With a staggeringly impressive provenance, and the price tag to match, a stunning diamond and emerald necklace sold for £3.37 million at Christie's Magnificent Jewels auction in Geneva on 15 May. The originally 107-carat, rectangular-shaped emerald was in the collection of Catherine the Great, who was Empress of Russia for 34 years, from 1762-96.
Catherine the Great, who was born as a Anhalt-Zerbst princess, married Peter III, the heir to the Russian throne, in 1745. He became Emperor in January 1762, but alienated the Russian military factions and nobility by cooperating with the Prussian king, Frederick II. In June of the same year, Catherine staged a coup d'etat on her husband, forcing him to abdicate, and was coronated as Empress in July 1762. During her 34-year rule, Catherine modernised and expanded the borders of the Russian Empire, an era considered the Golden Age of Russia. She was also a great patron of the arts and founded the Hermitage Museum in 1764, now housed in St. Petersburg's Winter Palace.
After Catherine's death in 1796, her emerald passed to her eldest son, Paul I, who was Emperor of Russia from 1797-1801, until his assassination at age 46. It continued to be held in the Russian royal family, passing from Paul III to his son, Tsar Nicholas, then to his son, Tsar Alexander II. Alexander II gifted the emerald as a wedding present to Duchess Marie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, upon her marriage to his son, Grand Duke Vladimir in 1874.
In 1917, the Russian Revolution broke out and the Duchess was the last to leave Russia, hiding in Caucasus and later the seaside town of Anapa, before sailing for Venice in February of 1920 and dying in France seven months later. She was known for her immense collection of lavish jewellery, and her dear friend, British antiques dealer Albert Stopford, was able to smuggle almost 250 pieces of her collection out of her imperial palace in St. Petersburg in September of 1917 and escape to England.
The prestigious collection was then sold by her children in the late 1920s to European royalty and American millionaires, with the emerald selling to Pierre Cartier and the Vladimir tiara purchased by Queen Mary (now owned by Queen Elizabeth II).
In 1954, the famous jeweller Ralph Esmerian suggested to Cartier that the emerald be cut down to 75 carats and resized into a teardrop shape to enhance the clarity of the jewel. It was then set in an elaborate diamond necklace once owned by the wealthy Whitney family, who founded the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. The necklace was then sold that year to John D. Rockefeller, Jr, the son of Standard Oil founder, John D. Rockefeller. He was known for his eye for emeralds: he purchased an 18-carat emerald brooch in 1930 that sold as a ring at Christie's two years ago for US$5.5 million (£4.24 mil) to Harry Winston.
The necklace remained in the Rockefeller family collection before reappearing at Christie's in 1971 where Esmerian was reunited with the necklace, purchasing it for about US$1 million or £770,000. It was later sold to the present owner, who placed the emerald in a new diamond necklace.
Now, the exceptional piece, in the hands of illustrious patrons for almost 300 years, has a new owner, who acquired the bauble for £3.37 million, above an estimate of £1.8 to £2.7 million.