Heritage Auctions is building its Dec. 7 Holiday Fine Jewelry Signature Auction around rare stones: a flawless 3.52 ct. diamond and four Kashmir sapphire rings. The Dallas house’s announcement did not include estimates.
GIA gave the rectangular step-cut diamond its top marks, D for color and Flawless for clarity, and classified it Type IIa—the label for exceptionally pure stones. The platinum and gold ring was made to order for its current owner.
Heritage says none of the four sapphires—ranging from about 3 ct. to 8 ct. each—show signs of heat treatment. The largest, at 8.15 ct., is an emerald-shape stone flanked by 3.56 cts. t.w. emerald-cut diamonds (pictured at top). A 7.33 ct. cushion-cut comes with an AGL report confirming Kashmir origin. A 3.28 ct. stone circled by diamonds belonged to Walter Lippmann, the Pulitzer Prize–winning columnist. The smallest, a 3 ct. cushion in an antique ring, carries a GIA “Royal Blue” designation.
Kashmir stones are scarce, Heritage said, because the Zanskar deposits, found in 1881, gave out within a few years and have been idle for more than a century.
The cover lot is a Van Cleef & Arpels “Paysage Polaire” watch, which depicts a diamond-set polar bear and her two cubs sitting against a glacier of mother-of-pearl marquetry and blue enamel in an 18k white gold case.
“The word that defines this auction is rarity,” said Jill Burgum, Heritage’s executive director of fine jewelry, in a statement.
Large stones fill out the sale: a 17.75 ct. diamond in a Jacques Timey mounting for Harry Winston, a Burmese ruby bracelet, a necklace of roughly 40 cts. t.w. of Colombian emeralds, and a 1.07 ct. Paraiba tourmaline. A Tiffany & Co. tsavorite bracelet by Daniel Arsham, one of 186, comes inside a Venus of Arles bust.
(Photos courtesy of Heritage Auctions)
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