The Auction Jewels of Fei Liu

The Chinese-born designer, who creates one-of-a-kind pieces specifically to go under the hammer, is taking his business stateside after years in the UK.

April 3, 2025
Elisa Anniss

Fei Liu’s star is on the rise among private collectors. In the past, the UK-based, Chinese-born fine jeweler sold his namesake pieces globally through leading stores — including Harrods, Neiman Marcus, and Mitsukoshi in Japan — and via high-profile events in China. But post-lockdown, he pivoted away from luxury retail, landing on the novel idea of creating made-for-auction pieces instead.

As the first mainland China-born student to graduate from the UK’s prestigious Birmingham School of Jewellery in 2006, Liu has always forged his own path. From the earliest days of his jewelry career, he won a slew of international awards, including Harper’s Bazaar China’s Designer of the Year accolade in 2012, and Designer of the Year at the 2016 UK Jewellery Awards. He also bucks the trend in terms of location: Unlike other prominent British brands like Theo Fennell or Stephen Webster, both in London, Liu has his atelier in Birmingham, a city in England’s West Midlands that boasts Europe’s largest concentration of jewelry businesses.

Chalcedony brooch by Fei Liu image — **Chalcedony brooch. (Fei Liu)**

The pandemic effect

I first met Liu at a jewelry colloquium this past November at the Royal Treasure Museum in Lisbon, Portugal, where topics included gemstones with stories — such as the Hope Diamond, now in The Smithsonian, and Queen Maria Pia of Savoy’s Castellani jewelry. His ears must have pricked up when he heard Pedro Girao — chairman emeritus of the international advisory board at Christie’s — talking about successful sales of imperial and royal jewels at auction. After all, for the last four years, Liu has been selling via auctions himself in China, the UK and the US.

One example is his gem-set Poppies in Love brooch with rubies and diamonds, which fetched HKD 82,875 ($10,667) at Bonhams Hong Kong in November 2022. It’s no wonder his lodestar is an artist whose works are in high demand at auction: the late Andrew Grima, doyen of modern jewelry design.

“My real journey with auction houses started in 2021 after the pandemic, when everyone was struggling,” Liu tells me in a recent Zoom interview from Dubai. During that time, he noticed a marked shift in high-end consumers’ spending habits away from luxury stores and toward auction houses.

“Sale prices achieved went up, up, up, while at Bonhams, jewelry sales went from happening four times a year before the pandemic, to every month,” he recalls. It was a trend he spotted across the board. “It became obvious to me that after the pandemic, sales at auction houses had increased by more than five times at Bonhams and Christie’s in particular.”

Auction sales now account for 50% of the Fei Liu brand’s business by value. Bonhams is the auction house with which the designer works most closely, although his pieces have also sold at UK houses Dreweatts and Fellows, as well as Tajan in Paris.

Fei Liu unicorn necklace in rhodium-plated gold, with detachable Russian nephrite brooch image — **Unicorn necklace in rhodium-plated gold, with detachable Russian nephrite brooch. (Fei Liu)**

LA lots

Los Angeles is currently where Liu has set his sights. Last summer, he sold a pair of 18-karat-gold earrings with mother-of-pearl and yellow sapphires for $2,048 at a Bonhams Los Angeles weekly online sale.

Selling to Americans gives him greater creative freedom, he says. “The American audience is completely different from the UK consumer — far more open-minded, looking for good quality and good value.”

And it isn’t just high jewelry. He’s noticed savvy consumers shifting from department stores to auction houses in the California city as they discover that auction pricing structures are more likely to tip in their favor than are those of conventional retail.

“Bonhams has had the privilege to sell several Fei Liu jewels in our salerooms from Los Angeles to London,” affirms Emily Waterfall, head of the auction house’s Los Angeles jewelry department. “What I truly admire about Fei Liu is how he’s established himself as a boutique designer, creating one-of-a-kind pieces that feel so personal and unique. Clients are drawn to his use of color and his keen eye for exceptional stones. The elegance and versatility of his pieces make them perfect for everyday wear and special occasions.”

She also praises the artist himself. “As someone who’s had the chance to see his work up close, I can tell you that Fei pours so much care into every piece,” she says. “He is one-of-a-kind, just like his jewelry.”