A deep blue Chris Ofili sculpture of painted nickel; a citrine and gold ring by the great 20th century jeweller Suzanne Belperron; and a vintage ebonised wood and camel-skin stool – what do these things have in common? “It’s all just stuff I love,” explains the jeweller Solange Azagury-Partridge of the array of items she has curated for online auction house Paddle8. “It gives people a taste of my influences and my world. If I could have every single thing in the auction, I would!”  When Paddle8, an online “marketplace for collectors” asked Azagury-Partridge to guest-curate a selection of items, she sent them “a massive long list of all my favourite artists, jewellers, furniture designers etc,” she says. “Some of it was a bit nuts – like a Caravaggio!” she laughs. “But the things you like inform your work. It’s a way of expressing my opinion.”  The company then sourced a long list of items for the jeweller to whittle down to her favourite pieces, to which she added some of her own designs. “Someone’s already bid on the Hotlips ring!” she exclaims with surprise as she shows me the auction site on her phone. Will she track the bids throughout the auction’s two week lifespan? “No! That makes me feel anxious,” she says. Given the nature of the auction, she can just choose to ignore the results.  Where else but cyberspace could a Tracey Emin neon artwork be displayed alongside a Droog chandelier and a David Webb cocktail ring? Not to mention a sizeable velvet loveseat and ottoman from Garouste and Bonetti? “I don’t see myself as an art collector at all,” says Azagury-Partridge. “I love art and I buy art but I’m not a part of that art world. But now that you can buy art online, it allows you to distance yourself from it but still access it.”  It also means that people from all over the world can bid for some of the designer’s stand-out archive pieces – a Caravaggio-inspired Bacchus pendant from 2010, for example, sporting a gold nose-ring and a crown of emerald and ruby grapes, or a pair of extra-jangly chandelier earrings with a rainbow of coloured sapphires dangling from blackened gold links from last year’s Chromance collection.  Will Azagury-Partridge be bidding on anything from the auction? She’d love to own a piece of Belperron, whom she cites as a design hero, but baulks at the £40,000 - £60,00 estimate of the ring and brooch set featured in her selection. “That’s a lot of money!” she says. “But I get it. Belperron was incredible – her personal style was her signature – she didn’t need to sign her work.” And while she would never describe her own work thus, that’s something you could say about Azagury-Patridge herself.  Solange Azagury-Partridge's Paddle8 auction runs until May 19
Outlandish art and iconic jewels are among Solange Azagury-Partridge’s favourite things; and they’re all for sale as she curates an online auction for Paddle8