At Hess Fine Art and Old Northeast Jewelers, we spend most of our days doing what we’ve done for decades, selling and buying expensive watches and fine jewelry and, of course, these days, with gold over $4,000 per ounce, buying gold, silver and jewelry from our Tampa Bay neighbors. With precious metals hovering near record highs, plenty of people have been stopping by to turn unwanted or inherited pieces into cash, and we’re always happy to help.
But every so often, amid the steady rhythm of scrap gold and silver, something truly special walks through the door. This month, a Tampa Bay retiree brought us a breathtaking Van Cleef & Arpels brooch and matching ring — early examples from the very beginning of the famed Hawaii collection. While Van Cleef still produces small, dainty versions of the Hawaii line today, finding original pieces from the late 1930s and early 1940s is nothing short of extraordinary.
The collection was first introduced in 1938 and featured delicate flowers made of rubies, sapphires, and diamonds — a joyful expression of color and optimism just before the world went to war. As Van Cleef & Arpels themselves note, “The Hawaii collection was first presented in 1938 and featured small flowers with varying numbers of petals, combining rubies, sapphires and diamonds. A clip version was famously worn by the Duchess of Windsor, a bouquet of stylized flowers attached to polished yellow gold stems.”
Our consignor’s father purchased the oversized Burmese ruby and sapphire brooch in 1939, and then returned to Van Cleef in 1943 to buy the matching ring for his daughter. We offered her more than $30,000 for the set, but she opted to place it with us at auction, where it carries an estimate of $40,000 to $60,000, with our firm taking only a modest commission.
These rare jewels are currently on view in our St. Petersburg showroom, and we invite collectors, historians, or anyone who loves beauty to stop by and see a true treasure. Even on days filled with weighing gold chains and sorting silver, discoveries like this remind us why we fell in love with this business in the first place. Come see us — we will beat all offers!
