An extremely rare Kashmir sapphire has sold at auction in Dublin for €550,000 – the “highest price ever seen” in Ireland for a gem of its kind and almost 70 times its original estimated value.
The highly sought-after sapphire on a ring – originally estimated to be valued at between €8,000 and €12,000 – was brought to auction in Adam’s auction house by a French woman who did not want to be identified.
Claire-Laurence Mestrallet, head of the jewellery and watch department at Adam’s, had the sapphire and diamond ring tested in a lab specialising in identifying gems.
To her surprise, the stone was identified as a Kashmir sapphire, with the estimate rising up to €150,000 and €200,000.
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Kashmir sapphire originally valued at €8,000 to €12,000 sells at auction in Dublin for €550,000
Ms Mestrallet sought further confirmation of the stone’s origin, having it tested at the world-renowned Swiss Gemological Institute (SSEF) which found it was a high-quality Kashmir sapphire.
She said the sapphire ring generated “wide international interest” due to its rarity and a large number of prospective buyers “flew in to view it”.
“This is the highest price ever seen in Ireland for such a ring, and the most spent on a piece of jewellery so far this year here,” Ms Mestrallet said.
“It is a really rare sapphire. There were a lot of bidders online, on the phones and in the room, so the bidding was frenetic.”
The ring was sold to an international agent bidding in person so Ms Mestrallet said she did not know yet whether it would be staying in Ireland or going overseas.
The ring carried a 25 per cent sales commission of €130,000.
“Kashmir sapphires have tripled in value in the last decade and this Kashmir sapphire and diamond ring is part of a private collection of eight pieces, which the French seller inherited from her parents,” said Ms Mestrallet.
Kashmir sapphires are prized for their unique colour and texture – a vivid and well saturated blue sometimes described as cornflower blue with a slightly velvety appearance – and their rarity.
The gems were first found in 1881 when a landslide in the Zanskar mountains – a remote Himalayan area in northern India – exposed a 30m-wide (100ft) area of pegmatitic rock with blue crystals.
Locals began to trade the stones for salt. By 1882, the blue gemstones had reached Delhi and other areas of India.
Sapphires have been a symbol of power, strength and wise judgment for centuries.
