The top lot of the sale, accompanied by both a GIA certificate and an unmarked yellow-gold cocktail jacket was this platinum and diamond marquis engagement ring with 6.10-carat diamond in K color and SI1 clarity. It sold to a New York metro area buyer for $55,350 ($50/70,000).
Review by Madelia Hickman Ring, Photos Courtesy Nye & Co.
BLOOMFIELD, N.J. – Nye & Company presented more than 650 lots in its final sale of the year, the December 7-8 Estates Treasures auction, which began with nearly two dozen lots of silver and objets de vertu before launching into the largest category: jewelry.
“We had three or four consignors with major [jewelry] collections that came up at the same time,” John Nye said when Antiques and The Arts Weekly called him after the sale.
The top lot in the sale – a platinum and diamond marquis engagement ring with a 6.10-carat marquis-cut diamond in K color and SI1 clarity – finished at $55,350 and sold to a buyer in the New York metro area. It was accompanied by an unmarked yellow-gold cocktail jacket and a GIA certificate, which Nye said was well worth getting ahead of time.
In second place at $13,530 was an 18K yellow gold, pearl and diamond necklace that came from a New Jersey collector who approached Nye over the summer about downsizing. He held the jewelry for this sale and noted that she was very happy with the result, and that it was “staying local.”
Also staying in the New York area was an Art Deco diamond and emerald circle link bracelet that brought $12,300, well ahead of expectations. It had approximately two carats each of diamonds and emeralds.
The highest price realized for one of two works by Czech artists Lutobor Hlavsa was $4,613, for his depiction of a woman with an umbrella within Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte.” The other work earned $2,768 and both sold to buyers in the Czech Republic ($500/700).
Fine art was another sizeable category, topped at $5,535 by an allegorical Old Master-style scene with several Classical figures with cherubs, oil on canvas, which came to Nye from a private collector in New Jersey. The Nineteenth or Twentieth Century Continental composition, which measured 34½ by 43 inches in its giltwood frame, sold to a private collector in Connecticut.
Czech artist Lutobor Hlavsa (1924-2015) paints revisions of famous works with contemporary figures included. The sale included two of his works, both of which Nye said will be returning to the Czech Republic. Offered sequentially on the first day, his depiction of a young woman seemingly in the foreground of Georges Seurat’s “A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte” made $4,613; an untitled composition that featured a young woman with a medieval-style saint, traded at $2,768. Both were significant improvements on their estimates.
A single collection of coins “all did really well,” Nye said, referencing four lots that sold largely within or above estimates. A Florida bidder paid $5,843 for a 50mm, 81-gram Iranian 10-Pahlavi gold coin that commemorated the 50th anniversary of Pahlavi rule in Iran (1926-1979) and featured conjoining profiles, both facing left.
“2022 has been status quo for us,” Nye said when we spoke with him. “It was a good year but not a great year. May seemed to be a watershed month, with a lot of stuff doing on – inflation, gas prices, housing, etc. The momentum slowed then, but there’s still an audience. Our January 25-26 auction will be great; it’s timed to coincide with Americana week and the Winter Show and has an emphasis with American decorative arts, including more property from the Stanley Weiss Collection and a private collection from Connecticut.”
Prices quoted include the buyer’s premium as reported by the auction house. For information, www.nyeandcompany.com or 973-984-6900.
