In the long history of jewelry and various subdivisions, each historical stage, each country, and even each subdivision has its most influential and representative jewelry.
If it is said that the most well-known and most universally-known jewelry at the moment, all are intertwined with the top power, the most beautiful woman, and the most romantic love, and together they write a legend.
Let’s take a look at the stories of these legendary jewelry~
Top power • Crown and scepter of the British Empire
Royal jewelry, the most elite, top, and pinnacle works in the vast jewelry world are of course the most well-known British royal jewelry~
The most representative ones are the crown and scepter of the British Empire.
The imperial crown we see today is made of gold, silver and platinum, with 2,868 diamonds, 273 pearls, 17 sapphires, 11 emeralds and 5 rubies.
And the most famous Cullinan diamond in the world is inlaid in the most important position of the scepter and the crown!
Since its discovery in 1905, Cullinan Diamonds has owned the “world’s largest diamond” head street for more than a century, and there is no other diamond that can surpass it.
The Cullinan rough diamond, which is as large as an adult man’s fist, was cut into 9 large diamonds and 96 small diamonds.
The largest of these, Cullinan, is embedded on the scepter of the King of England.
The second largest Cullinan 11 is embedded in the middle of the crown of the King of England.
The remaining Cullinan diamonds are also inlaid around the crown and scepter, or made into other jewelry.
The eye-catching black prince ruby inlaid right in front of the crown is also very attractive. This gem has blocked the enemy’s sharp battle axe in the previous battle but was intact, making the British king escape.
So the legendary color of this gem is getting stronger and stronger.
With the development of modern jewelry identification technology, this ruby was finally identified as a spinel, but this incident made the Black Prince even more legendary.
Crowns and scepters as well as other extravagant British royal jewels are on display all the year round in London Tower. If you go to London, please don’t miss this opportunity to see the world’s largest diamonds and the most luxurious royal jewellery up close.
The saddest fairy tale·Pearl Tear Crown
Speaking of the British royal family, how can one not mention Princess Diana.
Even though she has been dead for more than 20 years, she is still the most beautiful princess in people’s minds, the eternal English rose. The charming Diana is also a famous jewelry icon. She has led an innumerable jewelry trend. The jewelry symbolizing her dreamy and tragic destiny should be the crown of pearl tears on this page.
Another famous crown in British royal jewelry
However, this extremely beautiful crown is very tragic. Because of the tragic fate of the masters of the past generations, it is called “the cursed crown. At the wedding of Diana and Prince Charles, the Queen of England bestowed this crown on Diana. Fate has come again, and the death of Princess Dai concubine makes this crown a tragic legend.
Diana wearing pearl tears is so beautiful, please allow me to post more pictures.
Diana said that if a woman can only own one piece of jewelry, it must be a pearl.
This white pearl crown was her favorite during her lifetime.
This crown was customized in 1914 and Diana returned to the British royal family after her death.
Now her son Kate often wears this crown
The most rebellious love Cartier jaguar
Don’t love the country , love the beautiful people, this famous Chinese saying is widely spread
However, it was an English king who honored it.
Edward VIII gave up the throne in order to marry the second-divorced American woman Wallis Simpson.
Seems like an unrivaled contemporary love legend, but the wayward behavior of Edward VIII has plunged the entire royal family into a huge humiliation.
Although they were expelled from Britain, the duke and his wife still enjoyed generous allowances provided by the royal family to maintain their poor life. Even when Britain was plunged into the dire straits of World War II, the Duke continued to send Simpson expensive top jewelry.
Compared with the Duke of Windsor and his wife brought great shame to the British royal family, the jewelry brand Cartier has become the lucky one under the couple’s attention.
The Duke of Windsor customized a series of high-end jewelry for Simpson at Cartier, making Cartier step into a new era of salaries. This sapphire jaguar brooch is the most famous jewelry of the Duchess of Windsor, and it is also the most classic symbol of Cartier.
The image of the jaguar has since become a classic totem of Cartier.
The most legendary star·Wanderer Pearl
And the most legendary among them is Elizabeth Taylor.
Purple eyes, peerless appearance, top value, 8 marriages, 7 husbands have created this legendary female star.
Countless top jewels surround her, and the Wanderer Pearl is one of the most storytelling. The Wanderer Pearl is the largest and most symmetrical drop-shaped pearl in existence, weighing 55.95 carats. This pearl has a very long history, with a history of nearly 5 centuries.
It was discovered in the Gulf of Panama in the middle of the 16th century. It was collected by Mary I of England and the Royal Family of Spain. The portraits of the queens of Spain have their shadows.
After that, this treasure went through several times,
In 1969, the Hamilton family handed the pearl to the South London auction house, and Richard Burton would auction the rover for $370,000.
Burton gave it to Elizabeth Taylor as a Valentine’s Day gift. Later, Taylor gave the pearl to Cartier and redesigned the mosaic as in a portrait of Mary I.
There is also a legend about this necklace: when Richard bought the “Wanderer” pearl at the auction, there was a big scar on the pearl. One day, Taylor was wandering around a hotel in Las Vegas and suddenly found that this jewel was missing!
Taylor retrospectively said: “At that time, I heard my puppy chewing bones, and I suddenly realized that we did not feed it bones.
When they took the pearl out of the puppy’s mouth, the scar on the pearl disappeared miraculously and turned into a flawless pearl.
It became the highest record of pearl auctions at that time.
The most elegant temperament. Tiffany Bird on a Rock
The works of Tiffany&Co.
In 1965, the talented designer Jean Schlumberger, known as the “jewelry poet”, published “Bird on a Rock”. Since then, this pottery needle has become one of Jean Schlumberger’s most iconic works.
However, the predecessor of this yellow diamond on the bird was the Tiffany Dong diamond necklace worn by Audrey Hepburn in the 1961 movie “Breakfast at Tiffany”.
Originally weighing 128.54 carats, this yellow diamond was one of the largest and best natural Dong diamonds at the time. It was also called “Tiffany’s diamond a Jean Schlumberger design, which perfectly interprets women’s yearning for a better life and true love. It also makes Tiffany&Co. The popularity in Hollywood has greatly increased. And Audrey Hepburn has since become the muse of Tiffany. Hepburn’s elegant and exquisite image complements Tiffany’s brand style, making it a classic legend.
After the classic bird brooch on the stone was born, this lovely design quickly became popular, and it was later used in the design of other gemstones. It was continuously republished and widely loved by people, becoming one of the classic styles of Tienian jewelry.
The most mysterious doom hope blue diamond
The Hope Blue Diamond, famous for its doom, is one of the few large and famous blue diamonds in the world.
It weighs 45.52ct, is oval, and has an extremely rare dark blue.
This rare blue diamond has been given a misty legend. In the legend, every owner who possesses it can never escape tragic bad luck.
Because of having this blue diamond, King Louis XIV suffered from smallpox and died after wearing it once. Princess Li was beaten to death by a group of civilians.
The French King Louis XVI and the Queen were even sent to the guillotine…
The divergent legend of this blue diamond cannot be verified.
It was not until 1949 that New York jeweler Harry Wiston bought it. In 1958, Winston donated the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Museum.
The museum has a small hall on the side of the hall to display the diamond.
It is displayed on a rotating base and attracts a large number of visitors every day. It is the most popular exhibit in the entire museum
This diamond has a unique fluorescence, just like other gems. Under ultraviolet light, it glows faintly, but when the ultraviolet light source is removed, this diamond emits bright red phosphorescence.
The most profligate life·Barbara Hutton Jade Necklace
At the Sotheby’s Hong Kong auction in 2014, Cartier spent a huge sum of HK$214 million to buy back a rare jadeite necklace made by it-Barbara Hutton Jadeite Necklace
Barbara Hutton, born in 1912, was one of the richest women in the world at the time. His father was the co-founder of the New York investment bank E.F.Hutton, and his grandfather was the founder of Woolworth, a department store company.
Barbara, 6 years old, inherited a fortune of 28 million US dollars after her grandfather died.
In that era, this huge sum of money made Barbara a “billionaire baby” described by the media.
But in the same year, her mother committed suicide because she couldn’t stand her husband’s love.
When Barbara turned 21, the assets in custody of her father had increased to 42 million US dollars.
This astronomical wealth made her one of the richest women in the world.
In 1933, 20-year-old Barbara married Prince Alexis of Georgia and her father specially ordered this world-famous Mdivani Xie Cuizhu necklace for her in Cartier.
The two divorced two years later, and Alexis soon died in a car accident while driving a Rolls-Royce given to him by Barbara.
However, although the billionaire lady was sitting on billions of fortunes, she was not happy in her life. She experienced seven divorces in her life. Every Wenfu greedily squandered her money and only son Lance died in an air crash in his later years.
Spending money throughout her life, coupled with mismanagement of assets and making all kinds of worthless investments, she can only become a seller to survive.
After the death of Barbara Hutton in 1978, the lawyers counted the property and found that the “billions of assets” she inherited were only $3,000. In the last years, Barbara wore evening gowns and jewels every day, sitting in the hotel’s poor room, waiting to chat with friends
In her old age, Barbara, her relatives and lovers have left her, extremely lonely.
In order for others to accompany her, these precious jewels bought back in the past have become the best “gift” Barbara often gives them away.
And this jade necklace was given to her childhood friend Louisa.
Louisa married the Mdivan royal family and kept this necklace in the Mdivani family for more than 50 years.
This necklace first appeared at an auction in 1988 and sold for US$2 million (approximately HK$15.6 million). It made a sensation and became the jade jewelry with the highest auction price in the world.
Six years later, this necklace was sold in Hong Kong again, and the transaction price soared to 4.2 million US dollars (about 33 million Hong Kong dollars).
The price increase doubled, which once again pushed the transaction price of jade jewelry to another peak.
In 2014, it finally broke the world auction record for jade jewelry with HK$214 million, becoming a classic in the history of jade auctions.
The most miserable Queen Mary Pearl Pendant
In November 2018, at the Sotheby’s auction in Geneva, Switzerland, a new record of the pearl auction price was 36,427,000 yuan, equivalent to 36,165,090 US dollars! RMB 240 million!
It broke the pearl auction record held by Wanderer Pearl for 7 years.
This natural pearl and diamond pendant from the 18th century
From Marie Antoinette, Queen of France
Maybe the name is not familiar
But when it comes to the French king Louis XVI and the queen who were guillotined during the French Revolution, everyone must know.
This diamond and pearl pendant is simple in shape and mainly uses bow elements that were popular at the time.
Above the diamond bow is a 3.4 carat oval diamond.
But compared to the big pearl below, diamonds are not surprising
This natural seawater pearl is amazing in size, about 15.9018.3525.85 mm, and its shape is similar to a drop shape.
What’s more rare is that this pearl is still seductive after more than 200 years of baptism.
As usual, this pearl will disappear from the public eye for N years, until it is put out for public auction again. However, the new owner suddenly wore it to attend public events a few days ago, and matched it with a triple pearl necklace.
The high-profile collector is Heidi Goess-Horten, worth US$2.8 billion, ranked third in the rich list of Austrians, and the richest among Austrian women.
