Sotheby’s moved a lot merchandise today. The jewelry trade press found a lot to be happy with:

In keeping with auction tradition, fine signed and decorative jewelry sold well at Sotheby’s New York sale as no matter what happens in the economy strong prices are always realized for these items. The sale tallied up $11,098,638 and was sold 68 percent by lot and 55 percent by value.

The top lot of the sale was a diamond necklace, which sold to a European private collector for $698,500. An Asian private collector nabbed the second top lot of the sale — a 13.98-carat GVS2 diamond ring for $482,500, or $34,514 per carat. Although the sale lacked the very special large DIF stones that generally sell at auction there was still movement in diamonds, but mostly in the under 10-carat range.

Bidding was primarily from the private sector with some in the trade holding back on buying diamonds because they felt that prices were a bit steep, or they weren’t the stones the dealers could flip quickly.

Diamonds Hold Steady at Sotheby’s New York Auction (Diamonds.net)