'This one,” says Fiona Frith, holding out a ring set with a stunning blue-green paraiba sapphire, “is extremely exciting.” It’s incredibly rare and therefore very valuable. Frith should know – she’s the jewellery expert at Bonhams Sydney. It’s also the kind of treasure that pushed her to think about holding Bonhams’ first ever high jewellery auction in Australia.

“Ordinarily, we’d take them overseas, where they are very sought after. But I kept seeing these gorgeous pieces leave the country and I thought, ‘If we have so much fabulous jewellery here, why not hold an auction in Australia?’ ”