HONG KONG, June 5 — In a packed bidding room last Monday, Christie’s Hong Kong hosted its 30th-anniversary auction. The tightly curated catalogue featured 30 lots, each chosen for its desirability and origin in categories such as fine art, ancient ceramics, jewellery, watches and rare wines.

And handbags.

One of the auction’s stars was a 12-inch Hermès Birkin matte Himalayan crocodile handbag, with white-gold hardware set with 245 F-colour diamonds, weighing close to 10 carats. With a presale estimate of US$190,000 (RM777,337) to US$260,000, it was billed as “the most valuable handbag in the world.”

The standing-room-only crowd, mostly from mainland China, with a smattering of collectors from Taiwan and Japan, watched with barely bated anticipation as Jussi Pylkkanen, the global president for Christie’s, presided from the podium over bidders who drove prices for the Birkin quickly past US$128,679 (or about HK$1 million ). In a mere four minutes, the bag was sold (to a private collector), and a record set, at US$244,490, before a buyer’s premium (for a total of US$300,168, just over the standard retail price of US$280,000).

That an Hermès Birkin fetched more money than a hanging scroll belonging to the Chinese Empress Dowager Cixi of the Qing dynasty (HK$1 million), or a rare, solar-powered dome clock by Patek Philippe (also HK$1 million), is testament to the mythical status the bag commands.

“Our London office began auctioning off fashion items as part of estate sales in the 1990s, and in 2000 began including contemporary handbags as collectors’ pieces,” said Matthew Rubinger, the Hong Kong-based international director of handbags and accessories for Asia. After a successful stint selling bags in online auctions, Christie’s opened its handbags and accessories departments in Hong Kong and Paris in 2014. Christie’s now holds twice-yearly handbag and accessory auctions in Hong Kong, alongside its more traditional sales.

As to the frenzy over the Himalayan Birkin (aside from the diamonds), “White is the hardest colour to achieve with crocodile skin, as you have to remove all of its natural pigment,” Rubinger said of the graduated tone from grey to white, inspired by majestic mountains. “To find a bag in its unused condition is even more rare.”

The seller was a private collector who had owned the unused Birkin since 2008. It is believed that only one or two of these bags are produced each year by the Hermès atelier.

Rubinger’s job is now focused on sourcing the bags for his growing clientele and assessing the quality of the consigned products on a four-grade scale (from a score of one for a brand-new bag to a four for a used one). Many of his customers are clients of Christie’s and collectors of jewellery and art, but Asia’s affluent customers are quickly fuelling demand.

“Chanel has always done well in the secondary market, and we also sell Gucci and Balenciaga, but Hermès clearly is the leader,” he said, adding that the client base “is split between Asia and Europe,” with many repeat customers.

“Our previous record-holder was a 35-centimetre fuchsia crocodile Birkin with diamond hardware, which sold for 1.4 million, without the premium,” he said, referring to the sale in Hong Kong dollars. “Custom orders and exotic skins are always popular. Lizard skin is having a moment right now.”

Birkins have climbed in value by 500 per cent in the last 35 years, an increase expected to double in the next 10 years, according to baghunter.com, an online platform for buying and selling luxury handbags.

This may be why — even beyond auction houses — a secondary Birkin market run by a handful of resellers has sprung up in settings from Japan to Florida. Brand Off’s flagship store in Tokyo’s Ginza district is just a short walk from Hermès’ own flagship boutique while the pre-eminent reseller in Paris, Loic Bocher, the founder of Collector Square, has created the LuxPrice Index, a referencing chart for Hermès, as well as for watches and jewelry, with results from about 200,000 auction transactions. He acquires his bags from a network of shoppers in Europe with ties to Hermès boutiques and resells them to customers in the Middle East and Asia. His showroom, elegantly decorated like a home, rather than a vintage boutique, displays an array of Hermès Birkin and Kelly bags, as well as Chanel’s classic 2.55 handbag.

In the United States, Privé Porter, a dealer based in Boca Raton, Florida, sold a red crocodile Birkin with diamond hardware last year for US$298,000. Jeff Berk, Privé Porter’s founder, who had previously sold liquidated luxury watches, started selling Birkins on eBay in 2012. “We received an overwhelming amount of interest on the bags,” he said of the two he sold, “and my wife and I pulled together US$250,000 to invest in our first inventory. It’s been a process of consolidation, as we started to work with a VIP clientele, stylists and those who have relatives working at Hermès to receive a steady supply of bags.”

Sixty per cent of Berk’s clients are from the United States and 30 per cent from the Middle East and Asia, with the remainder from South America, he said. He has a staff of five, and a warehouse of about US$1.5 million in handbags. “There is just something about a Birkin,” he said. “It’s like owning a Mercedes-Benz: When you close the door of a Mercedes, it sounds different than a Toyota. And that’s what Hermès customers know and buy into. To many of our customers, to own this bag is to achieve a sense of competence like nothing else.”

All of which makes the fact that Wednesday’s follow-up auction at Christie’s included 200 handbag lots — more than half of which were Birkins — and that handbag sales for the two days totalled US$5,044,890 a little more understandable.

“As handbags become more easily traceable, and values continue to increase, more collectors are seeing their handbags as assets,” Rubinger said. “Even those with no intention to sell want to better understand the lasting value of these pieces.” — The New York Times