For Sale: Jewels Britain's King Edward VIII Showered on U.S. Lover
Jewels bought by Britain's King Edward VIII for his American wife Wallis Simpson are expected to fetch up to 3 million pounds ($4.55 million) at auction in November, Sotheby's said on Thursday.
The king, who renounced his claim to the British throne in 1936 to marry the divorcee, showered her with gifts of jewelry throughout their courtship and marriage.
Many of the "magical jewels" honor events in the couple's lives and are of great importance as both works of art and historical artifacts, said Sotheby's jewelry expert David Bennett.
"They document one of the greatest love affairs," he told Reuters, adding that it was hard to say how much the jewellery's historical significance added to its value.
After Edward's abdication, the couple were given the titles of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor and left Britain, living abroad for the rest of their lives.
One of the pieces, a Cartier bracelet with pendant jeweled crosses, commemorates a series of events in Simpson's life, including an assassination attempt on the king and her own appendectomy.
The 20 lots, ranging from a Cartier panther bracelet to diamond-encrusted cufflinks, are only a fraction of the original "Jewels of the Duchess of Windsor" collection, which was sold soon after Simpson's death in 1986.
Still the most valuable single-owner jewelry sale ever, the collection sold for 31 million pounds, more than seven times the pre-sale estimate.
"With jewelry sales going from strength to strength, these pieces should do very well also," Bennett said. Sotheby's expects strong interest from buyers in the Middle East and Asia.
The selection, which includes silverware and royal medals, will be exhibited around the world before the auction in London on November 30.
Comment
More news
 |
A scientific reconstruction of one of the oldest sets of human remains found in the Americas appears to support theories that the first people who came to the hemisphere migrated from a broader area than once thought, researchers say.
24 July '10
|
 |
What could be the world’s earliest illustrated Christian manuscript has been found in a remote Ethiopian monastery. The Garima Gospels were previously assumed to date from about 1100AD, but radiocarbon dating conducted in Oxford suggests they were made between 330 and 650AD.
24 July '10
|
 |
LONDON. Henry Moore’s heaviest bronze sculpture, Large Divided Oval: Butterfly, has been restored in Berlin. Weighing nearly nine tons, it was his final major work, completed just before he died in 1986. Butterfly stands in the middle of a circular basin, outside the entrance to Berlin’s House of World Cultures, a centre for non-European arts.
24 July '10
|
 |
rome. The Vatican Museums in Rome are set to open a room devoted to the works of Matisse later this year. The move is designed to further boost the profile of its modern and contemporary religious art department. Large-scale preparatory sketches by the French artist, relating to items adorning the Chapel of the Rosary in Vence on the Cote d’Azur, will go on public display for the first time. The works were donated to the Vatican by the artist’s son Pierre in 1980.
22 July '10
|
 |
PARIS— After five years of renovations, the house that Jean Cocteau bought with the French actor Jean Marais in 1947 in Milly-la-Forêt, about 30 miles south of Paris, is finally open to the public. Having lived there for the last 17 years of his life with his companion, Edouard Dermit, the writer and director worked on some of his greatest projects under its roof, including the film "Le Testament d’Orphée" and the poem "Le Requiem."
22 July '10
|
 |
NEW YORK. Sotheby’s New York will sell the Neuberger Berman and Lehman Brothers corporate art collections on 25 September, now that a bankruptcy court has approved the sale. Proceeds will go towards paying off Lehman’s creditors.
22 July '10
|
 |
Chief Judge Loretta Preska approved a settlement in the Portrait of Wally case. Herrick Feinstein's press release reporting the settlement terms of the Portrait of Wally case here - Portrait of Wally Case Settles
21 July '10
|
 |
PARIS.- Held at the Carrousel du Louvre from 18th to 21st November 2010, Paris Photo, the world’s leading fair for 19th Century, modern and contemporary photography will bring together 103 exhibitors including 90 galleries and 13 publishers. With 78% of foreign participation, 25 represented countries, 31 new comers, the 14th edition is rich in discoveries. This year’s edition marks the return of US galleries and a stronger showing of contemporary art galleries with Beaumontpublic (Luxemburg), Ernst Hilger (Vienne), I8 (Reykjavik), Anne de Villepoix (Paris), Hervé Loevenbruck (Paris) or Yossi Milo (New York).
The vintage photography section will be enhanced by the participation of Stephen Bulger (Toronto), Sage Paris, Stephen Daiter (Chicago) and Barry Friedman (New York).
21 July '10
|
 |
LONDON.- The Culture Minister has placed a temporary export bar on a painting by the Spanish artist Murillo. This will provide a last chance to raise the money to keep the painting of The Virgin and Child in the United Kingdom.
21 July '10
|
 |
VALENCIA.- The old Church of San Esteban, on Colón de Valencia Street, had been its hiding place for centuries. The piece, which was completely blackened, had gone unnoticed for many years. The weather had harmed the painting, in fact, 40% of the paint was gone.
20 July '10
|
 |
Art experts in Rome are analysing what they believe is a previously unknown painting by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio.
20 July '10
|
 |
LONDON.- The Jewish Museum has successfully raised the funds to secure the ‘Lindo lamp’, the earliest known English Hanukah lamp and one of the treasures of British Jewish heritage, ensuring its continued place in the museum’s collection.
20 July '10
|
 |
TEL AVIV.- A selection from the works of provocative photographer David LaChapelle (b. Connecticut, 1963) is exhibited in Israel for the first time, giving a comprehensive view of his unique and daring style of the past twenty years.
19 July '10
|
 |
Japanese superstar artist Takashi Murakami has told French newspaper Le Figaro that he's a little nervous about his forthcoming blockbuster show at the Palace of Versailles outside Paris this September.
19 July '10
|
 |
GUATEMALA CITY (REUTERS).- Archeologists in Guatemala have discovered a Mayan king's tomb packed with a well-preserved hoard of carvings, ceramics and children's bones that cast fresh light on the vanished civilization.
19 July '10
|
 |
Just in: Artworks from Dennis Hopper's collection - including prized pieces by Andy Warhol and Jean-Michel Basquiat - will sold at Christie's during its Post-War & Contemporary Evening and Day Sales in New York on Nov. 10 and 11, 2010.
17 July '10
|
 |
A hand-coloured image of Edvard Munch's Madonna has been sold for £1.25m, making it the most expensive print to be sold in the UK.
15 July '10
|
 |
A treasure hunter has found about 52,500 Roman coins, one of the largest such finds ever in Britain, officials said Thursday.
15 July '10
|
