While in the United States such sales of valuable jewels are very unusual, it has been a custom in England and in France for many years, in the settlement of estates, to sell not only the furniture, bric-à-brac, etc., but also the jewels. Sales of this kind are naturally calculated to attract not only the dealers, but also many rich collectors and connoisseurs, and as they are frequently widely advertised, and London and Paris are, at the most, but one to two days’ journey from all parts of Europe, many people attend, most of the private buyers being represented by their agents. By means of these sales many heirlooms, which have been handed down from generation to generation, often pass into the possession of strangers. In the matter of jewels, it has been frequently noticed that dealers are in the majority of cases the ultimate buyers, and it has also been inferred that when an outsider participates in the bidding, the prices are advanced to such an extent that it does not often appear profitable for him to buy in the face of such competition. All manner of people have had their estates disposed of in this way, and the list of these sales during the past twenty years is a striking one: royalty, nobility, merchants, and people in many other conditions of life find a place in it.
It is not an infrequent custom in London for solicitors to advance money on jewels, and when the payments are not forthcoming these jewels are sold. Hence, many sales appear at the larger auction rooms in which no name is given, the owners frequently being people of high degree.
On July 19, 1892, a necklace containing eighty-five graduated pearls of unusual size and quality, the property of the late H. W. F. Bolchow, M.P., was sold in London for the sum of £2500 ($12,500). Another necklace of 146 fine graduated pearls disposed in two rows, brought £2400 ($12,000); a single-row necklace of eighty-five pearls realized £1600 ($8000), and one of 118 pearls in two rows £1660 ($8300).
An exceptionally fine pearl necklace which belonged to her Grace the late Caroline, Duchess of Montrose, mother of the present Duke of Montrose, was sold at Christie’s on April 30, 1895. The necklace comprised 362 graduated pearls, arranged in seven rows of forty-four, forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty-two, fifty-eight, and sixty-four pearls, respectively. The amount realized for this ornament was £11,500 ($57,500).
On July 9, 1901, a pearl necklace, advertised as the property of “a French lady of rank,” and several other valuable pearl ornaments, were offered at Christie’s. It is supposed by many that these jewels belonged to Madame Humbert. The necklace was composed of six rows of graduated pearls consisting of fifty-five, sixty-one, sixty-seven, seventy-three, seventy-nine, and eighty-nine pearls, respectively, a total of 424, all of good color and luster. A London dealer considers that they owed their value mainly to skilful matching and fineness of color; they are perhaps a century old. As may be supposed, there were many bidders who competed eagerly for possession of this fine ornament, and it was at last adjudged for the sum of £20,000 ($100,000). While this was, up to that date, a record price in an auction room, it was by no means an exceptional figure for private sales; indeed, at about the time this necklace was sold, a London dealer disposed of another for £34,000 ($170,000).
A necklace, the property of the late Lady Matheson of the Lews, was sold at Christie’s, March 5, 1902. Well-matched and graduated round pearls, to the number of 233, were disposed in four rows, and strung with seed-pearls between. This necklace, which had been presented to Lady Matheson at the time of her marriage in 1843 by Sir Jamsetjee Jejeebhoy, Bart., brought the sum of £6800 ($34,000).
A pearl necklace, containing fifty-three fine and graduated pearls, was sold in London, June 9, 1902, for the sum of £2250 ($11,250). Another necklace of sixty-eight fine round pearls, one of which formed the clasp, brought £1580 ($7900). A beautiful pearl and brilliant pendant of open scroll design, with a large, round white pearl in the center, and a large, pear-shaped black pearl as drop, realized £800 ($4000), and a pearl collar of ten rows of round pearls brought £820 ($4100). A noteworthy offering at this sale was a rope of 135 pearls, an heirloom sold under the will of Lady Marianna Augusta Hamilton. These pearls had been given to Lady Augusta Anne Cockburn in 1769 on the occasion of her marriage to Sir James Cockburn, Bart., by her godmother, Augusta, Duchess of Brunswick, sister to George III. The rope was sold for £900 ($4500).
The pearls of Lady Dudley were sold at Christie’s on July 4, 1902. Among them was a magnificent necklace of forty-seven slightly graduated round pearls, of large size and unusually brilliant orient; their gross weight was 1090 grains. This necklace brought the sum of £22,200 ($111,000). A single pear-shaped pearl of the finest orient mounted with a diamond cap, as a pendant, and weighing 209 grains, was sold for £13,500 ($67,500). A rope of 222 graduated round pearls of the highest quality, weighing 2320 grains was purchased for £16,700 ($83,500), and a pearl and brilliant tiara brought £10,300 ($51,500). The entire casket of thirty-one lots realized £89,526 ($447,630).
At the sale of the jewels of Mlle. Wanda de Boncza, at the Hôtel Drouot, Paris, December 6, 1902, a fine necklace was disposed of for the sum of 150,000 francs ($30,000), and a rope of 100 small pearls realized 38,100 francs ($7620); the proceeds of the entire sale of these jewels were 1,249,578 francs ($249,915).
Among the Aqualia jewels, sold in London in 1903, was a pearl necklace that brought £4480 ($22,400).