Will Sotheby’s emulate its previous successes with its third Estée Lauder jewelry auction, to be held on December 9 in New York? Between December 2012 and February 2013, the auction house raised €6.7 million, thanks in part to a stunning €2 million heart-shaped yellow diamond purchased by the Lauders from the Duchess of Windsor.
Of course, this time there are 44 pieces and not 112 as in the past, but one is considered by many to be among the most beautiful ever designed by Cartier. It is the Tutti frutti bracelet from 1928. In the lot, however, there are other magnificent examples by Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels, David Webb, Buccellati, and the New York jeweler Oscar Heyman & Brothers. The famous Cartier bracelet, estimated between 600 and 780 thousand euros, with rough rubies and emeralds, usually has sapphires: their absence suggests that it was custom-made. Then, there are the Van Cleef earrings with two large central brown diamonds of 7-8 carats, valued between 80 and 120 thousand euros. And, again, the same signature for the platinum and brilliant-cut diamond earrings with interchangeable pendants of rubies and calibrè-cut sapphires. The estimate? 160-230 thousand euros. The proceeds from the sale will be donated to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation established by Estée Lauder and chaired by her and to the Alzheimer’s Drug Discovery Foundation, at the behest of her son Leonard, who also included some jewels that belonged to his wife Evelyn.
“The pursuit of beauty is a form of respect,” claimed the founder of the cosmetic empire of the same name. Who has always aspired to aesthetics in all its forms. Even in jewelry.
