The big apple's big carats
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The Cole Porter Necklace, for example, is an aquamarine-studded necklace with ruby accents fashioned like a belt designed by Duke Fulco di Verdura for American jeweler Paul Flato in 1935. This particular piece (worth nearly $2 million), christened such after its owner, is on the cover of the book Paul Flato: Jeweler to the Stars. It appeared in Harpers Bazaar in 1935, American Vogue in 1944 and, recently, Karl Lagerfeld used it as an inspiration for a belt in the Chanel Paris-Byzance collection of 2011.
The Baron de Rothschild Art Deco necklace, made by Cartier in 1924, has two large emeralds, sapphire beads with Indian Mogul floral carving and diamond rondelles. It will be lent to the Denver Art Museum for a Cartier exhibition from October 2014 to January 2015. A Van Cleef & Arpels diamond-studded bangle with a pear-shaped diamond and sapphire of 3 and 3.5 carats respectively was featured in three reference books and three exhibitions of the French brand at the Musee des Arts Decoratifs in Paris, Cooper-Hewitt in New York and the Mori Arts Center in Tokyo.
"Jewelry is between the worlds of intrinsic value, design and rarity. Paintings have a value but you can't rip them apart like jewelry where you can use the gold and stones," explains Siegelson. Thus, he considers every piece a work of art with him as the dealer, promoter and educator. This is why Siegelson participates in the most prestigious art fairs. He is a regular exhibitor and favorite at art fairs such as the Paris Biennale des Antiquaires, Masterpiece London, Baselworld and for the past three years, Fine Art Asia in Hong Kong.
The Asian market accounts for 25 percent of Siegelson's business, which is primarily American. He views the Hong Kong fair as "part of the education process" and developing a clientele that "is confident and comfortable buying from me ... Three years is a short period of time to educate a market and develop a long-term one". He cites Parisian jeweler Fouquet as a maker not well-known and loved in Asia but famous in the West.
