A Sotheby’s sale of fine jewels in London, UK, made a total of £3.64 million ($5.14 million), with a 1930s sapphire and diamond ring emerging as the top-selling lot at the auction.

The spring sale at Sotheby’s New Bond Street salesroom yesterday was the auction’s house first jewellery auction for the year.

With estimates ranging from £1,000 to £60,000 ($1,400-85,000), the sale presented 374 jewels dating from the 19th century to the present day.

The top lot of the evening was a 1930s sapphire and diamond ring, which sold for £112,500 ($159,000), more than twice its pre-sale estimate of £30,000-50,000 ($42,800-71,500). The ring’s sapphire weighs 17.84 carats and is of Ceylon (Sri Lankan) origin.

Among other highlights, a 1930s sapphire and diamond bracelet sold for £87,500 ($123,000), a fancy intense yellow diamond ring sold for £77,500 ($109,500), a 1930s ruby and diamond necklace sold for £65,000 ($92,000), and a ring with a 10.78-carat emerald of Colombian origin sold for £58,750 ($83,000).

Sotheby’s has been uniting collectors with world-class works of art since 1744. It became the first international auction house when it expanded from London to New York (1955), the first to conduct sales in Hong Kong (1973) and France (2001), and the first international fine art auction house in China (2012). 

Today, Sotheby’s presents auctions in nine different salesrooms, including New York, London, Hong Kong and Paris, and a BidNow programme allows visitors to view all auctions live online and place bids in real-time from anywhere in the world.