The brooch used to belong to Rachel “Bunny” Mellon, widow of the financier Paul Mellon. Bunny was believed to be one of the world’s richest women before she passed away in March 2014, at the age of 103. Her husband was one of America’s leading art collectors and, while she was fiercely reclusive in her later years, she had been great friends with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, and helped the former First Lady to redesign the White House Rose Garden.
This brooch was one of the lots in the Magnificent Jewels Auction, which took place in New York on April 21. The gold-and-platinum piece takes the form of a stylised flower centred around an octagonal, mixed-cut Kashmir sapphire weighing approximately 17 carats and surrounded by eight carats of round diamonds.
It was created by Jean Schlumberger for Tiffany & Co circa 1960, and is signed “Tiffany & Co. Schlumberger, Made in France”. Mellon and Schlumberger had a long-standing friendship based on their shared passion for horticulture.
A previous Sotheby’s sale of jewels and objects of vertu from Mellon’s collection last November raised a total of US$45 million (Dh165m). The sale also set a new world auction record for a blue diamond, as well as a new price-per-carat record for any diamond, when her 9.75-carat, pear-shaped, rare, fancy vivid blue diamond sold for a staggering $32.6m.
At the time, Lisa Hubbard, chairperson, North & South America, Sotheby’s International Jewellery Division, said: “What distinguishes Mrs Mellon’s collection is the refined, elegant simplicity – and simplicity absolutely is the hardest thing to do well. These are beautifully made, wearable jewels that are just right for every occasion.”
Other priceless jewels in Mellon’s enviable collection included a gold and diamond Rivière by Cartier, circa 1948, set with 29 old European-cut diamonds weighing approximately 111 carats; and an important pear-shaped fancy blue-diamond pendant, made up of more than 9.15 carats.
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