Auction in Florence with Bibelot: king of sale will be a 6-carat Kashmir natural sapphire ♦ ︎
November and December are warm months. For auctions, we means. Whether it is Christmas gifts or just gifts, auction sales offer opportunities both in terms of supply, with pieces that can hardly be found in the normal jewelery store, but also in price (with some luck). In this light, on November 29th, the spotlight lights up in Florence, where is planned an auction by Maison Bibelot, founded in 1997 on the initiative of Elisabetta Mignoni. Even though the Encyclopedia defines the word bibelot, of French origin, as “artistic knick-knack”, the auction of the Maison sells pieces that describe as trinket is inappropriate. Like a 6 carats blue sapphire unheated ring of Kashmir (precious for color, but also because mines have been exhausted from years). The stone has a cushion cut, embedded between two triangular diamonds and is certified by the Swiss Gemological Institute Ssef. The estimate is 80-100,000 euros. In December and May 2017, two Kashmir sapphires were beaten by Bibelot at 857,000 and 698,000 euros. The auction consists of about 400 pieces, including jewelry and watches (preview in Milan, Hotel dei Cavalieri, November 16-17, and Florence, November 25-27).
Among the prominent pieces reported by Bibelot there are also a platinum lonely ring of the beginning of the last century with a large, old cut diamond (about 8 carats) on an empire-style frame. Estimate 40-50,000 euros. Another important item is a platinum cross, embellished with 9 carats of diamonds plus an oval sapphire of about 7 carats, made in Rome by Massenza in the early twentieth century and still preserved in its original box, probably commissioned for a high prelature.
Finally, among the wrist watch brands such as Rolex (including a Steel-Gold Daytona and an Oyster GMT Master in Steel, both valued at 7-8,000 euros), Vacheron Constantin, Jager LeCoultre, Cartier, Baume et Mercier, Patek Philippe , Omega, Longines. Women’s timepiece is a Vacheron Constantin MCMLXXII of 1972 in white gold and diamonds, estimated at 3,800-4,000. Federico Graglia