A handbag auction in London could see the record for the most expensive bag ever sold in Europe smashed – as one piece is expected to fetch upwards of £150,000.
The 10-year-old diamond-encrusted Hermès Himalaya Birkin has reportedly whipped handbag connoisseurs into a frenzy ahead of the landmark sale on Tuesday next week.
As only one of three ever to go under the hammer, the bag has already drawn a lot of interest from collectors and has a guide price of between £100,000 and £150,000.
That puts it tantalisingly close to the record for the most expensive bag ever bought at auction in Europe – which stands at £155,000.
The 10-year-old diamond-encrusted Hermès Himalaya Birkin which could set both a European and world record when sold in London next week
The auction has created a vast amount of buzz among handbag collectors due to the number of rare pieces in the sale
In fact it is not inconceivable that the receptacle could smash the world record as well, after a similar Hermès Birkin was sold by Christie’s in August 2016 for £206,000.
Only last month two Hermès Birkin bags sold for £130,000 and £119,000 in Hong Kong, far in excess of their estimates.
But the Birkin is by no means the only unique bag going under the hammer.
a white Hermès bag painted with the red Nasa logo and signed by the New York artist Tom Sachs – which has an estimate of £20,000 to £30,000.
One of the more eye-catching lots is the Chanel Matroyshka doll handbag which has a guide of between £3,000 to £5,000
A Chanel bag in the shape of the company’s famous perfume bottle which is expected to fetch between £2,000 and £3,000
A Lucite No 5 perfume bottle handbag, which had instant waiting lists when it retailed for £5,800 less than four years ago, has a guide price of £2,000-£3,000.
A Chanel robot evening clutch and another in the form of a matryoshka doll, complete with pearl-buttoned jacket, join a satchel sloganned with ‘Make Fashion Not War’ from a 2014 Paris fashion week show staged as a protest march.
‘Only three of these particular bags have ever come up for auction,’ says Christie’s handbag specialist, Rachel Koffsky.
‘We don’t think there are many of them out there. I have my fingers crossed that we will break records with this bag.’
Another remarkable design is the 2017 Black Lucite Chanel evening bag in the shape of a robot
A white and red Ardennes Leather Hermes bag painted with the NASA logo by artist Tom Sachs