The FORTUNA Glossary

Auction Terms

Absentee Bid

A maximum bid left in advance with the auction house, executed competitively on the bidder’s behalf during the sale.

Auction Estimate

The published range a specialist judges competitive bidding is likely to produce for a lot. A guide for bidders — not an appraisal, a minimum, or a guarantee.

Buyer’s Premium

A percentage added to the hammer price, payable by the buyer as part of the total purchase price. FORTUNA’s current schedule is published in the Conditions of Sale; the Bid Calculator applies it instantly.

Consignment

The arrangement by which an owner places property with an auction house for sale, under agreed terms, while retaining ownership until the lot sells.

Fair Warning

A live auctioneer’s courtesy announcement that the hammer is about to fall on a lot.

Hammer Price

The price at which bidding ends and the lot is sold, before buyer’s premium and any applicable taxes or charges.

Increment

The step between one bid and the next, set by a published ladder that scales with price level.

Live Auction

A sale conducted in real time by an auctioneer, lot by lot, with bids taken in the room, by phone, online, or in combination.

Lot

A single item, or group of items, offered for sale as one unit under one number in the catalog.

Maximum (Proxy) Bid

A private ceiling entered on a bidding platform; the system bids the minimum necessary on your behalf until competition exceeds your limit.

Paddle

The numbered card (physical or digital) identifying a registered bidder; “paddle number” survives as the term for a bidder’s ID.

Passed / Bought-In

A lot that did not meet its reserve and therefore did not sell — available, often, for post-sale conversation.

Registration

The identity and payment verification a bidder completes before being approved to bid.

Reserve

The confidential minimum, agreed between consignor and house, below which a lot will not be sold. Conventionally at or below the low estimate.

Settlement

The post-sale payment from auction house to consignor after the buyer has paid, on the timeline stated in the consignment agreement.

Soft Close / Extended Bidding

In timed auctions, the automatic extension of a lot’s closing time when a bid arrives in the final moments — ensuring last-second bids can be answered.

Timed Auction

A sale in which lots open and close on a published schedule, bids being placed online during the window. FORTUNA’s standard format.

White Glove Sale

An auction in which every lot sells — the trade’s term for a perfect result.

Withdrawn

A lot removed from sale before bidding closes.

Jewelry Terms

Antique Jewelry

Generally, jewelry around one hundred years old or more.

Assay

The official testing of precious-metal content; assay marks attest to fineness and often to place and date.

Baguette

A narrow, rectangular step-cut stone, used architecturally in settings — a hallmark of Art Deco design.

Bezel Setting

A setting in which a rim of metal encircles and secures the stone — protective, sleek, and ancient.

Channel Setting

Stones set in a continuous metal channel, side by side, with no prongs between.

Demi-Parure

A partial matched set of jewelry — commonly two or three coordinated pieces.

Estate Jewelry

Jewelry that has been previously owned, of any age.

Filigree

Fine openwork of delicate metal threads, characteristic of Edwardian and earlier craftsmanship.

Hallmark

Official marks struck into precious metal attesting to fineness, and depending on country, to maker, place, and year.

Karat (k)

The measure of gold purity in 24ths: 18k is 75% gold (marked 750 in European convention). Distinct from carat, the gem weight.

Maker’s Mark

The registered stamp of the workshop that made a piece — sometimes accompanying a retail signature, sometimes the only identity a piece carries.

Millegrain

A decorative edge of minute beading on a setting — a refinement typical of Edwardian and Art Deco work.

Mounting / Mount

The metal structure of a piece, considered apart from its stones.

Parure

A full matched suite of jewelry — historically necklace, earrings, brooch, and bracelet together.

Pavé

A surface “paved” with many small stones set closely together, the metal nearly disappearing.

Prong Setting

Claws of metal holding a stone above the mount to maximize light — the classic solitaire setting.

Signed Jewelry

A piece bearing the verified signature or marks of its maker — Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany & Co., and peers — typically broadening its market.

Vintage Jewelry

Jewelry roughly twenty to one hundred years old, identified by the design language of its decade.

Diamond Terms

Brilliant Cut

The faceting style engineered to maximize returned light; the modern round brilliant is its standard form.

Carat (ct)

The unit of gem weight: one fifth of a gram. One carat divides into 100 points.

Certificate / Report

A laboratory document stating a stone’s measurements, grades, and detected treatments. It describes; it does not value.

Clarity

The grade describing a diamond’s internal and surface characteristics, from Flawless through the Included grades.

Culet

The small facet (or point) at a diamond’s base; visible open culets are a signature of old cuts.

Cushion Cut

A square-to-rectangular outline with softened corners; the ancestor and descendant of the old mine cut.

Emerald Cut

A rectangular step cut with trimmed corners; prized for clarity, elegance, and hall-of-mirrors light.

Fancy Color

A diamond whose color falls outside the white D-to-Z scale — yellows, pinks, blues, and rarer hues, graded by intensity.

Fluorescence

A diamond’s glow under ultraviolet light, graded None to Very Strong; its effect on appearance varies stone by stone.

Girdle

The outer edge of a stone where crown meets pavilion — where chips most often occur and settings grip.

Inclusion

An internal characteristic — crystal, feather, cloud — mapped by clarity grading; the fingerprint of a natural stone.

Melee

The small diamonds — typically under a fifth of a carat — that surround and accent larger stones.

Old European Cut

The round, hand-cut predecessor of the modern brilliant (late 19th–early 20th century): smaller table, higher crown, warm broad light.

Old Mine Cut

The earlier cushion-shaped hand cut (18th–19th century), made for candlelight — soft, deep, and increasingly cherished.

Point

One hundredth of a carat: a 50-point diamond weighs half a carat.

Table

The large flat facet on top of a cut stone.

Transitional Cut

Diamonds cut in the early 20th-century passage between old European and modern brilliant proportions.

Gemstone Terms

Asterism

The star effect seen in certain cabochon-cut rubies and sapphires, produced by oriented inclusions.

Beryl

The mineral family of emerald (green) and aquamarine (blue).

Cabochon

A stone polished into a smooth dome rather than faceted — the oldest way of finishing a gem, and Bulgari’s signature gesture.

Clarity Enhancement (Oiling)

The longstanding practice of filling surface-reaching fissures in emeralds with oil or resin to improve clarity — graded by degree and always to be disclosed.

Corundum

The mineral of ruby and sapphire — one species, many colors.

Emerald

The green variety of beryl; treasured for color, famously included, customarily clarity-enhanced, and demanding of gentle care.

Origin

A laboratory’s opinion of the geographic source of a stone, reached from inclusions and chemistry. Storied origins can carry significant premiums.

Padparadscha

The rare pink-orange sapphire named for the lotus blossom.

Pigeon’s Blood / Royal Blue

Trade and laboratory color terms for top ruby red and top sapphire blue — descriptive conventions, not guarantees.

Ruby

Red corundum; the rarest of the big three in fine qualities, where untreated stones command exceptional premiums.

Sapphire

Corundum in every color but red; blue unless otherwise stated, with “fancy” colors named (yellow sapphire, pink sapphire).

Treatment

Any human process that alters a stone’s appearance — heat being the classic example in corundum. Acceptable when disclosed; the absence of treatment in fine stones is heavily rewarded.

Unheated / No-Heat

A laboratory finding that a ruby or sapphire shows no indications of thermal enhancement — a major value factor in fine stones.

Watch Terms

Automatic Movement

A mechanical movement wound by a rotor responding to the wearer’s motion.

Box & Papers

A watch’s original packaging and documents — warranty or certificate, booklets, receipts. “Full set” describes a watch retaining them all.

Bracelet

The metal band of a watch; correct, period-right bracelets matter to collectors and value.

Caliber

The maker’s designation for a specific movement design.

Case

The housing of the movement and dial; its unpolished edges, hallmarks, and proportions are central to condition judgment.

Chronograph

A complication adding stopwatch function, with separate timing hands and pushers.

Complication

Any function beyond hours, minutes, and seconds — from a simple date to a minute repeater.

Dial

The face of the watch. Original, untouched dials — honest aging included — are the heart of collectible value.

Lume

The luminous material on hands and markers; its aging behavior helps date a watch and define its originality.

Manual Wind

A mechanical movement wound by hand at the crown.

Mechanical Movement

A movement powered by a wound spring and regulated by a balance — the craft tradition at the center of collecting.

Moon Phase

A complication displaying the lunar cycle in an aperture.

Patina

The honest aging of dials, lume, and cases — in the right form, a virtue rather than a flaw.

Perpetual Calendar

A complication tracking date, day, month, and leap years without manual correction.

Reference Number

The maker’s model designation — how the market identifies exactly which watch a watch is.

Serial Number

The individual number identifying a specific example, often dating its production era.

Service History

The record of a watch’s maintenance — dates, servicers, parts — forming part of its biography and value.

Tropical Dial

Collector’s term for a dial whose color has aged evenly into warm brown tones — prized when attractive and original.

Handbag & Accessory Terms

Blind Stamp

Hermès’s discreet embossed marks recording craftsman and year — part of dating and verifying a bag.

Condition Grade

The secondary market’s tiered language for a bag’s state, from pristine to well-loved, built from itemized inspection.

Date Code

Louis Vuitton’s internal code (by era) recording where and when a piece was made — consistency with the bag’s features matters more than the code alone.

Dust Bag

The protective cloth bag supplied with fine leather goods; part of completeness.

Exotic Leather

Skins such as crocodile, alligator, and lizard — the top of the price ladder, sometimes carrying documentation requirements for cross-border movement.

Hardware

The metal elements of a bag — clasps, locks, chains, feet; plating wear and engraving depth are condition tells.

Vachetta

The untreated natural leather trim on Louis Vuitton canvas pieces, designed to darken with use.

Condition & Provenance Terms

Attribution

A specialist’s reasoned opinion that a piece is the work of a particular maker, absent full documentation — worded precisely in catalogs (“attributed to”).

Condition Report

The specialist’s written account of a lot’s state: wear, repairs, alterations, functionality — available on request for any FORTUNA lot.

Conversion

A piece altered from its original form — a brooch to a pendant, a pocket watch to a wristwatch. Honest conversions are disclosed; they affect period integrity.

“In the Style Of”

Catalog language promising resemblance only — no claim of maker or period.

Original Surface

Metal that retains its factory finishing — unpolished edges, crisp hallmarks; once polished away, unrecoverable.

Originality

The degree to which a piece retains its as-made stones, parts, and surfaces — a primary axis of collectible value.

Period

“Of the period” means made in the era its style suggests — as opposed to a later revival in that style.

Provenance

The documented history of ownership and origin — receipts, archives, photographs, prior sales. Strong provenance can add interest and value; its absence is normal.

Replacement Parts

Non-original components — a later clasp, a service dial, swapped hands — disclosed in honest descriptions and weighed in value.

Restoration

Professional work returning a piece toward its original state. Sympathetic, disclosed restoration is accepted; identity-changing work is not the same thing.

Definitions are general guides to usage in the auction and collecting world; precise meanings can vary by context, and the Conditions of Sale govern all FORTUNA transactions. Suggest a term we should add — we read every note.