Diamonds Are More Than A Girl's Best Friend

When times are bad, diamonds are more than a girl's best friend. Diamonds can hold their value better than real estate and have the advantage of being portable.

"Jewels are significant assets you can move around with," says Simon Teakle, head of jewelry at Christie's New York. "On Sept. 12, a major client called me and said the first thing she did was to get her jewelry from the bank."

A diamond pendant necklace with a pear-shaped diamond, approximately 74.79 carats, est. $4.2 million to $4.8 million.

Christie's and Sotheby's big fall jewelry sales start the week of Oct. 22, and both houses are hoping that buyers will still want to trade cash for stones. The clientele for jewelry is heavily international, with significant sales going to Middle Eastern and Asian buyers in the last decade. But in light of recent developments, it's anyone's guess as to whether those customers will want to make a trip to New York right now.

The auction houses began hedging their bets some time ago by scaling down the sales to 350 or 400 lots. A few years ago, there might have been 500 or 600. They are also offering classic designs such as Art Nouveau and Belle Epoque that are more likely to appeal to the widest possible audience. "Now is not the time to go out on a limb. It is not a period for risk taking," says Teakle.

The fall sales, traditionally the biggest buying time of the year, showcase more expensive jewelry, with signed pieces and fancy colored diamonds ("fancy" is a term in the diamond business for a well-highlighted colored stone). In contrast to the smaller sales that take place in December and June, in which most pieces have estimates ranging from $200,000 to $500,000, the "Magnificent Jewels" sales, as they are called, aim for the $1 million-plus category.

A fancy colored diamond ring, est. $800,000 to $1 million.

The cover lot of the Sotheby's sale, for example, is a fancy colored diamond pendant necklace, with a five-carat pink diamond, that carries an estimate of $2.2 million to $3 million. One of the other top lots is a pinkish-orange diamond ring estimated at $800,000 to $1 million. "Colored diamonds are collector's items," explains Hoda Esphahani, head of jewelry at Sotheby's New York. "They are more expensive and rare than white diamonds, and collectors of colored diamonds are very attuned to the tone and purity of the color."

While the Sotheby's sale emphasizes colored diamonds, Christie's has taken a historical approach, grouping many of the lots together according to the era or style in which they were designed. Even the cover lot, a diamond necklace designed for Nicole Kidman's character Satine in the recent film Moulin Rouge, is a modern reworking of the garland style of necklace fashionable in 1890s Paris. With a total of 134 carats, the necklace has an estimate of $750,000 to $1 million.

"Satine," a diamond necklace by Stefano Canturi, est. $750,000 to $1 million.

The most expensive lot at the Christie's sale is an enormous, nearly 75-carat diamond pendant necklace, with an estimate of $4.2 million to $4.8 million.