The nine pieces will be offered as individual lots with guides that range from SFr5000-10,000 for a brooch with a rose and old cut diamond setting to SFr180,000-320,000 for the necklace with an approximate sapphire weight of 70-75cts.
A total of 38 sapphires originating from Ceylon were used to create this parure that was given to Stephanie by her cousin Hortense de Beauharnais.
The bandeau tiara (SFr140,000-250,000) and bracelet (SFr10,000- 17,000) have been remodelled from a belt of the type that was popular at the Napoleonic court. At the time belts decorated with precious stones were part of any jewellery parure as fashion dictated that the waist on dresses be worn usually high with a belt placed just under the décolleté.
Try on a tiara
Sotheby’s equivalent auction in Geneva on May 11 includes an impressive royal jewel: a natural pearl and diamond tiara from the House of Savoy.
On the market for the first time, it is believed to have been made by Musy Padre e Figli, the court jeweller of Turin, and given as a wedding gift in 1867 to Maria Vittoria dal Pozzo on her marriage to Amadeo I of Savoy, Duke of Aosta and the future king of Spain. It has an estimate of $1m-1.5m.
Hugely popular online has been the Instagram filter that allows anyone to virtually ‘try on’ the Savoy tiara through the @sothebys and @sothebysjewels accounts.
The filter (an example pictured here) captures users in the sparkling tiara against a 360-degree background of the Palazzina di Caccia di Stupinigi in Turin, the former royal hunting lodge for the House of Savoy.
