Harry Winston Diamonds Sparkle at Phillips Sale

RAPAPORT... A pair of diamond earrings by Harry Winston was the top-selling item at a Phillips auction in New York, bringing in $390,600.Created in 1957, the earrings contain two pear-shaped diamonds weighing 5.27 and 5.76 carats, as well as two marquise-cut diamonds. The price fell just shy of its $400,000 upper estimate at the June 25 auction, which fetched a total of $3.8 million, Phillips said last week.Other notable items included a pear brilliant-cut, 10.11-carat, faint-pink, VVS2-clarity diamond ring, which sold for $378,000, near its high valuation. Two rare pear mixed-cut, red Burmese spinels weighing 16.76 and 16.69 carats went for $302,400, within their estimate. Those gems have been removed from their original earring settings, which contained pear-shaped and round brilliant-cut diamonds. As well as getting the loose spinels, the purchaser received the old settings without the stones attached, as well as an artist rendering by Pamela Hastry showing a possible new earring design for the spinels. The buyer can use that sketch to get the stones reset following the sale if he or she chooses to, Phillips noted.Meanwhile, a ring set with an old-European-cut, 23.90-carat, S- to T-color, SI2-clarity diamond achieved $252,000, within its presale valuation, while a 5.50-carat Colombian emerald and diamond ring sold for $201,600, missing its low estimate. Pieces by more obscure designers also fared better than usual, the auction house noted."We were very happy to see an incredible breadth of bidding activity from all over the globe, and especially encouraged to sell some of the less frequently seen artists so well, such as Taffin and Bill Smith, hand in hand with the iconic brands and collectibles that made our sale strong," said Sara Payne Thomeier, head of jewels for the Americas at Phillips.In total, the auction house sold 87% of items on offer.Image: The Harry Winston diamond earrings. (Phillips)