Uncertified emerald cut sapphire, £332,000 at Adam Partridge in Ruislip.
There was some good old fashioned auction drama in Ruislip on October 7 when a loose sapphire hammered for £332,000 - a record for any of the Adam Partridge salerooms.
It was part of a box of ‘costume’ jewellery that had come in for sale at the West London rooms with a reserve of just £50. The cache ultimately totalled close to £600,000 plus 25% buyer’s premium.
Ridley Partridge, the entrepreneurial 21-year-old son of Cheshire auctioneer Adam Partridge, told ATG the jewellery box had been brought in by a gentleman whose mother was now in a nursing home. While his family had Czech aristocratic roots, he believed they were exclusively costume pieces and had been happy to accept a provisional over-the-counter estimate of £50-80.
However, once Ridley Partridge had inspected the pieces, it became clear many of them were made in precious materials by some of the great French ateliers.
Cartier sapphire and diamond Boule ring, £58,000 at Adam Partridge in Ruislip.
A Cartier platinum, cabochon sapphire and diamond set ‘bombe’ ring - a classic Boule design from the 1950s - set the pace when it sold to a UK trade buyer for £58,000 against an estimate of £2000-3000.
It was followed by a vintage brooch and earrings suite by Van Cleef & Arpels fashioned as flowerheads in 18ct yellow gold, yellow sapphires and diamonds. Estimated at £8000- £12,000, these made £90,000 selling to an overseas dealer.
Van Cleef & Arpels yellow sapphires and diamond brooch and earrings suite, £90,000 at Adam Partridge in Ruislip.
However, these paled next to the performance of an uncertified emerald cut sapphire of around 20ct.
The auction house chose not to have it tested and sold it as a synthetic stone with a corresponding guide of just £300-500.
An opening bid of £180 was followed by a further 350 bids in a battle that lasted almost 20 minutes. As VAT is payable on the hammer price as well as the buyer’s premium for loose gemstones, the winning bidder at £332,000 will pay almost exactly £500,000.
Post-sale speculation was that the stone was from the famed Kashmir mines.
Proud father Adam Partridge contacted ATG to say that “Partridge Junior has just beaten our house record set by Partridge Senior in Macclesfield back in February 2020”.
Then a Hellenistic or Roman marble bust, probably depicting Alexander the Great, sold for £320,000, way above the £600- 1000 estimate.
