Christie's previews Chaumet natural pearl necklace for Geneva sale

That combination is exactly what pushes a pearl necklace from beautiful to investment-grade. The house name matters because Chaumet carries a documented lineage back to 1780, when Marie-Etienne Nitot founded the Paris maison. The era matters too: a 1949 necklace sits in the post-war period when design leaned elegant rather than ornate, and collectors value that restraint. So do the stones. Natural pearls are far scarcer than cultured examples, and the old- and rose-cut diamonds signal period authenticity rather than a later remake. When a piece is unsigned, the paper trail has to work harder, which is why the Chaumet certificate and Gübelin report are so important.

Angela Berden, Christie’s jewellery specialist and head of sale in Geneva, called it “a rare opportunity” for collectors to acquire museum-quality pieces. She was speaking in a sale that also featured signed jewels by Cartier, Boucheron, Harry Winston, Van Cleef & Arpels and JAR, a lineup that made Geneva a concentrated market test for historic high jewelry rather than a single-house showcase.

Christie’s has been clear that natural pearls remain exceptional because many on the market were harvested more than a century ago, before pearl culturing became widespread. The benchmark is still Elizabeth Taylor’s La Peregrina, which set two world auction records at Christie’s in 2011. More recent sales show the appetite has not cooled. In New York on 11 June 2024, a natural pearl, cultured pearl and diamond necklace sold for $378,000, five times its high estimate, while natural pearl and diamond earrings brought $277,200, almost ten times the estimate.