How to sell your jewelry at auction

Vintage jewelry is back in fashion! It may be the right time to consider selling your family jewels at auction to get the best price. There are forgotten treasures that sleep in the back of a safe or in an old jewelry box. These jewels from another time could certainly interest amateurs or collectors. So how do you go about it? Selling jewels at auction is definitely an option to consider and most certainly profitable. In fact, auction houses are often places where buyers but also sellers can make good deals, provided you choose the right auction house.

We went to take a closer look at Christie’s auction house, the market leader in this sector. In fact, the first records of jewelry auctions at Christie’s dates back to 1795! It was most noted for the sale of Countess du Barry’s jewels, mistress of Louis XV sold for 13,000£, the equivalent of 2.4 million euros today. It is also renown for the sale of Princess Salimah Aga Khan’s jewels or for having a record-breaking sale of 39.3 million euros for the 34.65 carat pink diamond “Princie” in New York last April 16th.

We will agree that walking through the doors of an auction house does take a bit of courage, even more so with a prestigious name like Christie’s and located avenue Matignon.

However, Violaine d’Astorg, Director of the Jewelry Department, welcomed us with an understated elegance, smiling, as she would for any potential customer or visitor. We interviewed her in order to get a better understanding of the financial aspects, the necessary arrangement to set up a jewelry auction and most of all, the evaluation process of the jewelry. The point being, once you have read this article you will no longer be daunted to walk through the doors of n° 9 avenue de Matignon in Paris and you will want to meet the wonderful expert; Violaine.

Behind the scenes of a jewelry auction

Hello Violaine, could you please explain to us what consists your job?

When I first arrived at Christie’s in April 2018, my responsibility was to maintain the high image of Parisian auctions, very orientated in French designs in provenance of Place Vendôme and re-launch jewelry events for Christie’s France. In the past year, we put under the spot light important figures of the jewelry industry and incredible designers such as René Boivin or Suzanne Belperron who have really promoted French creation.

On a more personal level, my objective is to try and make us more accessible, by organizing exhibitions and conferences in such a manner that people will push open our doors that are otherwise quite impressive. The exhibitions are free, in fact, all the pre-sales exhibitions are free and everyone is welcome to come and admire these treasures. A customer said to me recently; “It’s better than a museum!”. Our latest exhibition, « A Vanity Affair » has had a huge success and I am very proud of it. A book will even be published about the exhibition. Each of our auctions is accompanied with a conference around a topic that we choose and that fits with today’s trends with the intervention of highly qualitative speakers.

How is an auction sale constructed at Christie’s?

We have two jewelry auctions a year, one in June and one in December. An auction is constructed in several steps:

– The first step: the “business getting” is done until end of October for an auction in December and until April/May for a sale in June. One part involves communicating all year long regionally et we organize in a dozen important cities days where we provide our expertise. Another part involves sending couriers to our contacts and clients in order to inform them of the theme of our next or the last auction we have made. For example, this December we will put an emphasis on the jeweler Lacloche which has a direct link with the very beautiful exhibition at the Ecole des Art Joailliers from the 23rd of October until the 20th of December 2019. Pour le June auction, we will inform our clients ahead of time so that they can propose for sale any jewels they may have which relates to the trending topic chosen.

It must be known that we “source” a lot of our pieces in France but we will always choose the best places in the world to hold the auction: Hong Kong, Geneva, London or New York. Each of our Christie’s jewelry departments have a very well positioned market. For example, Jade would never be put at auction in Paris, because we know we would sell it best in Hong Kong.

– Expertise and evaluation: it is often during our expertise days that we unravel true gems that people often don’t dare present to us thinking it may bare no interest. These expertise days are free and confidential. We move around in the big cities such as Reims, Bordeaux, Nantes, Biarritz, Aix-en-Provence, Marseille, Strasbourg… and Monaco.

– The catalogue: we always send the mock-up to our clients so that they approve the manner in which their jewels are represented in our catalogue. We are very attentive to this sort of detail.

– The exhibition and the sale: a few days before the auction, the jewels are exhibited in Parisian offices/ For example, for the auction that will take place on December 5th at 2pm, you may come admire and try the jewels already starting the 30th of November from 10am till 6pm for the five days prior.

Evaluation Jewelry for an Auction at Christie’s

Getting back to the evaluation process, what is the process?

During our expertise days, whether they be provincial or in Paris, we take our time with our customers; to ask questions on the provenance, to try and get them to open their safes or jewelry cases in the hope of the holy grail. I would say this is the most exciting aspect of our profession because we never know in advance what we will discover.

As with regards to the price estimation of a piece of jewelry, I would say it is the perfect equation between the value of the raw material (gemstones, diamonds, etc.) and if the piece is signed by a notorious jeweler or not, it’s epoch and how rare it is on the market.

For example, for our auction on December 5th 2019 (see the selection of LIKE AB here), we have a magnificent cuff bracelet by Cartier in diamonds and coral dating from the 30s that is also on the front cover of our catalogue. We first made an estimation based on the materials used of about 20.000€ then, the rarity of a jewel signed Cartier dating from the 30s in the history of jewelry. This rarity factor contributes substantially to the capital gain which can be sometime complicated to evaluate. We therefore must refer back to pieces on the market of a similar style/category which is one of the great capacities of an auction house like Christie’s because we have an incredibly solid data base. Today an Art Deco bracelet sells between 100-300.000€. Refining our research and concerting our network of experts at Christie’s worldwide, we have estimated this cuff to be valued between 150-200.000€.

Each jewelry type has it’s own evaluation. The equation should never have any unknown factors otherwise the final estimation isn’t correct. It is indispensable to find the most accurate estimation. A pieces should never be under or over valued. If a piece is incorrectly estimated a professional or a collector can go amiss. If we were to evaluate the Cartier cuff bracelet at 20.000€ instead of the 150.000€ it is worth, a professional dealer will think that there may be some necessary restauration or that the hallmark or the signature is partially erased, in short that the piece has not be properly conserved and this in turn may result in disinterest to a potential buyer. If, on the other hand it is over-evaluated at 300.000€, the potential buyer may also loose interest because the sale could have been made at 300.000€ but not perhaps at 350.000€ so we would have also lost the sale.

64 % of the pieces in our last auction in June have been sold over the higher estimated price and we sell on average 94% of the pieces in our sales, which proves that our evaluations are calibrated.

Evaluating and estimating is the more difficult aspect of our business, but just as equally the most interesting. As with regards to the gemstones, there is also an equation. We can determine an average price based on the carat weight and the gem type but it is the rarity and the quality, also the lack of any treatment on the stone that will determine it’s value.

For diamonds it’s a bit easier and a lot more precise because for a brilliant cut we have the « Rapaport » created by Martin Rapaport which is published every friday and indicates the price of diamonds based on it’s cut, color and clarity. Therefore we know almost instantaneously it’s value. As with regards to antique cut diamonds we base ourselves on the pear cut on the Rapaport.

We send the stones to confirm our initial evaluations at the SSEF GUBELIN Laboratory and for certain stones we establish a second certificat by either sending it to the GIA if it’s a diamonds, or to the au LFG (Laboratoire Français de Gemmologie) in order to perfectly evaluate the stones before it’s sale.

Does the person selling have a withdrawal price under which they can remove the object from the sale?

Yes, the seller always has a price based on which they can withdraw if it does not reach the lowest estimation made. Below this estimation, we will not sell the object. We can start the auction below the estimated price but we will never sell under the estimated price which is for us a « starting price ».

I tell my sales personnel that we are all in the same team, we sell together therefore we establish the estimation together. It is very important that our customers feel confidant and perfectly in accord with the estimation and therefore the withdrawal price.

Are there any pieces that you refuse?

We do not refuse anything as such, however we have a threshold under which we are not capable of selling correctly, our company is not calibrated for. If we are in this case scenario, we will advise our customers how they can obtain the best price for their jewels.

Our customers are private individuals and collectors and we wish to have a privileged and trusting rapport that will last in time. We always find the best solutions for our customer.

We take it to heart to follow up on our customers and to remain at their disposition up until the auction so we can accompany them. What we want is for them to be able to sell at the best price, all staying within the market value.

Finally, what advice would you give our readers who desire to aquire a piece of jewelry at auction?

First and foremost, you have to acquire a piece of jewelry intelligently, give yourself a limit, and trust the experts and their evaluations but also to try to not outbid too much the higher estimated value.

You shouldn’t hesitate to go see the jewelry, to try them on and ask questions to the experts. Finally, determining what your bidding limit is indispensible because there are added fees that are to be added on top of the auctioned price.

Today you can purchase an antique piece of jewelry at a very large price range and it is very pleasant. You can find a very charming broche from the 19th century or Charles X or beginning of the century for 500euros, or art deco rings for less than 500 euros. All the diamonds sold at auction are generally a 50% less than the going market prices, which is very interesting. At this moment in time it is interesting to consider jewelry from the 70s and 80s as a good investment.

For our December 5th 2019 auction, we will have 267 lots of which some incredibly beautiful pieces by Georges Fouquet and Jean Deprès, a collection by René Boivin and Suzanne Belperron, a very nice selection of colored gemstones of which one Colombien emerald of 5,23 carats no oil and a Kashmir sapphire of 2,67 carats on a Cartier mounting.

A fine pearl ensemble with multiple necklaces and a beautiful 19th century bracelet set with a natural conch pearl and two fine pearls.

A collection of two beautiful pieces Lalique, several diamonds of which two stones estimated at 100.000 and the other 200.000 respectively.

Finally, a selection of jewels signed by Place Vendôme fro the 30s with two cuff bracelets in diamonds by Cartier, from the 40s a “boules” bracelet by Cartier set in diamonds and a Harry Winston brooch set with 20 carats of diamonds.