Six phone bidders, plus online and in-house competition, pushed the final price on this unmounted brilliant-cut round diamond, with two unmounted trilliant-cut diamonds, past its $8/12,000 estimate, to finish at $36,600. It was the top lot of the December 10 estate jewelry auction.
Review by W.A. Demers, Photos Courtesy Sloans & Kenyon
CHEVY CHASE, MD. – Sloans & Kenyon presented its December estate catalog auction on December 15 with a six-piece S. Kirk and Son Co. sterling silver Landscape/Castle pattern tea/coffee service topping the bidding action at $6,710. The set’s coffee pot was 12 inches high, accompanied by teapot, lift-cover two-handle sugar bowl, cream pitcher, waste bowl and hot water kettle on stand with coordinating bail-handle bucket-form strainer. Each vessel carried elaborate landscape decoration on stippled ground.
The month’s showstopper, however, occurred on December 10 when the firm presented its auction of estate jewelry. Here, an unmounted brilliant-cut round diamond, with two unmounted trilliant-cut diamonds, suitable for setting in engagement type ring, vaulted past its $8/12,000 estimate, finishing at $36,600. There were six telephone bidders on the lot, plus competition from Invaluable and the audience.
The December 10 jewelry sale also saw a contemporary 18K yellow gold and diamond low dome ring, size 4¼, leave the gallery for $14,030, above its $8,000 high estimate. The pear-shape, champagne color diamond weighed approximately 3.50 carats and was held by three prongs on tapering low dome band set with four ribbons totaling 16 fancy square-cut white diamonds, each weighing approximately .07 carat, and 39 brilliant-cut round diamonds each weighing approximately .03 carat.
A Greek 18K brushed yellow gold flexible-link, Y-shape necklace with a pair of matching clip-back earrings by Mapamenos Natepas brought $9,150. The signed circa 1980 piece featured links that were designed as pairs of leaves; each earring having two pairs of leaves.
Depicting Alabama industrialist Erskine Ramsay (1864-1953), this 14K yellow gold award plaque reading, “American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers/for Distinguished Achievement in Coal Technology to George Herman Deike 1955” was bid to $6,100.
An award plaque, too, was notable in the December 10 sale. Fetching $6,100 was a 14K yellow gold award plaque named after American industrialist Erskine Ramsay (1864-1953). The vertical rectangular panel bore raised lettering reading, “American Institute of Mining and Metallurgical Engineers/for Distinguished Achievement in Coal Technology to George Herman Deike 1955.” Housed in a hinged rectangular storage case, the 3½-by-2¾-inch plaque weighed in at 6.5 troy ounces.
At $6,710 each, two other lots dueled it out to be included in the December 15 sale’s top ranks. One was, fittingly, a pair of flint-lock dueling pistols with brass-inlaid walnut stocks. From the late Eighteenth-early Nineteenth Century, each featured chase decoration and one was marked “E&T Annely.”
Fetching the same amount was a George III red and gilt-japanned tall case clock with caddy top flanked by two ball-form finials, opening to chased brass face with Roman numeral chapter ring centered by cast spandrels. In a long case with arching door on a rectangular plinth base, it was signed “Agar [of] York” and stood 89 inches high.
Attributed to Alexander Roslin (Swedish, 1718-1793), a portrait of Claude Joseph Rouget De Lisle (French, 1760-1836), earned $6,033. Rouget De Lisle was the composer of the stirring “La Marseillaise.” He composed “Chant de guerre pour l’armee de Rhin” on the night of April 25, 1792. The song was later sung by Marseillaise troops marching to Paris that summer (hence the name “La Marseillaise”) and was adopted as the national anthem by the convention in a decree passed on July 14, 1795. His oil on canvas likeness by Roslin was presented in a carved giltwood frame, the lower border affixed with identification plaque.
Prices given include the buyer’s premium as stated by the auction house. For information, www.sloansandkenyon.com or 301-634-2330.
