Could you compare a handbag to a great piece of art or a rare jewel? In one very important sense you can.
In recent years, rare, luxury handbags have become collectors items, increasing in value and selling for vast sums at auction. In May this year, Christie's, Hong Kong, broke the world record for the third year running, for the most expensive bag ever sold at auction. The item in question was a white crocodile Hermès Himalaya encrusted with 10.23 carats of diamonds. And the sale price? £293,000 to an anonymous telephone bidder. It pipped the previous record holder (another white, diamond encrusted Himalaya) which sold in 2016 for £208,175.
To explain the astronomical prices, Christie's head of handbags and accessories Matthew Rubinger says there has been a mindset shift when it comes to bags. “If you substitute the word handbag for jewellery or watches, then it makes more sense,” with buyers looking for rare, beautifully crafted pieces with provenance. He adds, “There’s an importance to it now and we try to choose pieces that are culturally relevant.”
Christie's has long been the go to house for handbag auctions. It presided over the very first designer bag sale in 1978 when a navy blue, flap-bag from the personal collection of Coco Chanel which was bought by Smithsonian Institute for $800. Christie's now has whole department devoted to selling rare and collectible designer handbags and hosts six sales a year. Much of Rubinger’s time is spend coaxing collectors to put their prized pieces up for sale.
The latest auction is set to be held on December 12 in Paris and will be a red-letter day for serious collectors. Rubinger does not expect to break the world record (there is a white croc Himalaya Kelly included in the catalogue but it isn’t diamond encrusted and has a guide price is £53,763-71,684) however he does expects to break the European record.
His most prized sale item is a rare Hermès Kelly once owned by Elizabeth Taylor. Apart from its provenance, the bag’s size marks it out. It’s a Kelly 20, an unusual, in-between size which Hermes stopped making over 15 years ago. The seller acquired it at the blockbuster sale of Taylor’s jewels and personal effects in 2011, which is still the most valuable jewellery and fashion auction ever held. Back then it’s provenance was its main selling point. Now however its rarity – the fact that you can’t buy that size Kelly anymore - makes adds significantly the frenzy.
“It’s conceivable that we will have the Kelly collectors and the Liz Taylor collector fighting over it,” says Rubinger. “This is one opportunity to have an interesting dynamic piece. It looks like a classic Kelly just smaller. It’s highly collectible because even if you have all the access to all the Hermès stores in the world, they just don’t make it anymore and it is in perfect condition. It ticks all the boxes - the piece is great, the condition and the provenance.”
It’s worth adding that there are plenty of regular Kelly’s and Birkins in the sale (guide prices start at around £3000) and if you are serious about having one for Christmas, this is the best way to beat Hermès's infamous waiting lists.
Other items of note include a collection of runway bags from Chanel fashion shows. According to Rubinger, interest in this area is growing as often a house will make special one-offs or very limited edition items for the catwalk which is exactly what dedicated collectors are after. He expects a Chanel bag in the shape of a Matryoska doll, from the Paris-Bombay Metier d’art autumn/winter 2012 collection to fetch the highest price in this category with its guide of £3,584-5,376. “Runway bags are super collectible. People ask for them all the time. With this style, they only made a couple of different versions for a couple of different runways.” The seller, he says, has never worn it.
Also in the sale is a collection of 40 crystal encrusted Judith Leiber and Katherine Bauman crystal encrusted evening bags all owned by one seller. The Leiber bags (including a crystal polar bear and penguin) all date from the Eighties to Nineties, an important time scale for collectors because Leiber ceased designing in 1999 when she sold the company. Bauman is lesser known that Leiber but her witty bags - a crystal coke can, Campbell's soup tin and Perrier Jouet champagne bottle (the guide price for all three is £1,344-2,240) - were all made in such limited numbers that they have become desirable. “People want to stand out have something different to what everyone else has, they want a conversation piece,” says Rubinger. And they are willing to pay for it.
There’s one bag that Rubinger dreams of putting up for auction, the fabled Bijoux Kelly, made in the fine jewellery department at Hermès – it’s a fully functioning evening bag. “It’s a mini Kelly but the whole thing is solid gold imprinted with crocodile. The handle is gold and diamonds and can be taken off and worn as a bracelet. It might take me the next decade to bring one to auction but if I do it will smash every record.”
Source: vogue.co.uk