Lady Diana’s latest jewels up for auction:
The princess’s orphaned swans are looking for their lady
Vita gazette – The Swan Lake Suite, one of the symbols of Princess Diana, is again on the agenda with the auction. What is the story of the jewels Princess Diana wore just a few months before her tragic death?
It was June 3, 1997, just three months before the tragic end. That evening, the princess of hearts wore a fabulous light blue beaded minidress by Jacques Azagury, Jimmy Choo satin pumps and a South Sea pearl necklace by court jeweller Garrard. And she went to “Swan Lake” at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
There is a story of this parure, known as the “Swan Lake Suite”, from the name of the famous ballet set to music by Tchaikovsky.
Princess Diana’s jewels were lent to her by the Queen or owned by the Crown. So she was often seen wearing jewellery, but it wasn’t usually hers. The Princess of Wales was also known to be a fan of South Sea pearls.
In 1997, the Princess of Wales ordered the jewellery house Garrards to make a diamond necklace and earrings, and Diana herself is said to have taken part in the necklace design. The necklace was made first. It is made in platinum knots, on which there are five large pearls between them and four marquise-cut diamonds; in the necklace, there are seven more stones of similar cut. There are 164 diamonds in the necklace. Diana wore this necklace to the Swan Lake premiere. After that, the princess returned the necklace to the jewellers so that they could continue their work and make the earrings. Each earring comprised 15 diamonds and pearls and repeated the necklace’s design.
But Princess Diana never got to wear this set: she died in a car accident. As a result, lady Diana needed more time to purchase this jewellery set and remained the property of the jewellery store. The jewellery set was called Diana, Princess of Wales Swan Lake Suite and was sold at auction. The peculiarity of the set lies precisely in the fact that it is Diana’s strictly personal jewels. The princess designed the creation in collaboration with David Thomas, the then-president of Garrard, who oversaw the crown jewels until his retirement in 2007. Based on information received from the Maison, the house d’este believes that the Suite was a gift from the then Harrods heir Dodi Fayed, however at the time of the couple’s death, the jewels had not yet been paid for, so they remained in the jewellery store’s availability.
Garrard contacted Ettinger to put it up for auction. Texan furniture store tycoon Jim McIngvale bought it for $1 million, and his daughter married in this set. After Mclngvale, he decided to sell it privately to an important Ukrainian family of collectors, the Ginzburgs, who have collected “culturally significant” works of art and have now decided to sell the precious heirloom, which accompanied the last months of the princess’s life.
The pearl and diamond necklace will be auctioned together with the earrings this summer in New York. By coincidence, a “Swan Lake” production will be staged this summer by the American Ballet Theater in New York, within walking distance of the auction.
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