to entice collectors. Designers will need a strong social media presence and clearer branding to stand out from this saturated industry. Second, a better understanding of the customer in mind. I don’t know what went into creating and designing these pieces for the auction, but I guess that Sotheby’s and Michele della Valle had a sense of who they were designing for. If you do not know who your customer is selling to them will be very difficult and many resources will be wasted.
Opal, tsavorite and diamond brooch, ‘Koala’
If you need a better social media strategy or content to present, then send me an email to talk about ways to improve your business. I will follow up on this auction to see how these pieces fared. Have you heard of this designer? Has anyone read the book that came out in 2014 on his jewelry? If you are interested in bidding or seeing more Lots click here. Until then thank you for reading Data in the Rough!
It’s that time again! In a previous post I mention some of auction houses having only online fine jewelry this month. Skinner Auctions in Boston will be having their auction and preview of Important Jewelry this month. Looking through the lots online before going to the preview, I noticed quite a few by Evelyn Clothier. It felt like she was the most listed designer in the 355 lots from this auction. Being an analyst, I had to see if that was right. I did not go through counting all the designers by myself, I used a little help from excel to get a tally. The list below of designers with 2 or more items in the auction:
Looks like this time I was right! Evelyn Clothier has the most pieces at auction in this sale at 19! Next is Cartier at 11. Evelyn Clothier is not the only new name for me I have not recalled much from Arthur King or Barbara Anton. Seeing Evelyn Clothier name so much I had to look again at all her pieces and find out a little more about her.
Evelyn Clothier, Fine Art of Award-Winning Design
That title was not made by me, Evelyn Clothier’s website lists her numerous AGTA Spectrum Awards. She also had her jewelry sold in Bergdorf Goodman. The website has her pieces listed and a place to contact her. I did not find too much else about her like how long she has been in the business to what inspires her.
I did look to see if she had been sold at Skinner before, she had one piece at the Dec. 2011 auction. A pair of Aquamarine earrings that went unsold. A side note: these earrings were the winners of the 2011 AGTA Spectrum Awards. (All photos courtesy of Skinner Auctions)
A few of Evelyn Clothier’s designed jewels that will be sold on September 25th, that I am excited to see:
18kt Gold and Enamel Brooch, Evelyn Clothier
Gem-set Necklace, Evelyn Clothier
18kt Gold, Plique-a-Jour Enamel, and Diamond Brooch, Evelyn Clothier
18kt Gold and Plique-a-Jour Enamel Dragonfly Brooch, Evelyn Clothier
A few more thoughts on the auction
I’m eager to see how all the pieces do. Two pieces that are on the top of my list to see are both by Aldo Cipullo. They are of a unicorn and monkey made in the 1970s.
18kt Gold, Enamel, and Gem-set Unicorn Brooch, Aldo Cipullo
18kt Gold, Gem-set, and Enamel Brooch, Aldo Cipullo
Let me know what you think of the pieces. Have you heard or seen some of Evelyn Clothier’s work? What other designers listed would you like to know more about? Follow my Instagram over the weekend as I go to Skinner Auctions to see these pieces up close! And return to see my analysis of this auction on Data in the Rough!
As summer comes to an end Fall auctions are fast approaching. Instead of the auctions taking place around the world more auctions of Fine Jewelry are happening online. Read more to see how Christie’s and Sotheby’s are adapting to the change in technology and what this means for the public.
I don’t go too often to New York in the Summer, it’s hot, crowded and the jewelry industry slows down over this season. What I do look forward to is my treks up to the Big Apple to see some major bling in the Fall.
In 2016 I went to both Christie’s and Sotheby’s for their September Fine Jewelry Auctions. Christie’s had a preview of their online jewels and the Private Collection of President and Mrs. Ronald Reagan, that was sold in NYC.
A few highlights from Mrs. Reagan’s Collection:
Bulgari Ring
Sotheby’s had plenty to see too. With previews of upcoming auctions happening in London and New York.
A few highlights:
Tiffany moonstone and enamel necklace
Bulgari flower brooch
Yellow and white diamond brooch
Last year neither auction house had previews in NYC. Sotheby’s had two auctions in London, one their Fine Jewelry and the other the collection of actress Vivian Leigh. I took a closer look at that auction in my previous post here.
Christie’s had one jewelry auction, but it was online in September 2017. This year again no September auctions that occur offline for these two auction houses. Sotheby’s has one general fine jewelry auction, one that is selling loose diamonds and the last highlighting one Italian designer. All these auctions occurring online.
Is this a trend that will continue?
Yes, I think more auctions will be having an online presence. Sotheby’s has also tried removing the buyer’s premium to encourage people to try online with out the hidden fees. I am anxious to see how the auctions do with collectors and how smaller auction houses will adapt.
How will this affect the way jewelry is previewed at auctions?
I still think their will be previews and auctions to see the items and handle them. It is very difficult to take size into account when looking online and some gems like opal are hard to get good photos of.
For those that post on social media and blog I think that a time will come that your following and status will play a bigger part in getting to participate in the previews. For now, I have an auction preview in Boston at the end of the month I plan to go to and I’ll be heading to NYC in October not for a preview but for a fun trip that I will share later.
Return for more on the upcoming online auctions and other topics in the jewelry industry dealing with business and marketing. Thank you for reading my article.
Two Faberge flowers fell short of achieving a high estimate by Antique Roadshow when they hit the auction block in June. The article below looks at what key analysis were missed and trends that should have been focused on for future consideration.
Study the past if you would define the future. This quote by Confucius sums up my thoughts about what direction I am going and hope to be going. Digging deeper on issues always have ‘why’ questions that follow, why do I like this, why am I doing this and why do I want to continue this? Some of my whys are answered by looking back at what I love and why I loved it then and now. For the focus of this article I am looking at Faberge in the news, my all time favorite jeweler. A few weeks ago Hanson Auction in the United Kingdom sold two Faberge flowers. Not exactly news worthy at first glance but the story of how the pieces came to auction is worth a mention.
The two flowers are of a Dwarf Morning Glory and Barberry, that the owner had wrapped in a tea towel and stored in a shoe box! Pieces that sold for 340,000 British pounds ($451,1111) were tucked away in a small box for 40 years! Why did the owner wait until now to bring these pieces to light? The article in the Daily Mail claimed the man came to have the pieces looked at after seeing an Antiques Road Show episode in March where a similar item was valued at over 1 million British pounds.
Dwarf Morning Glory by Faberge sold at Hanson Auction June 11 for 180,000 pounds (hammer price). photo from Hanson Auctions
Barberry by Faberge sold at Hanson Auction June 11 for 160,000 pounds (hammer price). photo from Hanson Auctions
Initially these flowers were predicted to bring in 500,000 pounds by the Antique Roadshow but did not make that estimate. Hanson had a better estimate of 100,000-150,000 pounds for each flower. Why did these flowers fall a little short of the Antique Roadshow estimate? My theory: the Antique Roadshow didn’t look at recent trends in the industry and the seller didn’t take a good look at the market. Examples in an article by ArtNet News cite how auctions at both Sotheby’s and Christie’s either had the bids for the Faberge Flowers fall short of the Antique Roadshow estimate or did not sell at all.
Faberge flower estimated at 1 million pounds ($1.27 million) by Antique Roadshow in 2017. photo from ArtNet News
For the seller, besides the trends in selling Faberge flowers he should have explored the auction houses. Hanson auctioned the flowers off, but those two flowers were the only two Faberge items in the entire June Auction. Was that the right auction house for this sale? Should the seller have gone to Sotheby’s, Christie’s or Bonham’s to try and see if they would be better to sell the flowers? Sotheby’s just had an auction of Russian Works of Art, Faberge and Icons on June 5th.
There are other questions to be answered but those are the two main ones for me. I enjoy analyzing the jewelry industry and am growing my business to do more consulting on social media, strategy and business investments. For anyone regardless of industry or where you are in your career one piece of advice from the story above is don’t hide some of those treasures or dreams you are holding on to. I have held onto some of my personal goals for too long and need to start making things happen! You can too!
Return later as I pursue more wisdom from Faberge and go back to what inspires me so I can build a strong business and help you find ways to improve yours! As always thank you for reading my posts on Data in the Rough!
I learned a lot over the long weekend viewing the auctions for April. If you follow my Instagram account, you will see posts of jewelry that has been auctioned as well as pieces coming up that I got to see and try on! Although I learned a lot about the jewelry one piece of information left the biggest impression on me and that was the auction of Fred Leighton’s personal collection. This man was a jeweler to the stars. I never got the chance to enter his shop while he owned it but I got to see some of his celebrity pieces up close when Fred Leighton came to Dorfman’s in Boston.
Looking at the auction book for a little more about his life I came across an interesting insight into his life that resonated with me. On page 8 of the auction catalogue the first line of the second paragraph reads, “After opening a florist shop in Los Angeles, Mr. Leighton returned to New York in the early 1960s and purchased a shop specializing in Mexican crafts, silver and folk pieces on MacDougal Street in the West Village.” This stood out to me because I don’t come from having a background in the jewelry industry. I have no relatives that I was aware of that did anything with the jewelry business. I have a background in business but a love for jewelry. It was refreshing to see someone start out on one path and transition to another like Mr. Leighton. Breaking into an industry can be difficult. For those that follow my blog I have been sporadic with my postings over the year.
For 8 months I was unemployed and recently started a new job. It has nothing to do with jewelry which can have its good and bad points. Trying to find a job that blends your passion with your skills (math in my case) can be a challenge. Those that do not have those skills can look down on those with ‘less creative’ talents. For the next few weeks I plan to highlight designers and businesses that have done better at mixing art and science. I will focus on those with a less traditional background or those that have both a head for numbers and artistic flair.
This post is focusing on Leighton and his auction. As I went through the preview at Sotheby’s in New York City, I was struck by how many were coming to find one last hidden treasure that Leighton was holding back. I watched a few dealers going over necklaces and rings with loupes taking notes of the lots they liked. The impression I got was that many of these pieces meant something more than money to Mr. Leighton. I came across a set of Van Cleef & Arpels cat brooches with coral stones. These were so small and not at all like the animals you see now.
Aren’t they precious?
One of the associates told me nobody that day had even looked at them. I obviously took them out to see. I love cats and couldn’t bare the thought of these cute gems going unwanted. They did sell so some one was paying attention. But not all of Leightons jewelry sold. I looked at the total auction and divided the lots by jewelry and other (furniture, paintings, etc).
Break down of lots for Fred Leighton Auction at Sotheby’s
The top table is by the number of lots and the second table is in percentages. There were 229 lots offered 95 (41%) of the lots were jewelry; 134 (59%) were other items. Overall 84% of the items sold. By category jewelry did not do as well in % sold as the other items. But what about items that sold far above the estimate? Well I looked at that too!
Of the lots sold on average the non-jewelry category did better. Leighton not only had an eye for jewelry but also furniture, paintings and other beautiful, unique objects. The top 5 jewelry items that performed the most above their high estimate (buyer’s premium included are below).
I was surprised at what did so well and what did not sell. This snake bracelet of gold and rubies did not sell, but a pair of turquoise shell earrings by Leighton estimated to go between $600-800 sold for $6,875. These pieces were pretty but also quirky and many of them fun.
I remember seeing the documentary the September Issue, about getting the fall publication by Vogue put out, and watching some of the deleted scenes. My favorite part of the documentary was the deleted scene with Andre going to Fred Leighton’s shop to see some of his jewelry highlights. It starts with Fred Leighton himself waving some beautiful vintage fans in front of the camera and heading over to talk to Andre in more detail about the fans he is looking at. Leighton in smiling and singing as he makes his way to the editor. Enjoying himself through out the short scene. Fred Leighton did not come from a background in jewelry and in some ways, I think that was a strength. He had an eye for jewelry but was a business man by trade.
Above was how his jewelry was laid out in the cases. Leighton had miniature replicas of Asian inspired furniture that he had made. His family lent it to Sotheby’s because they did not know what to do with it or even if they wanted to keep it. Mr. Leighton, I have a feeling would have been pleased to know that his miniature furniture was a hit! I asked an associate about what would happen to these props, after the sale and with the interest that the public was showing they too may soon be on the auction block at Sotheby’s. Be on the lookout! Before I conclude I will let you see what the top 3 other items that performed above expectations.
Yes, that looks like a gold foot. Not sure if the auction house was off on the estimate or they had misprints, but Leighton did have some unique tastes and others liked it. He did not follow trends but created them and found items that match the style and quality that he wanted to be known for. I hope you will return soon as I get back into posting more on my own personal journey to try and blend my love of jewelry with my analysis skills. Please comment below or send an email if you would like to share parts of your own career journey. As the saying goes, it’s not where you came from but where you are going that counts. Data in the Rough is back!
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The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.
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