Christies’s Summer Jewel Sale
Today we are visiting Christie’s, the world’s oldest fine art auctioneer, who conducted their first sale in London in 1766..! They have just had their first ever online jewellery sale and though the sale was focused on contemporary pieces I thought it would be interesting for us to take a closer look. So I popped by their global headquarters on King Street where they have been based since 1823 to find out a bit more for us:
Christie’s on King Street, London – where we will return for another very interesting sale in September
During the 200+ years that Christie’s have been around, they have seen the most extraordinary pieces pass through their hands. My favourite one is of course the Collection of Elizabeth Taylor, which took place in 2011 and celebrated the extraordinary collection of the Hollywood movie star – featuring diamonds, historic jewels and glorious gemstones.
So to return to their online-only sale of Summer Jewels; Christie’s introduced a couple of young shining stars of jewellery making today: Lily Gabriella Elia and Olivia Wildenstein. Glorious pieces from Marina B, Roberto Coin and Salavetti were also presented in the auction and the sale ran from July 17th until Friday last week, July 26th.
Lily Gabriella Elia’s Diamond and Gold Ear Pendants
Brazilian born designer Lily Gabriella Elia presented her collection Lily Gabriella, which featured gold pieces often combined with precious and semi-precious gemstones. Elia’s design is influenced by fine art and modern architecture, and she produces contemporary designs using traditional methods.
I am absolutely loving drop-down earrings at the moment, so this beautiful pair is definitely on my wish list. They also brought my thoughts back to Art Nouveau, where the pieces often had very intricate patterns, and I find the following to be a very accurate description of the Art Nouveau style: sudden violent curves generated by the crack of a whip. The expression comes from Pan magazine, describing Hermann Obrist’s wall-hanging Cyclamen (1894) (quote found on the Naturalistic Spoon-website).
An example of Art Nouveau jewellery – from Lawrences Auctioneers
To give you an example of Art Nouveau-jewellery, the photo above is from my visit to Lawrences Auctioneers a few weeks ago – a post coming up! You can see how the whip-theory can be applied here as well.
Keemee-cultured pearl and diamond “Coeurs Enlacés” ear pendants
Then there was the Kemee designer Olivia Wildenstein, who did an intership with Oscar de la Renta and developed her eye for accessories there, which in turn led to her creation of gem-set jewellery. Her creations often include rounded and organic jewels and 18k gold, diamonds and cultured pearls. My favourites are these cultured pearl and diamond ear pendants “Coeurs Enlacés”, with their simple yet elegant design, that make the so versatile to wear.
We will come back to Christie’s very soon, as during my visit I had the opportunity to photograph a few extraordinary posters from the exhibition Graphic Masterworks: A Century of Design. This is a landmark exhibition of highlights from the archive of vintage poster collector and connoisseur, Martijn Le Coultre – so stay tuned!
Decades of Elegance 