That title is straight from the Sotheby’s auction, but it was so appropriate that I couldn’t bring myself to edit it. You should be sitting down before you look at this this emerald and diamond tiara. And breathing deeply. Ready?
[Image source.]
Try not to drool on your keyboard, it’s bad for the keys and you’re going to want to scroll down to see the rest of the pictures.
The tiara is surmounted by a row of eleven polished pear-shaped emeralds, totaling approximately 500 carats, graduated in size from the center, each emerald drilled and held in diamond set cusp motifs, the nine largest tipped by rose diamonds, mounted in silver and gold. The emeralds are detachable.
Spectacular, yes?
This to-die for emerald and diamond tiara was sold in Sotheby’s May 2011 Magnificent and Noble Jewels sale for a record-breaking $11,912,064 . All images and info are thanks to Sotheby’s unless otherwise noted.
What makes it so remarkable, in my opinion, is the pear-shaped diamonds dangling on it like ornaments on a Christmas tree. How sumptuous, all of those diamonds trembling at the ends of the diamond-set scrolls. Such casual luxury.
Like many of my favorite things, this tiara was designed by Cartier in the 1920’s. The tiara is designed as a series of graduated diamond-set scrolls, each suspending pear-shaped diamond flexible pendants. It centers upon a lozenge-shaped diamond. Christie’s does not give a total carat weight, which is a shame, because I’m very curious. The piece is signed Cartier London and comes in a red leather Cartier case.
