Christie’s New York featured exceptional diamonds and pearls in their fall jewelry auction on October 16. It was Christie’s first auction of the autumn season and featured a dazzling array of magnificent jewels from rare gemstones to flawless diamonds, natural pearls and signed pearls, considered some of the best to come up for sale in the last five years.

Rahul Kadakia, Head of Jewellery for Christie’s America and Switzerland, explained: “Our team of jewellery specialists has spent the summer months gathering the finest gems to match current collecting tastes, including top-quality diamonds, natural pearls, emeralds, rubies, sapphires, rare vintage jewels and highly coveted, contemporary creations from the best designers.”

Stunning diamond jewels weighing more than 50 carats each and exceedingly rare double strand of large natural pearls were among the scores of top-quality gems offered from the finest makers. Diamonds in excess of 50ct each achieved in excess of $35 million from 369 lots. Selling for $3.1million, the 68.35ct fancy oval-cut intense yellow diamond is internally flawless and a magnificent sight.

Even more exquisite was a pear-shaped D-colour impeccable diamond pendant necklace going for an astonishing, $9.5million. This stunning necklace goes well with the diamond ear pendants that went for $4.7million. The stone is mounted in platinum and may be worn dangling from a necklace with a 2.28 carat, circular-cut D-color diamond surmount, available with a GIA certificate noting the stone’s exceptional polish and outstanding symmetry.

Although diamonds are a girl’s best friend, it wasn’t all about diamonds. Made up of 120 large pearls, ranging in colours from white to light creams, a rare double strand of natural pearls, complete with a 3ct D-colour diamond clasp signed by Cartier, reached its estimate of $3.5 million.

Also up for auction were a range of signed jewelry by Van Cleef & Arpels … the more colourful of these were two mystery-set pieces. Tripling it’s estimate with a $278,500 sale, the “honeycomb” motif ruby and diamond bracelet uses the exclusive setting technique to great effect – the hexagonal stones create a brilliant contrast with the curve of the bracelet. A pair of ruby and diamond ear clips with matching brooch, also by Van Cleef & Arpels, in the form of a flower blossom with diamond pistils and leaves, went for nearly three times its estimate, selling for $260,500.