A diamond brooch given by Spain’s King Alfonso XII to his wife as a wedding gift will be put up for auction for the first time in Geneva next week.
It’s one of the highlights of the sale of more than 350 pieces of jewelry that could fetch more than $80 million U.S. dollars on May 13.
The brooch was given to Archduchess Maria Christina of Austria in November 1879.
It stayed with the family from the time of Maria Christina’s death in 1929 until the 1980s.
The “devant-de-corsage” brooch, set with scores of gems in a shape suggesting a fleur de lis, is expected to sell for between $1.5 million and $2 million dollars.
Daniel Ruyf is Christie’s jewelry department specialist.
“The unique thing about this brooch is provenance, its royal provenance. This is actually a typical period jewelry. In these days, corsages or actually also “stomacher” as we can call it, were used a lot, for weddings and also in royal families”, he says.
Other highlights of the upcoming sale are a pink 5-carat diamond, expected to fetch up to $12.5 million dollars, a 55-carat pear-shaped diamond estimated at $8.5 million to $10.5 million, a 35-carat Kashmir sapphire expected to sell for up to $4.2 million, and a pair of ruby and diamond ear pendants and matching ring, once owned by Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, estimated at between $250,000 and $350,000.
Ventuno