Blinged-out hip-hop jewelry has often been dismissed by "serious" jewelers as a fad or a tiny niche, but auction house Phillips de Pury & Co. is lending the category a new level of industry cred.

In a first-of-its-kind event by a major auction house, Phillips will hold a "Hip Hop's Crown Jewels" auction on Oct. 1. Phillips calls the 50 pieces of jewelry "complex cultural artifacts embedded with style, and indelibly marked with narratives of class, religion, materialism, and the American Dream." A portion of the sales will benefit Russell Simmons' nonprofit organizations, including the Diamond Empowerment Fund.

The items, from celebrities ranging from LL Cool J to Tupac Shakur to Jay-Z, are broken down by Phillips into the Golden Era of hip-hop (1980 to early 1990s), the mid-1990s battle between East and West Coast sounds, and hip-hop's current mainstream age.

Among the highlights of the auction are Biz Markie's black-and-white diamond Headphones Pendant in white gold; Slick Rick's multicolor diamond-set eye patch; Tupac Shakur's diamond, ruby, and gold Crown Ring engraved "Pac & Dada 1996" (Dada refers to Quincy Jones's daughter Kidada, who was dating Shakur); Notorious B.I.G.'s yellow gold, stainless steel, and diamond Rolex; and the world's largest diamond pendant (according to Guinness World Records), Lil' Jon's colorless and fancy yellow diamond and gold Crunk Ain't Dead pendant, measuring 7.5 inches tall and 6 inches wide.

The auction is led by Phillips' worldwide head of contemporary jewelry Alia Varsano and Minya Oh, hip-hop authority and author of Bling Bling: Hip Hop's Crown Jewels.

The public preview of the jewels will be held at Phillips de Pury's New York location Sept. 22 to Sept. 30. www.phillipsdepury.com 

Weekly Gem
When two big brands aimed their, um, Tanks at one another recently—a battle complete with the filing of legal papers—we pretty much figured the high-profile names would settle outside the courtroom. Indeed, Cartier has dropped its lawsuit against fashion designer Donna Karan for allegedly ripping off the Tank watch name. The terms of the settlement have not been announced, but Cartier says they've "resolved their differences."

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