Antique, Vintage and Estate Fine Jewelry
The Gilded Age. It was a time of plenty but for many it was…. well, a time of PLENTY. There were haves and have nots. And then there were the have more than you can imagines. Mary Goelet came from a family in the last category. One of the wealthiest heiresses of the time, back when American heiresses were marrying British and Scottish nobility because they had everything else here in America but a title, Mary Goelet Innes-Ker was the cream of the crop.
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Love will find a way, as the saying goes. Even when that love is 20 years your senior. Or junior, depending on who your asking. Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Wilding married at Caxton Hall in London on February 21, 1952. No matter that she had been divorced barely a year at that point (the same for him). No matter that he was also 20 years her senior. When it’s love, it’s love. Or so they say.
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Oh to have a husband that loves to dabble in amazing jewelry creations and then gift them to me. Alas, I do not have such a husband. Queen Victoria did, however, and good ol’ Albert created gorgeous pieces for her, including what we now call Queen Victoria’s Emerald Tiara, to match some other amazing emerald jewels he’d made for her. Let’s discuss, shall we?
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Last week I introduced you to Gabriella Princess zu Leiningen, a woman who married well (twice) and had the jewelry collection to prove it. Her last husband, Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, had been married before and was no stranger to bestowing lovely women with amazing jewels. So, today I want to introduce you to…. his first wife, Princess Salimah Aga Khan.
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Every wild story has a beginning. And an end. The history of Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands, all seven of them, is truly a wild story. One that started when she was merely 18 years old with a hotel financier (and Paris Hilton’s great uncle) named Conrad “Nicky” Hilton. Here’s their story.
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There are tiaras that are instantly recognizable (we’ve featured several that fit into that category). And then there are tiaras who’s style was so fashionable “everyone” had to have one. But then, that made it hard to distinguish one from one another. Such an unfortunate problem to have, right? And today’s #TiaraTuesday feature, The Fife Fringe Tiara, is one of the latter.
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What’s the easiest way to amass an amazing jewelry collection? Well, maybe not the easiest, but the quickest way is to marry one of the most wealthy men in the world. When money is no object, it appears like jewels just magically fall from the sky. Or Cartier. Just ask Gabriella Princess zu Leiningen. She married His Highness Prince Karim Aga Khan IV, 49th Imam of the Ismaili community, international entrepreneur and horse breeder, and also the founder of the Aga Khan Development Network. And then she divorced him. What happened next was the stuff of legends.
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It’s not often that we see romance last for long in Hollywood beyond the silver screen. But Angela Lansbury and Peter Shaw were the exaction to that rule. Married in 1949 (second marriages for them both) they were married 54 years before Peter died of heart failure in 2003.
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She needs no introduction but just in case you’re reading this fifty years after publication, we’ll clue you in. Diana, Princess of Wales was an amazing woman who gone way too soon. A gentle soul who chose to hold hands with the sick and stand side by side with the poor, she had a jewelry collection that rivaled her true beauty. There are many pieces we could cover, but we’ll hit what we think are the highlights here. And we’ll start with a family piece, The Spencer Tiara. She chose it to wear in her wedding over the Cambridge Lover’s Knot, which had been offered by the Queen. The tiara is still in the family, belonging to her brother, the current Earl Spencer.
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They say the third time’s a charm. But that’s not always the case. Actually, in the case of Rita Hayworth, it appears not the third, fourth nor fifth time sealed the deal. But we find it interesting that she was married to four of her five husbands for five years each. The one exception: Dick Haymes, to whom she was only married for two. And now we know why. Here’s the story of Rita Hayworth and Dick Haymes.
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Do you have any pieces of jewelry in your jewelry box that you haven’t worn in over eighty years? We didn’t think so. But if you’re the British Royal family and we’re talking about the Royal jewelry vaults… well, maybe things just get a bit lost in there. Apparently the Teck Crescent Tiara is holed up inside, just waiting for the light of day.
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Once called the “Supreme goddess of Spanish language cinema,” by the New York Times, Maria Felix was no doubt a super star. Maybe not here in the US, but in Mexico and in her adopted France, she was a mega star. And mega stars need? Mega jewels, of course.
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She was the woman who on May 1, 1967, married the world’s most eligible bachelor. Unless you’re under the age of ten or have lived in a cave the last 50 years, you know who I’m talking about. The groom maybe more so than bride but she’s still alive and kicking…. and he isn’t. What famous couple could this be? Elvis Presley and Priscilla Beaulieu, of course.
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Another one bites the dust. It was a common refrain when discussing Queen Mary and her tiaras. Just when folks would fall in love with one of her lovely tiaras, she’d get a wild hair and have it dismantled to make a different piece of jewelry. And so goes the Boucheron Loop Tiara.
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When you hear the name Andy Warhol, you think Campbell’s Soup Cans and pop art. Most of us don’t think of fine jewelry, much less an extensive collection that rivaled the most well known of socialites.
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Did she break up the band or didn’t she? That’s been the big question for nearly five decades. John Lennon and Yoko Ono met in November of 1966 at an art gallery opening in London where Ono’s work was soon to be on exhibit. Was it love at first sight? Who’s to say. But it was certainly a whirlwind and sometimes controversial relationship.
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We can always count on Queen Mary when it comes to fabulous tiaras. That woman had a penchant for turning something lovely into one heck of a statement piece. And I’m fairly certain she never ran into a jewel she didn’t like. At least for a while. In today’s episode of #TiaraTuesday, we’ll discuss one of her grande dame tiaras: The Delhi Durbar Tiara. Buckle up, Buttercup. We have quite a ride ahead of us.
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Albina Du Boisrouvray is an anomaly. A woman from incredible means, who gave up a significant part of it, including some otherworldly jewels, to help those with nothing.
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We wouldn’t be doing Wedding Wednesday justice if we didn’t bring you the first royal wedding to be televised. Princess Margaret, the sister of the current Queen Elizabeth and Antony Armstrong-Jones married at Westminster Abbey on May 6, 1960 in front of 2000 guests and hundreds of millions of TV viewers worldwide. But theirs wasn’t to be an easy marriage and it had actually already gotten off to a rocky start.
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I bet you think that the current Queen, Elizabeth the II is the longest living British royal princess. And you’d think wrong. She’s the longest reigning royal. But the longest living royal princess, a woman who was a first cousin twice removed and the great aunt to Elizabeth, holds the honor. Her name was Alice* and she lived to be almost 98 years old. And this is the story of her life and her favorite tiara: Princess Alice’s Diamond Palmette Tiara.
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There are women who marry well. And then there are women who make it an art. Countess Mona von Bismarck (also known at Mona Bismarck) Was the latter.
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We know him as the man that didn’t give a damn. And her for her screwball comedies. Theirs was a short lived love but one that changed him until his last breath.
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