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Sotheby’s to Sell Storied Pieces in Geneva
Apr 10, 2019 10:03 AM
By Rapaport News
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RAPAPORT... Sotheby’s will offer two rare jewels with royal connections
at its auction in Geneva next month.
An Art Deco necklace will feature in the Magnificent Jewels
and Noble Jewels sale May 14. The Van Cleef & Arpels piece includes
diamonds, as well as 11 cabochon Colombian emeralds with a total weight of more than 75
carats. It was created in the 1930s for Hélène Beaumont, an American socialite
and close friend of Wallis Simpson, the duchess of Windsor. The piece has a
presale estimate of $3 million to $4 million.
“This is Art Deco at its absolute finest, a connoisseur’s
jewel,” David Bennett, worldwide jewelry chairman for Sotheby’s, said Monday. “Rare
and exceptional pieces like these are the reason people collect jewelry. The
first time I laid eyes on this emerald and diamond necklace was exactly 25
years ago, when we sold the Hélène Beaumont collection in Geneva. I said at the
time that it was the most important row of cabochon emeralds I had seen during
my then 20-year career. Today, 25 years on, that statement still holds true.”
A diamond tiara, made by Fabergé in 1903 for Duchess Cecilie
von Mecklenburg Schwerin, the last crown princess of Prussia, will also go
under the hammer. The headpiece, which was a present from her Russian relatives
upon her marriage to Crown Prince Wilhelm, is valued at $200,000 to $300,000.
Other notable pieces include a brilliant-cut, 36.57-carat, D-color,
type IIa diamond, estimated at $4.8 million to $5.8 million, and an
emerald-cut, 18.86-carat, D-color, type IIa ring by Harry Winston, expected to
fetch $800,000 to $1.2 million.
Image: The Art Deco necklace (left) and the Fabergé tiara. (Sotheby’s)
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Tags:
Crown Prince Wilhelm, David Bennett, Duchess Cecilie von Mecklenburg Schwerin, Fabergé, Harry Winston, Hélène Beaumont, Magnificent Jewels and Noble Jewels, Rapaport News, Sotheby’s, Van Cleef & Arpels, Wallis Simpson
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