Christie’s auction house will be
offering more than 300 pieces in its Magnificent Jewels spring sale in New York
today. All are fitting of the title, but all eyes will be on one lot only. This
is Lot 295, the Princie diamond, as rare in brilliance as it is intriguing in
provenance.The homeenergymanagement market
continues to struggle for more traction.
One of the most famous pink diamonds ever set with cushion-cut facets, it once belonged to the last nizam,Wireless electricitymonitor is a simple and and easy to use tool that helps you. or ruler, of Hyderabad State in southern India, Mir Osman Ali Khan, proclaimed the richest man in the world by Time magazine in 1937 and the father of 149 children born of assorted wives and concubines. Other, less impressive, stones from his collection were dispatched to Princess Elizabeth as wedding gifts six years before she would become Queen Elizabeth II.
Like most stones of such pedigree, this one has been shy, not seen in public since 1960, when Sotheby’s put it on the block as the “Property of a Gentleman”.leading gemstone manufacturer wholesale gemstonebeads, That was the nizam, who,Brantano offers a wide range of hairflower in every style to fit every occasion. following Indian independence, had surrendered rule and moved to Bombay, where his once-vast fortune was quickly sapped. It was bought by jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels “for a very significant 46,000 English pounds”, say the lot notes released by Christie’s.
It was at a party in Paris that the head of Van Cleef & Arpels re-christened the stone Princie after one of the guests, the cosseted 14-year-old son of Sita Devi, Maharani of Baroda, who was also known in the West as the Princess of India or “the Indian Wallis Simpson”. The two women were to meet many years later at a reception in Manhattan, which, for the real Mrs Simpson, ended in unexpected humiliation.
It is in part because the diamond has been out of view for so long that the bidding today should reach thin-air heights.Then there is its quality. It is a type-IIa pink diamond of 34.65 carats. The pink diamond set in the Queen’s Williamson Diamond brooch, part of her private collection, is 23.6 carats. Only 1 to 2 per cent of all diamonds mined are type-IIa. It is their particular purity that gives them a pink glow. “I would hedge a guess it will sell for above the $50m mark,” predicts Joanna Hardy, a jewellery expert and star of Antiques Roadshow,If it does, it would become the costliest gemstone sold at auction in history.
Believed to have been extracted from the legendary Golconda mines of what was the Kingdom of Hyderabad more than 300 years ago, the stone was thought to have been passed down from Nizam-ul-Mulk Asif Jah, the first nizam,more and much more hoganscarpe outlet come in the current market. who ruled between 1724 and 1748, to his successors.
“The most beautiful stones discovered in Golconda were always reserved for kings and rulers as they represented the highest power, which was then magically transferred to the owner,” the lot notes explain.
Fran?ois Curiel, the chairman of Christie’s Jewellery Department, takes up the theme. “The Princie diamond brings together the legendary names of Golconda, Nizam of Hyderabad, and the Maharani Sita Devi of Baroda,” he says. “This rich history, combined with its rare pink hue, conveys a special charm, which will speak to all collectors in the world seeking the best of the best in gemstones.”
Mir Osman Ali Khan, the nizam, may have been one of the wealthiest people in history. (Time estimated his fortune at $33bn in today’s money.) He owned garages of Rolls-Royce limousines, hundreds of racehorses and trunks filled with silver and gold bullion. His collection included the Jacob diamond, which was valued at ￡100m in 2008. He used it as a paperweight. His wedding presents to Princess Elizabeth in 1947 included brooches and a necklace she is known still to wear today. That he sent his pink diamond to Sotheby’s (and accepted what seems now like a rather paltry sum in return) was an indication of how far his fortune had dwindled.
But it may be the connection to the Maharani of Baroda, Sita Devi, and her son, Princie, that also gives the stone its allure. She married the Maharajah of Baroda, a city in Gujarat now named Vadodara, after meeting him at the Madras races in 1943, even though he already had a wife. As independence from Britain approached, the couple fled to Europe, taking many of their treasures with them, settling in a mansion in Monte Carlo. A carpet made of pearls was discovered as recently as 1994 in a vault in Geneva.
It was in 1953 that the couple – they later divorced – were forced to sell assets to keep afloat. A pair of bejewelled anklets was purchased by Harry Winston, the jewellery house, which transformed them into a necklace subsequently purchased by none other than Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. In 1957, both women were invited to the same New York reception and when Sita Devi spotted the necklace she loudly observed how nice the jewels had once looked draping her feet. Aghast, the story goes, the Duchess returned it.
Tragedy left its mark in 1985, when Princie cut his throat one day after his 40th birthday amid reports of drug and alcohol abuse. Sita Devi died four years later, some said from a broken heart.
One of the most famous pink diamonds ever set with cushion-cut facets, it once belonged to the last nizam,Wireless electricitymonitor is a simple and and easy to use tool that helps you. or ruler, of Hyderabad State in southern India, Mir Osman Ali Khan, proclaimed the richest man in the world by Time magazine in 1937 and the father of 149 children born of assorted wives and concubines. Other, less impressive, stones from his collection were dispatched to Princess Elizabeth as wedding gifts six years before she would become Queen Elizabeth II.
Like most stones of such pedigree, this one has been shy, not seen in public since 1960, when Sotheby’s put it on the block as the “Property of a Gentleman”.leading gemstone manufacturer wholesale gemstonebeads, That was the nizam, who,Brantano offers a wide range of hairflower in every style to fit every occasion. following Indian independence, had surrendered rule and moved to Bombay, where his once-vast fortune was quickly sapped. It was bought by jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels “for a very significant 46,000 English pounds”, say the lot notes released by Christie’s.
It was at a party in Paris that the head of Van Cleef & Arpels re-christened the stone Princie after one of the guests, the cosseted 14-year-old son of Sita Devi, Maharani of Baroda, who was also known in the West as the Princess of India or “the Indian Wallis Simpson”. The two women were to meet many years later at a reception in Manhattan, which, for the real Mrs Simpson, ended in unexpected humiliation.
It is in part because the diamond has been out of view for so long that the bidding today should reach thin-air heights.Then there is its quality. It is a type-IIa pink diamond of 34.65 carats. The pink diamond set in the Queen’s Williamson Diamond brooch, part of her private collection, is 23.6 carats. Only 1 to 2 per cent of all diamonds mined are type-IIa. It is their particular purity that gives them a pink glow. “I would hedge a guess it will sell for above the $50m mark,” predicts Joanna Hardy, a jewellery expert and star of Antiques Roadshow,If it does, it would become the costliest gemstone sold at auction in history.
Believed to have been extracted from the legendary Golconda mines of what was the Kingdom of Hyderabad more than 300 years ago, the stone was thought to have been passed down from Nizam-ul-Mulk Asif Jah, the first nizam,more and much more hoganscarpe outlet come in the current market. who ruled between 1724 and 1748, to his successors.
“The most beautiful stones discovered in Golconda were always reserved for kings and rulers as they represented the highest power, which was then magically transferred to the owner,” the lot notes explain.
Fran?ois Curiel, the chairman of Christie’s Jewellery Department, takes up the theme. “The Princie diamond brings together the legendary names of Golconda, Nizam of Hyderabad, and the Maharani Sita Devi of Baroda,” he says. “This rich history, combined with its rare pink hue, conveys a special charm, which will speak to all collectors in the world seeking the best of the best in gemstones.”
Mir Osman Ali Khan, the nizam, may have been one of the wealthiest people in history. (Time estimated his fortune at $33bn in today’s money.) He owned garages of Rolls-Royce limousines, hundreds of racehorses and trunks filled with silver and gold bullion. His collection included the Jacob diamond, which was valued at ￡100m in 2008. He used it as a paperweight. His wedding presents to Princess Elizabeth in 1947 included brooches and a necklace she is known still to wear today. That he sent his pink diamond to Sotheby’s (and accepted what seems now like a rather paltry sum in return) was an indication of how far his fortune had dwindled.
But it may be the connection to the Maharani of Baroda, Sita Devi, and her son, Princie, that also gives the stone its allure. She married the Maharajah of Baroda, a city in Gujarat now named Vadodara, after meeting him at the Madras races in 1943, even though he already had a wife. As independence from Britain approached, the couple fled to Europe, taking many of their treasures with them, settling in a mansion in Monte Carlo. A carpet made of pearls was discovered as recently as 1994 in a vault in Geneva.
It was in 1953 that the couple – they later divorced – were forced to sell assets to keep afloat. A pair of bejewelled anklets was purchased by Harry Winston, the jewellery house, which transformed them into a necklace subsequently purchased by none other than Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor. In 1957, both women were invited to the same New York reception and when Sita Devi spotted the necklace she loudly observed how nice the jewels had once looked draping her feet. Aghast, the story goes, the Duchess returned it.
Tragedy left its mark in 1985, when Princie cut his throat one day after his 40th birthday amid reports of drug and alcohol abuse. Sita Devi died four years later, some said from a broken heart.
沒有留言:
張貼留言