SPARKLING DIAMONDS at NOONANS MAYFAIR

A sparkling array of stunning diamond rings will highlight the sale of Jewellery, Watches, Silver and Objects of Vertu at Noonans Mayfair on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. 

Leading the diamonds is a 9.03 carat brilliant-cut diamond single stone ring, expected to fetch £40,000-60,000. A diamond dress ring with the cut-cornered modified brilliant-cut diamond, weighting 5.01 carats of E colour, is estimated at £36,000-40,000 and a diamond ring with a cushion-cut diamond weighing 5.04 carats carries an estimate of £30,000-40,000.    An early 20th century platinum set old mine-cut diamond ring of 3.72 carats, is expected to reach £18,000-26,000.  Several of the rings were consigned at Noonans’ regular valuation days in Colchester and Hampstead. 

The sale also includes an early 20th century Sri Lankan untreated yellow sapphire pendant and a pair of yellow sapphire earrings ensuite, retailed between 1903-191 by leading gemstone dealers of the day, O. L. M. Macan Markar, in Colombo, and estimated at £30,000-40,000. The pendant and earrings were acquired for Edith Hartley, most probably during the period when her husband Charles Hartley was Headmaster of Royal College, Colombo, between the years 1903-1919. The suite has remained in the same family since their purchase and is now being sold by direct family descendants.  O. L. M. Macan Markar were important gem dealers in the late 19th century and early 20th century, who set up business in the Grand Oriental Hotel, Colombo, the most prestigious hotel in Ceylon during the Colonial period. Their clientele included highly placed British Colonial officials, the British nobility and members of the Royal family including the Prince of Wales, later Edward VII, who visited Colombo in December 1875, and the Duke of York - later George V.  During his visit in 1901, the Duke of York viewed the exhibition of gems especially displayed in the King’s Pavilion in Kandy and made purchases from O. L. M. Macan Markar, complimenting the firm on their “excellent collection of gems”.  

Among the early rings is a fine 15th century gold seal ring engraved with a Popinjay (the early French word for Parrot) and estimated at £4,000-6,000. The ring was purchased in the Burlington Arcade, London in 1992.  The sale will offer various detectorist finds - including a late 15th century Medieval sapphire set ring, engraved with flowerheads, and discovered in Tarrant Crawford, Dorset, less than 200m from the Church of St Mary the Virgin. This church is all that remains of Tarrant Abbey, an immensely important and powerful Cistercian nunnery, founded in the 13th century and destroyed during the Reformation. The ring carries an estimate of £4,000-6,000.

Silver items include a late 19th century Dutch large silver stag table ornament, estimated to sell for £4,000-5,000 and a Victorian silver peg tankard of Regimental interest, for the Scots Greys, measuring 23.5cm high and is expected to fetch £1,500-£1,800.