hollywood royalty

Audrey’s Tiara Sells at Christie’s

10.02.2017 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Screencapture

On Wednesday, Christie’s in London sold a personal collection of objects that belonged to the late Audrey Hepburn, including several pieces of jewelry — and a tiara!

Christie’s

The tiara is a costume piece. The lot notes from the auction describe it as “a colourless paste tiara … composed of a continuous series of graduated navette and circular shaped paste, to close-back settings on a sprung frame.”

Audrey wore the tiara at least twice. Above, she dons the tiara at the London premiere of A Nun’s Story in the summer of 1959. She attended the event with her then-husband, Mel Ferrar.

At the premiere, Audrey (who has her back to the camera here) wore the tiara at the back of her head, similar to the way that Queen Victoria wore her sapphire coronet in the famous Winterhalter portrait. (More on that over here!)

She also wore the tiara on screen. Above, you can see her wearing the piece as Joanna Wallace in 1967’s Two for the Road. The tiara looks smaller here, because the ends are tucked into her ’60s hairdo.

The auction estimate for the tiara was set at £7,000 to £10,000. When the hammer fell, however, the tiara had fetched £43,750 (a price that includes the buyer’s premium). Not bad for a celebrity tiara that sparkles without a single diamond!

Hollywood Royalty: Vintage Jewels at the Emmy Awards

09.18.2017 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

MARK RALSTON/AFP/Getty Images

The 69th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards were held in Los Angeles last night, and several stars wore vintage jewels on the red carpet. All of the pieces below were supplied by Fred Leighton, one of the most noted antique jewelry firms in America. Enjoy some vintage glitter for your Monday afternoon!

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

Kyra Sedgwick wore a pair of enamel and diamond pendant earrings that date to the Art Deco period

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Judith Light sported a major pair of tassel earrings set with rose-cut diamonds and green cabochon beads

Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb

Thandie Newton wore a pair of antique diamond pendant earrings

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Sonequa Martin-Green wore vintage gold jewels from Van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier

Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

Vanessa Kirby — who fans of The Crown will recognize! — wore an antique pair of blue enamel and diamond drop earrings

Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images

Padma Lakshmi wore a pair of diamond and aquamarine dart earrings

Alberto E. Rodriguez/Getty Images

And, representing the men on the red carpet, Aziz Ansari wore a teeny diamond and sapphire cluster pin made in the 1920s on his lapel

Jewels in Motion: Elizabeth Taylor’s Cartier Rubies

08.27.2017 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Slaven Vlasic/Getty Images

Our celebration of jewels made by Cartier wraps up today with a look at a romantic suite of ruby and diamond jewels that belonged to a member of Hollywood royalty: Dame Elizabeth Taylor.

Mike Todd, Taylor’s third husband, gave her the set of ruby and diamond jewels in 1957 while the couple were on holiday in France with friends (including Todd’s best friend, Eddie Fisher, who Taylor would marry after Todd’s tragic death).

“They had been renting a chateau in the south of France, and Elizabeth … had been swimming in the pool, doing laps, wearing the Mike Todd Tiara,” a Christie’s spokesman explains, “when Mike Todd arrived carrying red boxes. And we all know what red boxes mean: Cartier.”

“There wasn’t a mirror around, so Elizabeth used the reflection of the pool to see herself” wearing the new ruby and diamond suite.” Home movie cameras captured the moment that Todd presented Taylor with the jewels.

When Taylor’s jewels were sold at Christie’s in 2011, the earrings, necklace, and bracelet were lots 74-76. (They were displayed in the auction preview beside another ruby jewel from Taylor’s collection, a ring made by Van Cleef and Arpels.)

The bib necklace alone absolutely demolished its pre-auction estimate of $200,000-$300,000, selling for an astonishing $3,778,500.

The earrings from the set fetched $782,500, while the bracelet sold for $842,500. In this image, Todd fastens the necklace around his wife’s neck, while Taylor puts on the earrings. Note the trademark Cartier red box casually wedged under Todd’s arm!