Yesterday (June 10th) saw Christie’s June sale of vintage jewels and diamonds in London.

The market for important diamonds showed signs of recovering health yesterday here in London where the Christie’s sale achieved some impressive results.

In total 151 lots – 84% of the lots on offer – found buyers, with a total value of just over £3,717,600 (including buyer’s premium).  Many of the lots were sold at prices well in excess of the upper end of their pre-sale estimates.

Art Deco pendant with 44.14ct yellow diamond; photo by Christie's

One piece which did exceptionally well is an Art Deco coloured diamond and onxy pendant, pictured right, which sold for £529,250.  Its pre-sale estimate was £200,000 to £250,000 so it went for more than double its estimate.

The pendant features a stunning 44.14ct yellow diamond, certified in March this year by the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) as a diamond of Fancy Yellow colour and SI1 clarity.

The diamond is suspended within a calibré-cut onyx surround, with a single-cut diamond loop.  The piece is dated to circa 1925.

By family tradition this yellow diamond belonged to Lady Roselyne Galway (1876-1963), who married a French biologist in 1894 but her second husband, Sir Henry Lionel Galway, was appointed governor of South Australia in 1914 shortly after their wedding.

She was noted throughout her life for her dedicated charity work, including the establishment of the South Australian branch of the British Red Cross Society.  Lady Galway died at St Merryn in Cornwall in June 1963.

Antique diamond brooch; photo by Christie's

Another notable lot at yesterday’s Christie’s sale was an antique diamond brooch, pictured left.

The brooch sold for £229,250 against a pre-sale estimate of £150,000 to £200,000.

The brooch is of a naturalistic design and features six pear-shaped diamond drops mounted in silver and gold.  The six pear-shaped diamonds are certified by GIA and they range from a 1.24 carat G colour SI2 clarity diamond up to a 2.70 carat E colour SI1 clarity stone.

The canopy from which the six diamond drops are suspended is pavé-set with old cut diamonds, and a graduated fringe of diamond trails is suspended alongside the pear-shaped diamond drops.

The piece was purchased by Mr Alfred Ezra for his wife in the early 1930s and has passed down by descent, but its origins date back somewhat further.

The brooch dates from circa 1860 but the pear-shaped diamond drops are likely to be late 18th century, and there’s a good chance that they come from a magnificent necklace that was commissioned by Louis XV in 1772 for his mistress Madame du Barry.

By the time the necklace was finished in 1774 Louis XV had succumbed to smallpox, but the jewellers hoped that the new king, Louis XVI, would offer the necklace to his wife Marie Antoinette.  The necklace was subsequently offered to the Queen but she refused and said that surely the money would be better spent on building a naval vessel.  Another more prosaic reason was that she did not want to wear a piece of jewellery, however wonderful, that had been made for another woman – especially a courtesan.

Eventually parts of the necklace found their way to London, where some of the diamonds were sold to Robert Gray of Bond Street and Nathaniel Jefferies of Piccadilly, and it is probably from this source that the six pear-shaped diamonds – now featured as part of this brooch – originated.

With thanks to Christie’s London for information and images