Royal diamonds bracelet doubles

FORMERLY in the personal collection of Queen Victoria Eugenia of Spain, a truly unique bracelet has been sold at a Sotheby’s auction in Geneva.

The lot sold for 3.27 million CHF (2.72 million euros), more than twice its estimated value. This ranks it as the second most expensive bracelet in Cartier history, according to the director of Sotheby’s Europe and Middle East jewellery department, minutes after the event ended. Without revealing the identity or origin of the buyer, the executive of Sotheby’s said it was a “European private collector” who approved the transaction by phone.

The bracelet is so unique, “we know of no other significant Cartier jewel that employed the charming baby pink conch pearl in conjunction with black enamel and diamonds,” Bennett explained in his recently released book Celebrating Jewellery: Exceptional Jewels of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries. “The fruiting vine central motif is shared with other highly chromatic ‘tutti frutti’ bracelets designed in the company’s workshops at this date. Although the design is totally balanced and harmonious, the principal gems, all of different sizes and slightly different shades of colour are placed asymmetrically giving the jewel a sense of tension which is highly unusual.”