Barneys’ Pressman Family to Auction Jewelry, Furniture, Decorative Arts

With Barneys New York, Fred and Phyllis Pressman created an emporium of designer finds for shoppers, and this fall Freeman’s | Hindman’s will be auctioning some of the jewelry, furniture and decorative art that they found for themselves.

“Property from the Collection of Phyllis and Fred Pressman” will be featured in a series of five sales that will be held more than a year after the death of Phyllis Pressman and 29 years after her husband’s passing. As chairman of Barneys New York, Fred Pressman transformed a discount men’s suit store into what was once the most directional retailer for designer goods and effortlessly cool items. In the 1990s, the lunch crowd at the Madison Avenue flagship’s restaurant attracted power players from fashion and media, as well as celebrities creating a daily hive of gossip and dealmaking. Pressman’s father Barney and mother Bertha started the company in 1923.

Under Fred Pressman’s leadership, Barneys expanded from a mom-and-pop menswear shop in the Chelsea section of Manhattan into an internationally renowned chain with 14 stores and seven outlets in the U.S. and a volume of $425 million for the year ended July 1995. The couple and their offspring abided by the mantra “Select. Don’t settle.” That approach seems to apply to the upcoming lots of jewelry, fine art, furniture and decorative objects that are reflective of Phyllis and Fred Pressman’s refined taste, and they are being culled from the couple’s homes in New York City, Southampton, and Palm Beach.  

For the “Important Jewelry” live event that will take place in Chicago on Sept. 16, it will include a Bulgari yellow gold and diamond necklace that has a pre-sale estimate of $30,000 to $50,000, and a Bulgari gold and diamond bangle bracelet listed at $12,000 to $18,000. There will also be baubles from Harry Winston and Van Cleef & Arpels.  On Oct. 24, as part of the “Interiors: The Phyllis and Fred Pressman Collection,” there will be an online offering of furniture and decorative art including paintings by Frederick Carl Frieseke, Edward Henry Potthast, William Merritt Chase, Robert Reid and other artists. The auction house’s live “Post War and Contemporary Art” sale on Nov. 14 will have some Pressman pieces too. There will be Pressman-owned items in “The Holiday Edit: Jewelry and Luxury Handbags” sale on Nov. 18 in Chicago, as well as a designated section of the “American Art and Pennsylvania Impressionists” auction on Dec. 7 in Philadelphia.

Some of the key pieces that will be sold include a sapphire and diamond necklace that has a pre-auction estimate of $50,000 to $75,000, an emerald-cut diamond ring that has a pre-sale estimate of $35,000 to $45,000, and Cartier diamond and sapphire “Panthère” hoop earrings.

Bidders and browsers will see how the late couple’s possessions reflected their sophisticated style. Several of the pieces that will go under the gavel will reflect the sharp eye of Phyllis Pressman, who showcased artisans and designers in Barneys’ “Chelsea Passage.” There, she created a sharp-eyed selection of home decor, antiques and jewelry that was displayed in interiors designed by such talents as Peter Marino, Andrée Putman and Jean Paul Beaujard. The jewelry in the sale is “very comprehensive, because it speaks to the Pressmans’ lifestyle collection and their impeccable attention to detail,” according to April Matteini, senior vice president and head of department for jewelry at Freeman’s | Hindman’s. “There are also some interesting antique jewelry pieces, which may or may not have come from the Chelsea Passage. They have that sort of vibe at least,” she said.

Referring to the chunky gold Bulgari pieces, as well as the Van Cleef & Arpels ones, Matteini noted how they are timely and they have unusual patterns. Given that, they speak to how the Pressmans could spot a trend and sought out the unusual.

Guests at Freeman’s | Hindman’s inaugural “Hamptons Summer Soirée” at the Southampton Arts Center on July 25 will get a glimpse of a sampling of the jewelry and luxury handbags from the Pressman Collection that will be on view. As a kick-off event to the company’s summer auction season, the July 25 event will give attendees early access to the Pressman Collection as well as Southampton SEEN, photography by the fashion-designer-turned-interiors-designer and author Steven Stolman, who lives in Southampton.

The Pressmans were at one time familiar faces in Southampton too, as the owners of a nearly 6,000-square-foot oceanfront property. When their seven-bedroom stucco Meadow Lane manse with a tennis court and swimming pool in Southampton was listed in 2020, it had an asking price of $52 million. [It is currently listed for $38.5 million]. In early September, there will be more to explore about the Pressmans’ reign in retail. The couple’s son Gene, who served as co-CEO, has written the book “They All Came to Barneys: A Personal History of the World’s Greatest Store.”