Gros & Delettrez antique jewelry sale

The Gros & Delettrez auction house presents a jewelry sale every three weeks at Hotel Drouot, often with more than 400 lots in the catalog. We wanted to know a little more about this auction house, which is so active and dynamic in terms of jewelry and attracts more and more collectors, gemstone lovers and professionals.

We therefore went to 22 rue Drouot in Paris, near Hotel Drouot, to discover the jewelry department of Gros & Delettrez. We met Maître Charles-Edouard Delettrez and jewelry expert Capucine Veenendaal. They shared with us their passion and enthusiasm for holding sales with high-quality pieces.

This house, founded in 1980 by two auctioneers, Maître Henri Gros and Maître Georges Delettrez, has been able to anticipate the shift in the liberalization of the profession, its digitalization as well as its globalization with an increasingly active competitive sector.

I would have loved being an auctioneer. Entering a study, climbing the stairs, discovering these Art Nouveau mosaics, smelling this particular smell of a sweet mixture of old wood and wax… It was a bit like reliving my childhood.

And recalling that as a child, my parents received this house’s catalog every quarter, which I leafed through with greed and joy, imagining then that I could buy everything! I made hypothetical selections…

Today, I can do the same thing but for real, for the sale that will take place on Friday June 1st at 2pm! Isn’t that magical? It just goes to show you should never stop believing… Little girls’ dreams come true…

I hesitated a lot, but my selection focused on princess jewelry because of my rooted dreamy side, and on signed jewelry because of my more rational side…

Princess jewelry…

My inner child obviously went for princess jewelry… Yes, I know it sounds a bit cliché, but who was watching the last royal wedding on TV?

I chose this wonderful 20s necklace with six rows of white cultured pearls supporting a large geometric openwork pattern made of chiseled platinum, adorned with rose-cut diamonds, old-cut diamonds, two of which are larger, and a faceted sapphire supporting twenty-one rows of pearl drops – Lot 110 estimated at 15,000–20,000 euros.

Also, this 19th-century “drapery” necklace which can be turned into a gold and silver tiara, set with old-cut and rose-cut diamonds, organized in volute shapes adorned with falling old-cut diamonds – Lot 66 estimated at 10,000-15,000 euros.

Two pairs of diamond earrings I would love to buy as well as an exceptional 6.69 carat E-color SI1 pear-shaped diamond mounted on a platinum ring – Lot 101 estimated at 45,000-50,000 euros, posted on Instagram. There are also eighteen brilliant-cut diamonds from a magnificent river of diamonds for sale…

Or this yellow-gold and white gold ring adorned with a large oval Colombian emerald with beveled edges and accompanied by two heart-shaped old-cut diamonds. With a certificate from the LFG (Laboratoire Français de Gemmologie – French Gemmological Laboratory) specifying minor oil impregnation – Lot 88 estimated at 18,000-25,000 euros.

But also signed jewelry

Here, I admit it is the wealth manager part of me talking, and the current trend values signed jewelry or pieces for which we can determine the person who made or designed them. Before 1900 jewelry was rarely signed.

In particular, I think of jewelry from Maison René Boivin, whose experts Françoise Cailles and Jean-Norbert Salit are known to authenticate Boivin jewelry and deliver certificates. And who has greatly influenced modern jewelry with the materials it used and its modernist forms.

The pieces from Van Cleef & Arpels that tell a story and are of excellent craftsmanship, like these very naturalistic Christmas Rose white coral earrings.

FRED and its legendary Lovelight ring, symbol of an era… I love it…

Check out the catalog here , you will certainly fall in love with many pieces such as Cartier’s Trinity ring and many other lots from Boucheron, Chaumet… Also very pretty music boxes and a beautiful women’s diamond watch from Patek Philippe.