Elizabeth Taylor was mainly known for two things besides her sapphire-blue eyes and her brilliant career as an actress: her many husbands, and her jewellery.
A keen collector, with a very good eye for quality, Elizabeth Taylor’s collection of jewellery is one of the most important private collections of the 20th Century. Her iconic diamonds, rubies, and sapphires, including personal gifts and historic pieces, as well as bespoke creations, will be going on sale at Christie’s New York in December. The jewellery will be offered in the first two sales of a four-part programme. Christie’s have been entrusted with the sale of Ms Taylor’s estate, and will also be offering paintings and works of art.
It is without a doubt a momentous sale, sure to attract fans from all over the world. It is perhaps with this in mind that Christie’s have decided to take the jewellery on tour. Special exhibitions will be staged around the world, starting with Moscow on 15th September, and then stopping at London, Los Angeles, Dubai, Geneva, Paris and Hong Kong, before finally arriving in New York for the final show and sale.
Record prices are surely to be achieved for the remarkable treasures collected through the years by this Hollywood legend. The collection includes the Elizabeth Taylor Diamond (33.9 carats and estimated at $2,500,000 – 3,500,000), a group of three diamond rings known as The Ping Pong Rings (given to her by Richard Burton after she won a game of ping pong, and estimated at $5,000 – 7,000), The Cleopatra Mirror (created by BVLGARI around the time she was finishing production on the epic film Cleopatra, now estimated at $8,000 – 12,000), and many other magnificent pieces, some of which feature prominently in her book My Love Affair with Jewelry. Among the most important pieces is La Peregrina – The Legendary Pearl (equivalent to 55 carats) which was discovered in the early 1500s in the Gulf of Panama and became part of the Spanish crown jewels. Prince Philip II of Spain gave it to his wife Mary Tudor of England, and then it passed to the Spanish Queens Margarita and Isabel, who appear wearing the pearl in celebrated 17th Century portraits by Velazquez. When the pearl came to auction in 1969, Richard Burton acquired it, outbidding members of the Spanish royal family. Ms Taylor then collaborated with designers at Cartier to create an elaborate new mount of matched natural pearls and rubies for her ‘most perfect pearl in the world’, as she called it (now estimated at $2,000,000 – 3,000,000).
As Ms Taylor wrote extensively about her jewellery, there are interesting stories that go with most of the pieces on offer at this sale. The glamour and magnificence of this larger-than-life icon shine through her wonderful jewellery collection. She had a true passion for jewels, and according to Francois Curiel (International Jewellery Director and President of Christie’s Asia), she always planned to offer her collection of jewellery at auction, in the hope that the next owner would ‘give them a really good home’. The sale is expected to achieve in excess of $30,000,000.
