Jewelry
Palazzo Crivelli - Via Pontaccio 12, Milan
Viewing: 11, 12, 13 November 2017 (10 am / 1 pm – 2,30/6,30 pm)
Auction: 15, 16 November 2017
“Customs change but market demand remains the same, increasingly driven by a desire for spectacular jewels, in terms of both workmanship and the quality of their components,” according to Luca Ghirondi, director of the Jewelry Department at Il Ponte Auction House. "In line with this trend, the coming Jewelry Auction, scheduled for 15 and 16 November, will offer everything international buyers are looking for”.
Many items bear the most famous names in jewelry making: Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Mauboussin, Bulgari, Pomellato and Buccellati, including an ample selection of earrings, brooches, rings, bracelets and necklaces.
Of particular note are two splendid pairs of earrings by Van Cleef & Arpels, one with diamonds and rubies and the other with natural pearls of exceptional size, as well as a number of characteristic lots from Cartier, including a marvelous turtle brooch and another in hyaline quartz and diamonds.
Among the finest antique jewels made by leading artisans is a necklace of small pearls with a diamond and emerald pendant, crafted in 1930 by Mouboussin, which epitomizes the spectacular, one of a kind pieces produced by that atelier over the centuries, still valid and much sought after today. The auction will also feature, along with an important sapphire ring, an historical piece by Bulgari: the “trombino” engagement ring given by Giorgio Bulgari to his future bride, Leonilda, in the early thirties, later reprised to satisfy the insistent demand from Hollywood stars and members of the international jet set, to the point that it became one the maison’s iconic models.
Other items include some genuine “works of art”, like the micro-mosaics realized with meticulous mastery and infinite patience by Giacomo Raffaelli between 1750 and 1800, some of whose pieces are on display in the most renowned museums.
Insofar as the jewels of Italian craftsmanship, particularly appreciated by a “niche market”, the public will be offered an opportunity to bid on pieces made for the most important Italian and European nobility, from houses like the Milanese Buccellati and Sabbadini, the Venetian Missiaglia and Codognato, the Genoan Chiappe, the Roman Petochi and the Turin Cirio, widely admired for their excellent artisanal workmanship.
The rooms of Palazzo Crivelli, where in the days immediately preceding the auction (11-12-13 November) the jewels will be on display, will also contain a number of marvels made by Nature over the ages: rubies from Burma, sapphires from Ceylon and Kashmir, emeralds from Colombia and diamonds, among them a splendid navette cut of 5.03 carats, color D, clarity VVS1; an exceptionally rare stone. Natural pearls, increasingly rare and very much in demand these days, are included in some ten lots, including a standout necklace from the turn of the last century, with sixteen graduated teardrop pearls, truly unique: a talisman from a era that will never be repeated.