Bonhams Paris Auction Spotlights 182 Lots of Signed Fine Jewellery

Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr will bring 182 lots to Avenue Hoche on 19 March 2026 for its Fine Jewellery Paris live sale, a cross-era survey that moves from mid-19th century enamelwork to a vivid Bulgari bracelet from 1980, with signed pieces by Cartier, Boucheron, Chaumet, Graff, Tiffany & Co., Van Cleef & Arpels, and Buccellati filling the space between.

Marine Girardet, Bonhams Head of Jewellery, France, describes the sale as drawing heavily from private hands: "The forthcoming Fine Jewellery Paris sale offers a remarkable selection of jewels, many sourced from private collections. The lots highlight exceptional craftsmanship across eras, from antique and Art Deco masterpieces to contemporary designs, featuring an abundance of colourful gemstones, including a significant collection of emeralds and playful, vibrant creations. A standout lot is a Bulgari coloured gemstones sprung bracelet, circa 1980, set with pink and green tourmalines, amethysts, blue topaz, and citrine cabochons, a modern piece poised to captivate collectors worldwide."

The top estimate in the sale belongs to a diamond necklace designed as a series of articulating links set with old brilliant-cut diamonds, carrying a presale estimate of €60,000 to €70,000. Close behind it is a sapphire and diamond ring: an oval-cut stone of Sri Lankan origin weighing 25.56 carats, set within a brilliant-cut diamond surround, estimated at €25,000 to €35,000. Both lots underscore how consistently Sri Lankan sapphires command the upper tier of the coloured-stone market, particularly when the origin is documented.

The Boucheron diamond clip brooch from circa 1930 offers one of the sale's clearest windows into the Art Deco period. Its scrolling silhouette is set throughout with old brilliant, circular, and baguette-cut diamonds, and carries an estimate of €10,000 to €15,000. A convertible Art Deco bracelet, which can be separated into brooches, is estimated in the same range. That kind of functional ingenuity was characteristic of the interwar decades, when jewelers designed pieces to travel across different social occasions.

Among the antique highlights, a mid-19th century snake bangle stands out for its technical specificity: the hinged piece is designed as a coiling serpent decorated with royal blue guilloché enamel, with rose-cut diamond accents and ruby cabochon eyes, estimated at €5,000 to €7,000. Guilloché enamel, which requires engraving a precise pattern into metal before applying translucent enamel over it, is painstaking work rarely attempted in mass production, which makes surviving 19th century examples particularly worth examining. An enamel and diamond openwork rosette brooch, also mounted in yellow gold with black enamel and rose-cut diamonds, enters the sale at a more accessible €1,500 to €2,500.

The Bulgari Tubogas gold link necklace with a pear-shaped diamond front is estimated at €7,000 to €10,000. Tubogas construction, in which strips of gold are coiled into a flexible tube without soldering, became one of the house's signatures and remains highly collectible. A geometric Frohmann gold necklace set with brilliant-cut diamonds and a diamond tiara with blue enamel round out the illustrated highlights circulating ahead of the sale.

With private-collection provenance across much of the catalogue and a gemstone focus that spans emeralds, sapphires, rubies, and fancy coloured diamonds, the March 19 sale at Avenue Hoche arrives as one of the more substantive signed-jewellery offerings Bonhams Paris has assembled for a live event. The full catalogue is available through Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr.