SAPPHIRE AND DIAMOND CLUSTER RING, 1987

Footnotes

This ring belonged to the American silent movie star, Virginia Cherrill (1908-1996) who was best known for her role as the blind flower-seller opposite Charlie Chaplin in "City Lights" (1931). The duo detested each other and it took two tumultuous years for the silent film (produced stubbornly after the introduction of sound in cinema) to wrap. Even before "City Lights" was released, 20th Century Fox signed Cherrill under contract. Following the success of "City Lights", the studio presented her in some of their early sound films, such as "Girls Demand Excitement" (1931), one of John Wayne's early films as a star. Cherrill worked under some of the era's biggest directors, such as John Ford in "The Brat" (1931) and Tod Browning in "Fast Workers" (1933). She also appeared in the 1931 Gershwin musical, "Delicious" with Janet Gaynor. Cherrill also worked in Britain where she starred in two films opposite James Mason, including "Troubled Waters" (1936), which turned out to be her final movie.

Cherrill relinquished her film career, claiming that she was "no great shakes as an actress". She married four times and was the first wife of the actor, Cary Grant, whom she married (as her second husband) in 1934 and swiftly divorced in 1935. She later moved to England where she attracted the attention of a steel tycoon who purchased her a second Bentley after she happened to mention her dislike of the colour of the first. The sapphire in this ring was a gift from the Maharaja of Jaipur who proposed to Cherrill, but he was turned down. Cherrill then met and married George Francis Child-Villiers, 9th Earl of Jersey (1910-1998) until they separated in 1946 after a series of miscarriages. During the Second World War, Virginia ran an organisation to support Polish airmen in London. It was through this work that Cherrill met her fourth and final husband, Florian Martini, a pilot who served during the war.