Handbags: Winning the Purse

By Jenny B. Davis Photos by Rodger Mallison

Bidding was brisk and earnest as the small but well-heeled crowd thumbed through dog-eared pages of thick, slick auction catalogs. Two banks of staffers kept up with Web-generated bids, while others paced back and forth in the back of the room near the giant silver champagne bucket, consulting with eager buyers via cellphone.

The auctioneer's tone was measured and genteel -- a rapid-fire style would be too swift for those following along online -- but the tension and excitement were still palpable as bidders jockeyed for prized items, sending prices soaring well into the tens of thousands, occasionally even into the hundreds of thousands.

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It wasn't art that was in demand on this December evening, or even fine jewelry or historic collectibles. In a traditional sense, that is. On the block were purses -- hundreds of purses, all part of the new Handbag and Luxury Accessory auction category that Heritage Auctions debuted just over a year ago.

This event was only the third such sale for the Dallas-based company, and the final total for the two-day event was an impressive $1,833,065. It took about two minutes for one man on the floor to snap up a black leather Hermès Birkin bag for the woman sitting beside him, a quilted Chanel tote at her feet. When the gavel fell at the $18,000 mark, she thanked him with a kiss on the cheek.

But the item of the evening was unquestionably a show-stopping Hermès "Diamond Birkin" fashioned from flaming red crocodile and accented with solid 18-karat white gold and diamond-pavé hardware. It sold for $203,150, setting a world auction sales record. Other Birkins sold that night for as much as $113,525.

Such totals came as no surprise to Matthew Rubinger, Heritage's director of luxury accessories. "It's an interesting niche where fashion meets vintage and luxury," he says. The category holds instant appeal, he says, and it's bringing in a new, often untapped audience: people who might otherwise have been intimidated to participate in an auction. Indeed, Heritage makes it easy to get involved -- all items are listed online and also are shown during open-to-the-public previews in New York, Dallas and Beverly Hills, and the auctions are broadcast live over the Web. Registration is free, and bids can be submitted with a single click. Rubinger says buyers run the gamut "from aspirational people looking for a great deal all the way to people who have unbelievable access to wealth who are looking for one bag in one color." That latter category, he notes, includes celebs, stylists and even royalty.

To bring the best items to the market, Rubinger personally culls handbags and 20th-century costume jewelry (think Chanel and Lanvin) from private collections all over the world. Although he visits the closets of many bold-faced names, provenance is never attached to an object. "We want buyers to create their own history," he says, and many of his sellers, as well as buyers, appreciate the privacy. (That privacy also extends to payment -- only the registered bidder who made the purchase may complete it, and in-person pick-ups require a photo I.D.)

Sellers decide to part with their bags for a variety of reasons, Rubinger says, and it's not always an easy decision. "I tell my consigners that they'll know it's time to sell when, after an amount of time, they haven't used the bag. For some that's a month, for some it's a year or years." With the holiday auction now behind him, Rubinger is currently traveling the world to fill the sales catalog for the May auction -- he'll be evaluating and accepting new items through February.

What's he looking for? Luxury materials and condition are important, he says, but ultimately it's the brand that brings the bids. The Hermès bag is the clear auction king -- Birkin first, Kelly second -- but Chanel and Louis Vuitton are also in high demand, Rubinger says. He generally looks for high-quality, classic bags (Bottega Veneta is another strong brand), but he also caters to collectors, especially those who snap up limited-edition crystal-encrusted minaudières from designers like Judith Leiber and Kathrine Baumann (the more whimsical, the better).

Rubinger is also carefully watching the market for Louis Vuitton "Show Bags" -- single-season collaborations between the storied French design house and modern artists like Takashi Murakami that began in 2001. "I am convinced they're going to come back because they're so rare," he says.

Exclusivity fuels value, especially with Hermès. "That's what makes this category so interesting -- because of the difficultly in getting the color you want, a brand-new Birkin, for example, could absolutely sell at or above retail," he says. "If you are an Hermès collector, you are a very smart collector."

Rubinger allows that society's fascination with fashion -- especially fashion and celebrity --contributes to the cachet of luxury bags. Whether it's a Kardashian toting a Birkin or the buzz surrounding a blockbuster museum show of McQueen or Gaultier, it all factors in, he says. "Just Daphne Guinness existing as a human being helps this category."

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