Now Live: Liz Taylor Collection Auction
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I don't understand it, either. Lot 324 just sold for $12,000 but the price listed as "realized" on it on Christie's site says $15,000. It isn't a currency discrepancy, as the item was bid on in dollars, so I don't know where/how the other $3K came from, as I wouldn't think that fees, etc. would be added to the "sold for" price.
The listed selling price includes hammer price plus buyer's premiums. The buyer has to pay a certain percentage to the auction house. Not sure what it was for this auction.
I'm stunned that their charging 600.00 for her book - My Love Affair With Jewlery and the extra book.
A few yrs ago I bought 5 of these books for 15.00 each and gave them away as Christmas gifts. This book has the most amazing photos of all her jewlery and she wrote stories of how she got her pieces. It's a beautiful book (if there's such a thing).
A few yrs ago I bought 5 of these books for 15.00 each and gave them away as Christmas gifts. This book has the most amazing photos of all her jewlery and she wrote stories of how she got her pieces. It's a beautiful book (if there's such a thing).
I just went to check it out on the market sellers.....647.00!!! I can't believe how cheap I bought the book (brand new) a few yrs ago. I didn't even keep one for myself. I'm going to call my Mom and let her know her gift from a few yrs ago is now worth 600.00.
The Elizabeth Taylor A-Z Souvenir publication is still selling on line at Christie's for 20.00 is now being sold for 190.00 on e-bay.
I ADORE that book, and have worn out my copy! I love her attitude toward jewelry--she had fun with even the most inexpensive pieces, but, "I still have a safe."
I also loved knowing the stories behind her jewelry--especially the "Ping-Pong Ring."
Hi everyone, I am not usually on this thread but thought I would drop in to see what was in the jewelry forums about the ET auction. I have not been on TPF in a while so never got a chance to see what was going on here, so I'm sorry to bump the thread.
I wanted to share that I was not one of the lucky ones to attend the live auction but did register for the online auction as I have a Christie's account. I had a lot of fun over the duration of the online portion and got to "know" a lot of the pieces really well. The opening prices on everything were incredibly "realistic" and so I put in initial bids on a lot of things, for which I was not outbid for many days.
The "real" bids always only came in in the last few minutes when you could refresh your screen and see the prices jump, jump, JUMP !! You could feel your heart thud in your chest. You had to be logged in to see this happen, and with only a few minutes of inactivity the site would log you out. I hated it when I was watching a particular piece jump, and forgot to do something with the screen, and I'd be logged out, as unfortunately, the auctions would "disappear" as soon as they ended.
Fortunately I have been able to find that if you look up on Google "Elizabeth Taylor Lot 1178" for example, or try another number, you can gain backdoor access to the rest of the final auction proceeds. Keep in mind that the final numbers they show there are a good 20% over what the final bids were. So I am not sure what Jill Zarin's ring, just for example, was worth, if it was a $19K bid and a $24K purchase, or a $14.5K bid and a $19K purchase.
I did not end up winning any of the items I originally bid on, and did win items I only bid on in the last 2 days of the auction. By that time I had gone through all the items carefully enough (seeing what I was losing and evaluating that, vs. things that seemed to attract curious attention) so that I had settled on certain items.
I ended up winning a lovely suite of matching semi-precious earrings, pendant necklace and matching brooch, and two rings, one simple and one fancy. I was lucky in that Elizabeth had been photographed wearing at least one of my items. I wish I had done more research beforehand on this! I know others did.
One of the more interesting things, bordering on the funny, is that for all the fanfare, the items were shipped more simply than I've had keychains shipped from eBay. In one case, with the most expensive item, I nearly believed that the item wasn't even in the packaging, as I discovered it was merely put into a tiny zip lock bag with sticker bar codes on the bag, wrapped up in a bunch of tissue paper (no presentation box) and put directly into the shipping box with only a quick mass lavender-print insert card saying 'thank you for your purchase from the ET collection.'
It arrived insured with signature required, but wow. Those moments when I thought there was nothing at all in that one package gave me a brief heart attack!
I wanted to share that I was not one of the lucky ones to attend the live auction but did register for the online auction as I have a Christie's account. I had a lot of fun over the duration of the online portion and got to "know" a lot of the pieces really well. The opening prices on everything were incredibly "realistic" and so I put in initial bids on a lot of things, for which I was not outbid for many days.
The "real" bids always only came in in the last few minutes when you could refresh your screen and see the prices jump, jump, JUMP !! You could feel your heart thud in your chest. You had to be logged in to see this happen, and with only a few minutes of inactivity the site would log you out. I hated it when I was watching a particular piece jump, and forgot to do something with the screen, and I'd be logged out, as unfortunately, the auctions would "disappear" as soon as they ended.
Fortunately I have been able to find that if you look up on Google "Elizabeth Taylor Lot 1178" for example, or try another number, you can gain backdoor access to the rest of the final auction proceeds. Keep in mind that the final numbers they show there are a good 20% over what the final bids were. So I am not sure what Jill Zarin's ring, just for example, was worth, if it was a $19K bid and a $24K purchase, or a $14.5K bid and a $19K purchase.
I did not end up winning any of the items I originally bid on, and did win items I only bid on in the last 2 days of the auction. By that time I had gone through all the items carefully enough (seeing what I was losing and evaluating that, vs. things that seemed to attract curious attention) so that I had settled on certain items.
I ended up winning a lovely suite of matching semi-precious earrings, pendant necklace and matching brooch, and two rings, one simple and one fancy. I was lucky in that Elizabeth had been photographed wearing at least one of my items. I wish I had done more research beforehand on this! I know others did.
One of the more interesting things, bordering on the funny, is that for all the fanfare, the items were shipped more simply than I've had keychains shipped from eBay. In one case, with the most expensive item, I nearly believed that the item wasn't even in the packaging, as I discovered it was merely put into a tiny zip lock bag with sticker bar codes on the bag, wrapped up in a bunch of tissue paper (no presentation box) and put directly into the shipping box with only a quick mass lavender-print insert card saying 'thank you for your purchase from the ET collection.'
It arrived insured with signature required, but wow. Those moments when I thought there was nothing at all in that one package gave me a brief heart attack!
Oh, regarding the Catalogue and ET "My Love Affair with Jewelry" ... yes, they bundled the two, reprinting the "Love Affair" book for this particular auction. I only know this through a piece on the net (something about "How Christie's scored the Elizabeth Taylor Jewels" or close to it) but apparently there was a lot of work behind the scenes as Elizabeth knew she was in decline and wanted everything to be just so when she did pass. It was all apparently very well organized in advance, to the extent that I believe she personally autographed a great number of the bundles to be sold for $2500.
They were not even available by the time I looked, which was a few days post auction-end. I did purchase one of the non-autographed bundles, which was $600. Ironically, considering my purchase, the catalogue only documents the live auction items and there is no way my purchases even figure into the book on her most famous jewels. Although I do not regret the purchase at all.
The box set did arrive again in a lovely lavender/violet box.
They were not even available by the time I looked, which was a few days post auction-end. I did purchase one of the non-autographed bundles, which was $600. Ironically, considering my purchase, the catalogue only documents the live auction items and there is no way my purchases even figure into the book on her most famous jewels. Although I do not regret the purchase at all.
The box set did arrive again in a lovely lavender/violet box.