Tuesday’s public sale of Louis Consolation Tiffany’s famed Medusa pendant (pictured) turned out to be a stupendous sight to see, with the ultrarare piece promoting for $3.65 million—greater than 18 instances its excessive estimate.
The merchandise was offered as a part of the Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels sale in New York Metropolis.
Three decided bidders competed for practically 10 minutes to accumulate the gold, opal, and demantoid garnet pendant, which is taken into account one in all Louis Consolation Tiffany’s first creations.
The ultimate hammer value set a brand new world public sale document for an merchandise produced by Louis Consolation Tiffany, the celebrated artist and son of Charles Tiffany, the founding father of the famed retailer. Its authentic estimate was $100,000—$200,000. Its snake motif was impressed by the famed Greek Gorgon identified for the venomous snakes in her hair, whose gaze might flip folks to stone.
The piece was first exhibited on the St. Louis World’s Honest in 1904, and it later appeared in a New York public sale in 1943. However this marks the primary time it has appeared in public in 78 years. The merchandise has had quite a lot of homeowners and for a very long time it was thought-about lacking.
Carol Elkins, Sotheby’s senior jewellery specialist, advised JCK final week that the Medusa pendant was “thought-about a holy grail of Louis Consolation Tiffany jewels.
“The design of the jewel is so hanging and unforgettable that it sticks within the reminiscence banks,” she continued. “[Because] of its unknown whereabouts, the hope was all the time that it could in the future reappear.”
The piece’s historical past might be right here.
General, this latest Sotheby’s Magnificent Jewels sale garnered the best complete ever for a jewellery public sale at a Sotheby’s New York Metropolis gross sales room, with 84% of tons offered and 68% of offered tons surpassing their excessive estimates. There have been contributors from greater than 45 nations around the globe, with 74% of bidders taking part on-line.
13 jewels topped $1 million on the sale, with a 6.11 ct. fancy intense blue diamond ring fetching $8 million.
High: Louis Consolation Tiffany’s Medusa pendant (photograph courtesy of Sotheby’s)
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