A rare 37-carat square emerald mounted on a brooch by Cartier for the Aga Khan was sold at auction for $8,859,865 (approximately 7.8 million francs) on Tuesday at Christie’s in Geneva, a record amount for this type of precious stone, the auction house said.
The brooch, set with 20 marquise-cut diamonds, which the prince had ordered from Cartier in 1960 and given to his wife Nina Dyer, thus far exceeded the sum reached by the sale of a jewel from the house of Bulgari in 2011.
This piece, which like the Cartier jewel can also be worn as a pendant, was given by Richard Burton to Elizabeth Taylor as an engagement gift. The 23.44-carat emerald, also set with diamonds, sold for 6,578,500 dollars (approximately 5,810,000 francs) during the dispersal by Christie’s, in New York, of a part from the legendary jewelry collection of one of Hollywood’s biggest stars.
The brooch which was sold this Tuesday on the banks of Lake Geneva had already been part of the first edition of Christie’s “Magnificent Jewels” sale on 1is May 1969, as part of the Nina Dyer collection. It was the jeweler Van Cleef & Arpels who acquired this exceptional jewel. A few years later, the brooch was sold to Harry Winston, the American jeweler nicknamed “the king of diamonds”.
Max Fawcett, head of the jewelry department at Christie’s in Geneva, predicted that the jewelry would appeal to enthusiasts. “Emeralds are in vogue at the moment and this one ticks all the boxes,” according to the specialist on the auction house’s website, adding that an emerald of this quality only appears for sale “every five or six years”.
Emerald “is extremely thin and flat, which makes it look like a 50-carat stone,” says Max Fawcett. “However, flat stones tend to lose their color in the center, but it is a completely uniform green,” he marvels.
