Sotheby’s Steps into the Bespoke-Jewelry Space

In an era when authenticity and personal touches reign supreme, the recent launch of Sotheby’s Bespoke — a service that lets clients tap into the auction house’s pool of experts for custom high-jewelry commissions — signals a new direction for the 280-year-old company’s jewelry department. 

Long known for bringing rare and historic jewels under the hammer, Sotheby’s is now positioning itself in the growing market for personalized high jewelry. To make its mark in this competitive space, the auction house is leveraging its access to exceptional stones, its reputation for prestige pieces, and the deep relationships it already has with private jewelry collectors.

“[The bespoke jewel is] a blank canvas,” says Paul Redmayne, Sotheby’s senior vice president for luxury private sales, who spearheaded the launch of Sotheby’s Bespoke this summer. “It really is a genuine dialogue. It’s client-led, and we’re lending our expertise.”

Before turning his hand to auctions, Redmayne worked for a slew of luxury jewelers, including Cartier, Piaget, Harry Winston, and Moussaieff. That experience is serving him well in this undertaking.

“My background is 20 years in retail, eight years in auctions, and so [Sotheby’s Bespoke is] just a natural extension of what I was doing in my retail life for a lot of the top clients,” he explains. “You do a lot of personally created, bespoke, pièce unique [work], and it’s bringing that to Sotheby’s, where we have this incredible network.”

Made to order

Sotheby’s is in a rare position: It can combine the intimacy of boutique service with the gravitas and reach of a global luxury institution.

The Sotheby’s Bespoke experience begins with an unhurried consultation to draw out the client’s vision, whether it’s reimagining a family heirloom or designing something completely original. Once the client has settled on the details, specialists source exceptional gems — an emerald-cut, D-flawless diamond or a richly hued sapphire — and pair them with artisans who can transform raw beauty into refined design.

“We can source any stone, we can work geographically anywhere, we can make a piece anywhere…because we have that global footprint,” Redmayne emphasizes. “It truly is a global service.”

And the turnaround time is surprisingly fast. “We can do it in three weeks or under,” he says. “The speed and the price are the big differentiators for us, because you’re using the auction pricing — so [it’s] secondary-market pricing even though it’s brand new.”

The delivery itself is no less of a luxury product. “We give a framed gouache of the final piece. It’s such an emotional keepsake. It’s wonderful.”

Personal value

There are few barriers when it comes to the creative freedom each client enjoys in their commission. “For example, if someone’s wedding anniversary is November 25, we can cut a stone into 25.11 carats,” Redmayne says.

He recalls helping one client create a ring for a confluence of special occasions. “It was his wife’s 40th birthday, coinciding with the birth of their second child. I found him a 3-carat Golconda [diamond that was] D, internally flawless. I said, why don’t we put a little diamond inside the shank so that it’s worn against the skin? Only you and your wife will know. And we did a 0.02-carat [stone] for the older child and a 0.01-carat for the new, smaller arrival. And he loved it.” 

Another client wanted to commission a baby pin as a gift for a close friend who was expecting, and worked with Redmayne to customize a design featuring the baby’s name in Arabic calligraphy with a pear-shaped, 2-carat diamond in rose gold.  

In a market awash with fleeting trends, there is something timeless about a jewel made solely for one person. Whether it commemorates a life event, celebrates a relationship or carries the weight of future inheritance, a bespoke jewel is designed to endure for generations. Formalizing the move into this personalized space has been “a natural progression for Sotheby’s,” according to Redmayne.

“There’s definitely appetite [for it, coinciding] with the individualization we’re seeing in the wider luxury market,” he observes. “Gone are the days when people want to see their necklace, their earrings, their bracelets on 15 people in a room at a function.”

Main image: A design for a Sotheby’s Bespoke ring. (Sotheby’s)