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Elizabeth Taylor’s Cartier Rubies

07.24.2019 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Bob Haswell/Express/Getty Images

Dame Elizabeth Taylor was one of the most famous jewelry collector of her time, with a collection featuring virtually every important gemstone and jeweler. Today, we’ve got a closer look at a very July-appropriate set: her Cartier Ruby Suite.

The rubies were a gift from Elizabeth’s third husband, film producer Mike Todd. The story goes that, while on holiday with friends in the south of France in the spring of 1957, Elizabeth was swimming laps in the pool wearing the diamond tiara that Todd had previously given to her. (As one does!) Suddenly Todd appeared, laden down with red leather jewelry boxes. Inside were several diamond and ruby pieces he’d purchased for his young wife at Cartier. (Note the red box wedged under his arm as he clasps the necklace for her.)

Jewelry-mad Taylor, naturally, was delighted with the gift. A home movie camera captured her reaction. Because there weren’t any mirrors handy outside the villa, she reportedly used the pool’s surface to help her see her reflection wearing the new pieces.

The couple had only been married for a few months. Taylor had divorced her previous husband, Michael Wilding, in January 1957, and she and Todd had wed in Acapulco on February 2, 1957. She was twenty-four; he was forty-seven. But he time he presented her with these rubies on the Riviera, she was already expecting a baby.

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Todd was at the pinnacle of his career when he married Taylor. In 1956, his most successful production, Around the World in Eighty Days, had been a major hit at the box office on its release. It won the Golden Globe Award for Best Picture in February 1957, just a few weeks after he married Taylor. Only a few weeks later, in March 1957, he accepted the Academy Award for Best Picture for the film, with Taylor beaming in her tiara by his side. By July 1957, Todd and Taylor had arrived in London for the film’s glittering British premiere at the the Astoria Cinema, Charing Cross Road. Taylor wore red, including her rubies, as she and her husband greeted fellow guests, including Lady Pamela Berry, one of the famous “Bright Young Things” set.

Bob Haswell/Express/Getty Images

Taylor’s rubies sparkled as she met with the royal guests at the premiere, the Duchess of Kent (with whom she’s speaking in the photo above) and Princess Alexandra. The Associated Press breathlessly reported, “Yards of crimson chiffon trailed from her sun-bronzed shoulders to the floor. Her ruby and diamond earrings and necklace glittered.” The gown was by Dior.

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By this point, the news had gotten out that a Taylor-Todd production was on the way, and in this photo from the premiere night, the two are caught in a romantic embrace in their car as they escaped a rain shower. Todd was reportedly particularly careful with her at the premiere, and she commented, “He worries too much about this baby. I hope it’s a girl. I am sure the world is not ready for another Mike Todd yet.” The baby, born in August, was indeed a girl, Elizabeth Frances Todd. And Mike Todd himself wasn’t long for the world: he died when his private plane, The Liz, crashed in New Mexico in March 1958. Taylor married again, this time to Todd’s best friend, the singer Eddie Fisher. If you scroll back up to the footage of Elizabeth modeling her new rubies, you’ll spot him in the pool behind her.

DOUG KANTER/AFP/Getty Images

Elizabeth Taylor famously married a total of eight times. She kept the jewelry each man lavished on her for her entire life, and she wore the pieces well into her final years. Here, in September 2001, she wears Mike Todd’s rubies as she attends a concert at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

When she died in 2011, much of her incredible jewelry collection was auctioned at Christie’s to raise money for AIDS research. Above, you’ll see the Cartier rubies (plus a diamond and ruby ring by Van Cleef and Arpels) on display during a press preview for the sale in December 2011. When the hammer fell at the auction, each of the three pieces fetched an impressive sum. The earrings sold for $782,500, and the bracelet for $842,500 — but it was the necklace that reached the most impressive amount, selling for an astonishing $3,778,500.

Princess Margaret’s Ruby and Diamond Flower Brooch

07.21.2019 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Michael Melia/Alamy

July is the month for rubies, and one of the biggest royal ruby collectors of all was Princess Margaret. Today, we’ve got a look at one of her favorite pieces featuring the bright red gem: her Ruby and Diamond Flower Brooch.

Christie’s

The brooch was made in London in 1948 by Cartier. Christie’s lot notes from a later auction describe the piece as having “curved openwork old and single-cut diamond petals and stem” and an “oval ruby stamen and leaf decoration.” According to the auction notes, the piece was originally made as a clip brooch, but was later converted to a “pin-fitting” brooch. The original Cartier signature was lost when the clip was removed, but the brooch was securely housed in its original Cartier red leather box.

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Margaret wore the brooch essentially for her entire adult life. Here, she’s wearing it with pearls at the Epsom Derby in May 1955.

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While she often wore the flower brooch for daytime occasions, she sometimes used it as an evening jewel as well. Here, at the London premiere of Doctor Zhivago in April 1966, she wore it with several other ruby and diamond pieces, including her girandole earrings, two bracelets, and her ruby and diamond engagement ring.

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She paired the brooch and the girandole earrings again in November 1972 for the Royal European Preview of the musical Applause in London.

Michael Melia/Alamy

This is probably my favorite photograph of Margaret wearing the brooch, however. (The rubies! The shades! The HAT!) This was taken in July 1991, when she was on a visit to Kew Gardens in London. Fifteen years later, when jewels from Margaret’s estate were sold at Christie’s, the brooch was estimated to fetch between 10,000 and 15,000 pounds. When the hammer fell, it sold for much, much more — 108,000 pounds, to be exact.

Princess Margaret’s Cartier Rose Brooch

03.31.2019 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

AFP/Getty Images

One of the loveliest pieces of jewelry in Princess Margaret’s extensive collection was today’s bauble: her Cartier Rose Brooch.

Christie’s

The diamond brooch was made by Cartier London in 1938. Later auction notes describe it as a “three dimensional pavé-set rose in full bloom to the openwork leaves and stem set with baguette, single and circular-cut diamonds.”

AFP/Getty Images

I don’t believe we know precisely when the brooch arrived in Margaret’s jewelry collection, but we know for sure that she owned it by 1953. That June, she famously pinned the brooch to the bodice of her gown for her sister’s coronation in Westminster Abbey.

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The brooch was an excellent accessory for the romantic fashions Margaret favored in the 1950s, though it occasionally got lost a bit in the floral patterns of her dresses — as in the above photograph, taken at Epsom in May 1955.

AFP/Getty Images

The brooch stood out a bit more against the darker, fur-trimmed jacket she wore above, in London in October 1955.

Christie’s

The brooch stayed in Margaret’s collection for the rest of her life. In 2006, her children included it in the Christie’s auction of items from her estate. The brooch, in its original red Cartier box, was estimated to sell for between 15,000 and 20,000 pounds. When the hammer fell, the brooch had fetched a whopping 153,600 pounds.

Photo generously shared by Javier. DO NOT REPRODUCE.

The brooch’s most prominent public appearance since the auction came in 2018, when it was included in the landmark Cartier exhibition in Canberra. (See more from that auction over here!)