35.01-Carat Graff diamond ring fetches $3.2 million at Sotheby's New York High Jewels auction SOTHEBY'S

Diamonds, rare colored gems and signed jewels from important private collections fueled Sotheby’s High Jewelry auction in New York on Friday. The top lot of the sale, as expected based on pre-sale estimates, is a 35.01-carat emerald cut diamond on a ring from Graff with D color and VVS2 clarity. It fetched $3.2 million, just above its high estimate.

The Graff gem is one 13 jewels from a private collection, “Joie de Vivrea: Journey in Jewels,” a bejeweled documentation of a lifelong love affair. Each piece was a gift from a devoted husband to his wife over the course of a marriage spanning more than 60 years. The collection of approximately 11 jewels—including pieces by Graff and David Webb—achieved $4.9 million.

The number two lot of the sale was a ruby and diamond sautoir, circa 1915, by important American retailer, Marcus & Co. (1892 – 1962). The drop-shaped pendant features a 9.60-carat cushion-cut unheated Burmese ruby, within a surround of old European-cut diamonds, framed and topped by caliber-cut rubies. The chain is set at intervals with old European-cut diamonds with the openworked clasp set with pear-shaped, old European- and single-cut diamonds. It sold for more than $1.8 million.

The sautoir was one of four jewels from the collection of Emily Vanderbilt Wade, the daughter of William Henry Vanderbilt, III, former governor of Rhode Island, and the great-granddaughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt. The Wades and Vanderbilts are two storied American families credited by many with shaping the American industrial, cultural and philanthropic landscape.