David Warren is a world-renowned jewelry auctioneer. The international director for Jewelry at Christie’s House of Auction in London started his career over 30 years ago at Scotland’s biggest auction house. He moved to Christie’s head office in London in 1980.
Warren was responsible for starting Christie’s jewelry and watch auction in Dubai in 2005 and helped in developing jewelry activities throughout the Middle East.
What brings you to Saudi Arabia?
The fourth Annual Jewelry Exhibit in Jeddah is the main reason for my current stay, but I like to come to Saudi Arabia as often as I can. Christie’s is very keen to develop business in this part of the world, so any opportunity to come here is important.
Christie’s opened an office in Dubai in 2005. Are there any expansion plans for the Middle East or the GCC specifically?
In the last 30 years we have grown from a local company to a global company, so we are always expanding. Opening another office in this region depends on how business develops and on finding the right staff to do the job. That’s difficult. Running an auctioneering business is not like a hospital. If you need 10 doctors, you can just find and hire them. Most of our staff members advance to responsible positions in the company. Developing new parts of the world is a highly responsible part of what we do. Most of our staff members have been a part of Christie’s for 10, 20 years: A very long time.
You have been working for Christie’s for over 30 years. It must be a wonderful career.
I’ve been working for 35 years to be precise and it has gone by in a flash. My days are extremely varied and I never know what will happen. One minute I’m in Saudi Arabia giving a lecture, the next I can be at a bank in Zurich or I could be down in an emerald mine in Columbia or talking to government officials in Burma. The variation is one of the things I like about my job. I’m drawn to this business because I love the art and work in jewelry. I don’t specialize in anything other than jewelry. I don’t have time to. But I do love being surrounded by the arts. When I have time, I will look at exhibitions. There are paintings I love and Scottish colorists in particular. Scotland is where I’m from.
What has attracted you to Jeddah? Is it the local jewelry stores that fill our malls? Have you had time to visit some of the local stores?
Unfortunately I haven’t found the time yet. I have been very busy but would love to check out the great quality of work I’m sure many have. What brings me here is that our clients, specifically in Geneva, have a tremendous interest in this part of the world. Many of our clientele are Arabs of the GCC, Saudis from Jeddah and Riyadh to be precise.
One of the most recognized princesses in the Kingdom is the wife of Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, Princess Ameerah Al-Taweel. Would you like to bejewel her, or any other Saudi personality?
I would like to bejewel any lady to be honest, because that is what Christie’s is all about. We supply jewelry to everybody in any shape or form. Be it diamonds, rubies or pearls, tiaras or earrings, or selling a 101-carat flawless pear shaped diamond for $ 20-30 million on Nov. 15 in Geneva. As we speak, the auction house is selling a 34-carat cushion pink diamond called ‘Princie’ from an old Indian mine, worth $ 35 million. Such pieces would work very well with the princess and it would be a real pleasure to work with any of the royal houses in the Gulf.
Pearl hunting is a part of the heritage of many Gulf states. Owning pearls as well as gold is important to us. Would you like to see more Arabic or Arab influenced fine pieces being auctioned?
Yes, of course I would love to see more Arabic pearl set jewelry in particular. In one of the Dubai jewelry sales in 2008, I wanted to create a natural pearl jewelry section. It was very difficult to have a whole sale of natural pearls because they are so rare and hard to find. I had 30 lots of pearls in that sale, including the pearl that sold for $ 2 million. There was also the largest colored drop-shaped pearl ever recorded in that sale. We had an old Indian necklace, made of nine strands of natural pearls. It belonged to Um Kalthoum, gifted to her by the late Sheikh Zayed Al-Nahyan of the UAE.
“Of all the items I’ve seen over the past 35 years that stand out, the majority are now on display in the Doha Islamic Museum in Qatar. These are mostly 17th century emerald pieces that came from the Emperor Jahangir period of the Mughal Empire.
“One specific pearl dated back to 1574. It is thought to once have belonged to Jalaluddin Akbar of the Mughal Empire. The date is inscribed in pearl on its enameled gold cap and the jewel was sold in a Christie’s sale.
Another very fine and precious item is a cup made of three pieces of emerald. The bowl alone is 400 carats, made of very pure, fine emerald of great clarity. It is a thinly carved hexagonal bowl with six wheel-cut hexagonal frame patterned sides. History books state that Jahangir had 30 cups and the most precious were the emerald ones, of which he had a few. Each of the eight faces of the cup are carved in a fish scale pattern and the edges are very fine. It’s a tremendously skilled and dangerous job to hollow it out and turn into a finely thin piece of emerald.”
You were responsible for bringing fine pieces of historical Indian jewelry to the auction house. What prompted you to do so?
In 1995, my managing director at the time asked me what we could do to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Indian Independence. The anniversary would be in 1997, so I said I’d like to try and have an Indian jewelry sale that had never been done before. It was either going to be a complete disaster or a complete success. He gave me the approval to try it. Many Indians came for the sale and it was an absolute success.
Given the triumph at the 1995 auction, have you seen a repetition with this type of auctions that provide very special historical pieces?
Yes absolutely! I did these sales for 10 years. It takes two years to find such special pieces. Every auction it gets harder and harder and the top pieces are very hard to find. In the process of pulling off these sales, people now come to me with their pieces. When something special comes in the market, I quite often place it in the show room.
Speaking of special gems, what is the story behind your favorite diamond, the Agra Diamond?
The Agra Diamond is a 32.24-carat stone. It is a fancy light pink cushion-shaped diamond and it belonged to an elderly lady in Scotland. She always used to tell me she had some gemstones of national importance. This was back in the late 1980s, and I confess I didn’t really believe her. Not many people do, and certainly not someone living in a small village up in Scotland. One day she invited me up for lunch and she brought over a tin box and opened it. Not only was there the Agra, there was also an 18-carat yellow diamond, which was sold for a world record price for a yellow diamond. It was the best I’ve ever seen. She also brought out a nearly 10-carat round greyish-blue natural diamond and a few diamonds of various shapes and colors.
“I traced the history of the diamond and found that it originally came from India in 1526. It was recorded that Emperor Babur wore the Agra in his turban. The stone was later passed down among the Mogul emperors. In the late 19th century, the stone was smuggled out of India by an English officer and reached London. It was sold to an American railroad engineer, named Louis Winans, who built trains in Russia. He enjoyed collecting gemstones and the Agra then became of his treasured pieces. The old lady was a relative of his and when he died, her mother took her and her sisters each received tin boxes with precious jewels inside. During World War II, she dug a hole in the ground and kept the box there for safety. Later on in her life, she moved it to a safe at the bank. Whenever she retrieved it, she would just keep it in her car, drive around town and leave the tin box unattended in the front passenger seat.
“When we finally sold the Agra, it made $ 7 million — a world record price for any colored diamond in 1990. The stone is bewitching, especially in light of its history and is one of my favorites. It is a wonderful feeling to have held it in my hand, such a beautiful stone. The color changes from light to light or angle to angle. That’s how magnificent it was.”
As a jeweler who deals with the finest of gems from all around the world, what is the most important piece of jewelry every woman should have in your opinion?
Her wedding ring, simply. There is so much emotion attached to that ring so you want it to be something you love. Of course the husband should be loved more than the ring, but all in all it’s an iconic piece of jewelry to every woman.
Email: [email protected]
