Rare Kashmir Sapphire Brooches Fetch Nearly 1.4 Million Euros at Dublin Auction

SRINAGAR: Two exceptionally rare Kashmir sapphire brooches, hidden in a sealed family vault for nearly four decades, have sold for nearly €1.4 million at an auction in Dublin, far surpassing their estimated value, the Irish Examiner reported.

According to a report in the newspaper, the gems were once owned by relatives of the seventh Earl of Wicklow and drew frenzied bidding at Adam’s auction house on Tuesday afternoon.

Valued at up to €250,000 each, the brooches soared far beyond expectations. Lot 46 was sold for €540,000 after intense phone bidding, while lot 47 fetched €550,000. With a combined commission of 25 Percent, the total for both sales reached €1.36 million.

The auctioneer quipped to bidders in the room, online, and on the phone: “You wait for a long time for one rare sapphire to come along, then two do at the same time.”

Kashmir sapphires are considered among the most prized gemstones in the world, celebrated for their rich, velvety blue hue — superior even to the finest stones from Burma or Ceylon.

The brooches formed part of 18 lots that all sold on Tuesday. The jewellery collection traces back to New York’s Gilded Age, when Benjamin Aymar Sands and his wife Amy Kirby Akin gifted their daughter May Emily Sands a trove of jewels on her 1908 marriage to the Honourable Hugh Melville Howard, youngest son of the sixth Earl of Wicklow.

The family’s fortunes took a tragic turn. Hugh died young of pneumonia, and May later suffered from psychological illness. Their children, Katharine and Cecil, were raised in Ireland by their uncle, the seventh Earl of Wicklow. Katharine, a prominent figure in Irish public life, remained in Wexford until she died in 1990, when the family vault was sealed.

Claire-Laurence Mestrallet, jewellery specialist at Adam’s, said the current owner decided to part with the collection, which also included diamond, sapphire and emerald rings, gold coins, a diamond choker necklace, and a pearl pendant. “It was jewellery she doesn’t intend to wear,” Ms Mestrallet noted, adding after the auction that both sapphire brooch buyers were foreign.

“This rediscovered private collection of exquisite jewellery brings to light a charmed time and place,” she said.

The record-breaking sale follows another milestone at Adam’s last May, when a Kashmir sapphire ring fetched €550,000 — the highest price ever paid in Ireland for such a gem.