A Kashmir sapphire, a tank mask and Cindy Sherman
Also, Peter Hook being snarky
Hi everybody! I’m currently being beaten to death by my day job, so I don’t have any time to go super deep on anything — BUT I don’t want to forget about you, so instead I’ll just list a bunch of things coming up for sale that caught my eye and give you the short description. If you have any questions, send me an email or hit me up in the comments!
This ca. 1960s Garrard & Co. sapphire and diamond ring was sold in Friday’s Fine Jewels auction at Sotheby’s London, but just LOOK at that color. It features a cushion-shaped 5.12 carat Kashmir sapphire in a platinum claw setting with two trapezoid diamonds at the shoulders. It also retains its original 1964 receipt and insurance valuation from Garrard, which is an extremely valuable asset when it comes to provenance. Keep your receipts! You never know.
This unusual piece is a British First World War anti-splinter tank mask. According to Sotheby’s, “these extraordinary masks were conceived to protect the wearer from shrapnel whilst operating a tank,” and this one consists of metal, chainmail and stitched leather and suede. It’s included in the “Worlds within Worlds | Works from the Collection of Peter Petrou” auction at Sotheby’s London on Tuesday.
It’s also unavailable for export, thanks to its rosewood stand. Rosewood is on the current Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) list of tree species, and according to the Yale School of the Environment’s publication Yale Environment 360, it is “the most trafficked form of flora or fauna in the world, measured by value or volume, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. It’s traded far more than elephant ivory, rhino horn, and pangolin scales put together, and is often called the “ivory of the forest.” The demand mainly comes from the high-end Chinese furniture market.
I would love to see this cocktail ring in person. It features a central cushion-shaped emerald set between two triangular-cut tourmalines with curved sections of polished opal above and below. The mounting is further embellished with brilliant-cut diamonds. It’s in the Bonhams London Jewels auction on September 22.
Also in that auction is this gorgeous bracelet that SCREAMS Deco. Circa 1930, it is indeed an Art Deco platinum bracelet featuring approximately 9.54 carats of aquamarines in various cuts (bullet- and shield-shaped and step-cut) with single-cut diamond highlights. Bonhams notes that “the composition of this bracelet is comparable with the aquamarine jewellery of Cartier London,” and that demand in the 1930s was so great for “statement” aqua jewelry that it caused supply issues between the New York and London branches of Cartier.
This “Fortune Teller” pendant watch was part of a 1993 collaboration between American artist Cindy Sherman and Barney’s NYC to benefit the American Foundation for AIDS Research. Made of brass with a swiss-made mechanical movement, it’s signed by Sherman and numbered 14 out of an edition of 150. It’s being sold in the Christie’s New York Jewels Online sale that closes on September 23.
Sherman first gained attention for her Untitled Film Stills (1977-80) series of 70 black-and-white photographic self-portraits that depicted herself as various generic female film characters, and she has continued to use herself as a canvas in the decades since. That’s her as the fortune teller.
This platinum and diamond fringe necklace is by Harry Winston and features nine D color and internally flawless pear-shaped diamonds weighing from 14.93 to 2.04 carats, decorated with brilliant-cut and pear-shaped diamonds. It’s in the Diamonds: The Dazzling auction at Sotheby’s Hong Kong on September 24th and carries an estimate of $4.6 – $5.9 million. Look how big it is:
Good lord!
This mid-19th century Victorian cased diorama features a model house and garden decorated with native British seashells, twigs and lichen, complete with a tiny dog in the doorway and fabric curtains at the windows. It’s in the “An Aesthetic Odyssey: The Peter Rose and Albert Gallichan Collection” auction at Christie’s London on September 30, and it’s worth clicking through to the lot to see the detail shots of the lovely shellwork.
This circa 1904 bracelet depicts a woman in carved ivory within a delicate surround of plique-à-jour and painted enamel highlighted with single-cut diamonds. It’s by the legendary Spanish jewelry house Masriera — who I wrote about back in the day for the Hairpin (scroll down to the rooster bracelet) — and is part of a large collection of Masriera jewelry in the Sotheby’s Fine Jewels auction in Paris, also on September 30.
On October 8th, Omega Auctions in Newton-Le-Willows, Merseyside will hold a sale of items from the collection of Peter Hook, the sweatpants and leather-clad former bassist for Joy Division and New Order. The Peter Hook: The New Order Collection auction contains 400 items, including loads of guitars, cases, posters, signed vinyl, tape reels, awards and…….legal papers? Hook quit New Order in 2007 and later sued the band over royalties (they eventually reached an undisclosed settlement), and he’s actually including boxes of legal documents in the auction, but at a ridiculous £1 million opening price because he probably can’t really sell them and just wants to moan a bit.
This sale is a follow-up to a 2019 auction that focused on Hook’s Joy Division material. Some of his descriptions in that auction were….debatable, which prompted an official statement from New Order’s Stephen Morris and Bernard Sumner that didn’t specifically name names, but warned people to “please be very cautious regarding the provenance of the items you buy.”
So fast-forward to the current auction, which includes the Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 keyboard and poly-sequencer above. According to Hook’s description, they are:
One of the many Sequential Circuits Prophet 5 Synthesisers and Polysequencers we used for “Blue Monday”, “Hurt”, and all the other sequencer songs both live and in the studio. I can’t say it’s the exact one we used to record “Blue Monday” but maybe Steve and Barney will do a post about it.
Lol! Hooky’s always been a cranky SOB but I’m so happy to stumble across anything JD/NO related, as Ceremony — a Joy Division song that was the first recorded step the band took in their new incarnation as New Order, just months after frontman Ian Curtis’s suicide — may actually be my favorite song. Certainly in the top three.
There are a lot of interesting and reasonably attainable antique pieces in Skinner’s current “Fine Jewelry Collections” online auction ending October 4. Included is this Victorian gold and enamel bracelet that features a large clasp in the form of a hand with an enameled cuff. Estimate is $600-800.
That’s it for now! Thanks for reading, and if you would care to throw some financial support behind this newsletter, please do. (Or don’t, that’s fine, too!) I’m currently unable to do more for paying subscribers other than pledge you my undying thanks, but I may try to do some short “look at this cool thing!” emails in the future just for paid readers. We’ll see. Just gotta get over this fall work crunch. AND IF EVERYONE COULD PLEASE GET VACCINATED AND HELP STOP DELTA I’D REALLY APPRECIATE IT, THANKS
Ok thanks. Love you guys. Hope you’re well. Email me and tell me about your part of the world! M xx
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Oh man, that cocktail ring looks like a drone photograph of a dreamy island destination...
Shrapnel mask and Peter Cook's keyboard. #BritainFinallyExplained