In 1930 John D. Rockefeller, Jr. bought a brooch for his spouse, Abby Aldrich Rockefeller. The brooch, stated to be by Van Cleef & Arpels, centred upon a big emerald with mesmerising color and impeccable readability. When Abby Aldrich Rockefeller handed away in 1948, Rockefeller turned to Yard to disassemble the brooch, and particular person emeralds from the setting had been distributed among the many Rockefeller kids.

The centre emerald, weighing a formidable 18.04 carats, was given to David Rockefeller, who commissioned Raymond Yard to mount it as a hoop. The Rockefeller Emerald was supplied by Christie’s in the summertime of 2017 and was bought by Harry Winston for $5,511,500, or $305,500 per carat — the best worth per carat ever obtained for an emerald. After the public sale, the gemstone was instantly rechristened the Rockefeller-Winston emerald.

In response to Richard Burton ‘the one phrase Elizabeth [Taylor] knew in Italian was “Bulgari”’. Throughout the filming of Cleopatra, Burton visited the Bulgari boutique in Rome, the place he bought this emerald and diamond brooch as a marriage reward for his fiancée. Worn by the actress at their marriage in 1964, the brooch was later bought in The Assortment of Elizabeth Taylor: The Legendary Jewels Night Sale at Christie’s in New York in December 2011. It realised $6,130,500, and stays the most costly single stone emerald jewel ever bought.

The Maharajas & Mughal Magnificence public sale in June 2019 supplied a once-in-a-lifetime group of jewels and objects from the Al Thani assortment. One of many many highlights was the The Taj Mahal Emerald, which in itself is a surprise of nature. This emerald of 141.13 carats got here from Colombia and has by no means been subjected to any therapy. The final lot in a marathon 12-hour public sale, it was fought over by personal collectors and establishments earlier than promoting for slightly below $2 million.

This emerald and diamond necklace was bought by Princess Faiza of Egypt — King Farouk’s sister — in 1947 at Van Cleef & Arpels in Paris. In addition to its beautiful craftsmanship, the necklace’s imposing diamonds are complemented by elegant emerald drops. Auctioned at Christie’s Geneva in November 2013, it was bought by Van Cleef & Arpels to turn out to be an iconic jewel of the home’s heritage assortment.

It’s common data that essentially the most well-known emerald mines are positioned in Colombia, however few are conscious of the mines of Afghanistan, that are positioned within the Panjshir valley, some 130 km north of Kabul. These fields yielded the exceptionally pure 10.11 carat Afghan Emerald, which was supplied in Christie’s Magnificent Jewels public sale in Hong Kong in December 2015 and achieved $225,000 per carat — an public sale world file for any emerald from Afghanistan.

Catherine the Nice’s beautiful jewelry assortment is famend amongst connoisseurs. Notably keen on emeralds, the Empress collected a few of the largest stones then in existence. This extraordinary brooch was designed within the mid-18th century and set with a Colombian emerald weighing roughly 65 carats.

In addition to being the technical visionary behind Etcetera, Edmond Chin can be the artistic director at Boghossian, one of many world’s solely family-owned jewelry homes. In Could 2017, Christie’s offered this extraordinary creation in its Hong Kong Magnificent Jewels public sale — a necklace that includes 11 Colombian emeralds, starting from 12.34 to three.03 carats and displaying no proof of readability modification. The necklace soared previous its pre-sale estimate earlier than promoting to an Asian personal collector for over $6 million.

The rarest and most costly emeralds are mined from Muzo, Coscuez and Chivor within the inexperienced foothills of the Colombian Andes, which is the place the stones on this magnificent pair of earrings, weighing a formidable 23.34 and 23.18 carats and each exhibiting a richly saturated homogenous inexperienced color, come from. Terribly well-matched and spared any therapy, the Grand Muzos had been first supplied by Christie’s in 2012, realising $4.2 million. In 2019, they had been offered for a second time by Christie’s and bought for $4.5 million, demonstrating the continued demand for jewels and gem stones of the best high quality.

Simón Iturri Patiño (1860-1947) managed over 60 per cent of the world’s tin output, making him one of many 5 wealthiest males on the planet. Often called ‘The Andean Rockefeller’, Patiño developed a connoisseur’s eye for the rarest of gem stones, and his assortment included this high quality emerald and diamond necklace, which incorporates greater than 100 carats of the best high quality Colombian emeralds alongside 60 carats of diamonds, mounted by Cartier in 1937. Supplied at Christie’s in Geneva in November 2013, The Patiño Necklace made the second highest worth for an emerald jewel in public sale historical past.

This legendary gem weighing 75.61 carats was a part of the Russian Imperial assortment for greater than 100 years earlier than Tsar Alexander II of Russia gave it to Grand Duchess Vladimir in 1874, on the event of her marriage ceremony to his son, Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich of Russia.

After the Grand Duchess’s demise in 1920, it was bequeathed to her son, Grand Duke Boris, after which handed by way of the fingers of well-known collectors corresponding to Pierre Cartier, the Payne Whitney Household and Raphael Esmerian. Supplied at public sale by Christie’s in Geneva in Could 2019, it was bought by a non-public collector for $4.5 million, practically double its low estimate.

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