USA: Sotheby's auction house preview collection of "magnificent and noble" jewels to go on sale in Geneva

Record ID: 432901

  • Title: USA: Sotheby's auction house preview collection of "magnificent and noble" jewels to go on sale in Geneva
  • Date: 5th May 2011
  • Summary: PHOTO OF CONDESA VDA DE ROMANONES
  • Embargoed: 20th May 2011 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Usa, Usa
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Industry,Lifestyle
  • Reuters ID: LVADQ5RKD80PLT0BAZB0Z93NSCK0
  • Story Text: A collection of noble jewellery expected fetch up to 45 million U.S dollars at sale in Geneva was unveiled in London on Wednesday (May 4).
    The auction house's sale of Magnificent and Noble Jewels is by led an emerald and diamond tiara which it claims is "the most important to have appeared at auction in over 30 years" and is expected to go under the hammer for between five and ten million U.S. dollars.
    David Bennett, Chairman of Sotheby's Jewellery Department For Europe, said it had been some time since he'd seen a piece that had made such an impression on him - and it was the same one, in 1979.
    "In my career of more than 30 years at Sotheby's there have been one or two objects that have sort of stuck out and this is certainly one of them. I first saw this in 1979 when we sold it Zurich. At the time then it just took my breath away. It's difficult to exaggerate how rare these emeralds are," he told Reuters Television.
    Bennett said one of the most impressive things about the tiara, which includes 11 rare Colombian emeralds weiging over 500 carats, is that it has stayed intact since it was commissioned by Guido Count von Henckel, First Prince von Donnersmarck for his second wife, Princess Katharina.
    "It's very rare because the emeralds are so important that the temptation over the past hundred years to have them un-set and mounted into some other jewellery would have been very great because tiaras, as you know, are not very often worn these days, so it is very rare. I think it's unquestionably the most important diamond tiara in the past 30 years," he said.
    Another highlight of the collection is a "Very Important and Rare" Fancy Intense Pink diamond ring, expected to fetch somewhere between nine to 16 million U.S. dollars at auction.
    Like the tiara, Bennett said the ring is virtually one of a kind.
    "What's rare about it is that it's nearly 11 carats, it's 10.99 carats, which is very large size for any diamond. It's also type 2A which is a very small sub-group of diamonds that are chemically the most pure, and it's also this magnificent emerald cut. It's very rare also to have a coloured diamond still cut in the classical diamond cutting form. So those combinations of elements make it a very rare stone," he explained.
    Many of the items up for auction have connections to a rich history - especially those lots from the collection of the Countess of Romanones.
    Born Marie Aline Griffith Dexter in New York, recruited as an OSS agent in Madrid during World War II, then marrying Luis Figueroa y Perez de Guzmán el Bueno, Count of Quintanilla, the Countess became one of the most celebrated socialites of her day.
    Sotheby's Senior International Jewellery Specialist, Daniela Mascetti said the Countess has lost none of her spark.
    "Full of verve, full of life, very entertaining and always ready to talk to you about her very extraordinary life that started as a spy, as she likes to be described, in Madrid during the years of the civil war. And then married one of the Grandee of Spain and become the of Spain and became the Countess of Romanones. Life that was really highlighted by parties within the aristocratic world, within the political world and within the jet-set and glitz and glamour of the film industry," she said.
    Among the Romanones collection is a piece with royal ties that was virtually unheard of until it came to the auction lot - a watch/bracelet gifted to the Countess by the Duchess of Windsor.
    "This particular watch has a great deal of interest because it's a beautiful and collectable watch. It's the best period of Van Cleef and Arpels 1936, this may well be the first Cadenas bracelet watch they ever made, so you add to that the provenance of the Duchess of Windsor and it really becomes irresistible, I think," said David Bennett.
    The 500 lot collection will go under the hammer in Geneva on May 17.
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