Jennifer Tonkin
Co-Head of Department UK
Lot 116
BELLE ÉPOQUE AQUAMARINE AND DIAMOND BROOCH, CIRCA 1905
Amended
22 September 2021, 11:00 BST
London, New Bond StreetSold for £94,000 inc. premium
Looking for a similar item?
Our Jewellery specialists can help you find a similar item at an auction or via a private sale.
Find your local specialistAsk about this lot
Kate Flitcroft
Co-Head of Department UK
BELLE ÉPOQUE AQUAMARINE AND DIAMOND BROOCH, CIRCA 1905
The large oval-cut aquamarine, set horizontally within a delicate border of old brilliant and single-cut diamonds, suspending a large aquamarine detachable drop with millegrain-set rose-cut diamond cap, mounted in platinum, one diamond missing, length 8.0cm, fitted case by Harvey & Gore, 4 Burlington Gardens, London, with cream silk ruched interior
Footnotes
Provenance
Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire
A gift to the current owner
Deborah, Duchess of Devonshire, 'last' of the famous Mitford sisters, was chatelaine of Chatsworth for more than 50 years, transforming it into a profitable business and modern aristocratic estate.
She was a favourite of both Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother and Charles, Prince of Wales, as well as counting numerous intellectuals and artists as friends, including Bruce Chatwin, Tom Stoppard, Alan Bennett, Evelyn Waugh, Lucian Freud and John Betjeman. John F Kennedy, a childhood friend and whose sister, Kathleen, was married to her brother-in-law, danced with Debo – as she was widely known – at her coming out ball. Patrick Leigh Fermor, described her as "funny, touching, ravishing and enslaving... with a wonderful and disarming unguardedness in conversation, and an intuitive knack.. for people's moods".
Born on 31 March 1920, Debo was the seventh and youngest child of David Freeman-Mitford, 2nd Baron Redesdale and his wife Sydney, née Bowles. The family and their eccentricities are immortalised by her eldest sister, Nancy, in the novels "The Pursuit of Love" and "Love in a Cold Climate".
Debo was celebrated, along with her five sisters, Nancy (1904-73), Pamela (1907-1994), Unity (1914-48), Diana (1910-2003) and Jessica (1917-1996), as one of the aristocratic Mitford Sisters, collectively enthralling the public with their stylish – often controversial – lives, as well as contrasting political views. Lady Redesdale once remarked, "Whenever I see the words 'Peer's Daughter' in a headline, I know it's going to be something about one of you children."
In 1941, Debo married Lord Andrew Cavendish, younger son of the 10th Duke of Devonshire, who succeeded – unexpectedly – to the dukedom after his elder brother was killed in action during World War Two. Not only did Andrew, the 11th Duke, inherit the Chatsworth estate and an additional 40,000 acres, including Lismore Castle in Ireland and Bolton Abbey in Yorkshire, but also a colossal debt in death duties that was finally settled in 1974. Today, Chatsworth in Derbyshire, known as the 'Palace of the Peak', is one of Britain's biggest tourist attractions; the Duke and Duchess co-architects of its restoration and renaissance. The Duchess, a gifted storyteller, also published several best-selling books about the estate, as well as several volumes of occasional writing.
The Duchess was widowed in 2004 and died in 2014. At her funeral, more than 600 staff from the Chatsworth estate and hundreds of members of the public lined the route to the church.
The Duchess wears this brooch in the photograph on the previous page, sitting with Cecil Beaton, at the 'White Ball' held by Prince and Princess Rupert Loewenstein at their home in Holland Park, London. Prince Rupert was a Bavarian aristocrat and the financial manager of The Rolling Stones. The photograph is also published in the Duchess's autobiography "Wait For Me! Memoirs of the Youngest Mitford Sister" (2011).
Saleroom notices
Please note, there is no diamond missing/deficient as stated in the catalogue entry.
