I’m definitely planning on catching Christie’s exhibition of Elizabeth Taylor’s fine jewelry December 3-12th better known as “The Crown Jewels of Hollywood.” All world tour dates can be found here: http://www.christies.com/events/?event=elizabeth-taylor-world-tour.

Taylor’s legendary collection is estimated to fetch north of $30 million but that is probably low considering the quality and provenance of these gems.  While most of the pieces carry estimates in the six and seven figure range the wedding bands she received from Richard Burton are a very reasonable $6,000-$8,000. Happy bidding!

On my way out the door to work this morning looking for something to read on the train, I rifled through yesterday’s mail and found a catalog from a posh local retailer, RIchards/Mitchells. This family-run mini chain of stores prides itself on personalized service and knowing its customers (read more here: http://www.inc.com/magazine/20050401/26-mitchell.html). Among other things the store has a fantastic jewelry counter showcasing Paul Morelli, Kimberly McDonald, Temple St. Clair, H. Stern and more!

The Fall catalog is peppered with with anecdotes about how putting the customer first has helped them build their business. I was surprised and delighted to see one page devoted to Oscar Heyman http://www.oscarheyman.com/, another family-run business with a focus on quality and customer service. I’ll be sharing more about Oscar Heyman in a future post.

I heard from a jewelry-loving friend that sellers are flooding the estate market these days bringing lots of interesting pieces to the auction houses. Doyle http://www.doylenewyork.com/ is having a sale on September 21st and when I browsed the catalog recently I found much to covet.

By the way, gold closed at $1830.10 an ounce today.