The glistening allure of Gilded Age jewellery

When Gladys Moore Vanderbilt, daughter of railroad tycoon Cornelius Vanderbilt II, married the Austro-Hungarian Count László Széchényi in 1908, she became one of the last dollar princesses, the nickname given to American heiresses who married into the European aristocracy and brought vast wealth with them. Gladys had led a rarefied life, growing up between the Vanderbilt mansion on Fifth Avenue, the largest private house in New York City, and the huge weekend “cottage”, The Breakers, on Rhode Island. Her family was at the centre of a social elite for whom jewels were essential signifiers of power. They amassed a vast collection during the Gilded Age and the belle époque, the years loosely spanning 1880 to 1914. The jewels were often in the French 18th-century revival or the garland style, designed around drapes, swags, ribbon bows or trellises and bought from the great houses of Paris or Tiffany & Co in New York, which was founded in 1837.

This month, 12 of the Vanderbilt family jewels will be auctioned at Phillips in Geneva. The landmark sale will include creations by Tiffany & Co and Cartier, ranging in date from the 1890s to the late 1930s, and comprising statement brooches, a hair comb, important gems, jewelled purses and personal accessories. All originally belonged to Gladys Moore Vanderbilt. The timing is apposite – the Gilded Age is in the spotlight with the Cartier exhibition at London’s V&A Museum and the eponymous HBO series, which was recently renewed for its fourth season.

They are the jewels that are always kept in the safe

“People have been focused on art deco, but now I see a revival of belle époque,” says Benoît Repellin, Phillips’s worldwide head of jewellery. Amy Burton of London jewellery dealer Hancocks finds that clients now look for belle époque jewellery for wedding wear, including tiaras, as a way of starting family traditions. It’s all part of a wider shift towards antique jewels, as Bonhams’ global director of jewellery Jean Ghika sees it. It’s about buying something that “no one else has”, she says.

The Vanderbilt jewels are sure to find enthusiastic buyers. And they “would never be worn or see the light of day with us”, says a family representative. “They are the jewels that are always kept in the safe.” (Others, of a more sentimental value, will remain in the family.)

The highlight of the sale is the Vanderbilt sapphire brooch, made by Tiffany & Co in around 1905 and given to Gladys by her mother. It’s centred on a superlative 42.68-carat sugar-loaf Kashmir sapphire, surrounded by light, lacy diamond openwork with scrolls and rosettes. “The velvety, rich royal Kashmir blue, the size, the clean quality, and completely natural… it’s everything collectors look for”, says Repellin. “The brooch is huge, covering the palm of my hand. A major statement.” It has a pre-sale estimate of $1mn to $1.5mn.

Such jewels have additional cachet because they represent “a rare opportunity to own something steeped in social and cultural history”, says Phillips’s international business development director of jewellery, Sarah O’Brien. The family spokesperson recalls spending time at The Breakers, where “virtually everything came from Tiffany & Co: silverware and lots of clocks”. The auction also includes a diamond flower brooch (estimated at $100,000 to $150,000) that was originally part of a tiara given to Gladys by her mother for her wedding in 1908. Made by Cartier, the tiara featured eight lily sprays, each detachable as brooches, their major diamonds interchangeable with amethysts (now lost). It was dismantled in 1958 and the lily sprays given to her five daughters, who wore them often.

In the wider market, the garland style is particularly sought after. It’s characterised by delicate, lace-like diamond-set openwork made possible by the use of platinum, which could be worked with extreme precision to create almost invisible settings. The Cartier name adds a premium to these jewels, especially when lyrical design is paired with an important gemstone, as in the dramatic corsage brooch set with large pear-‑ and oval-shaped diamonds, made in 1912, that sold at Christie’s New York in 2019 for $10.6mn. Chaumet also excelled in the style: Pragnell is offering a very wearable long diamond and platinum sautoir at £51,000.

Many fine examples were not signed, and these often represent good value. Their worth “is in the design, not the name or brand”, notes Bonhams’ Ghika. Bentley & Skinner has an elegant unsigned diamond necklace with a ribbon bow, leafy garlands and lavallière-style diamond pendants at £75,000, and a charming diamond and natural-pearl ribbon bow and garland brooch for £4,950. Not everything is so dear. “You can pick up an exquisitely pretty belle époque brooch for £1,500 to £2,000,” Ghika says. The Antique Jewellery Company currently has a platinum and diamond bow brooch at £1,275.

For antique jewellery dealer Sandra Cronan, the era remains unparalleled. “I love the romanticism,” she says. “The finesse of craftsmanship can’t be replicated today.” For the heirs to the Vanderbilt vault, the family jewels, like their own memories of parties in the great hall of the Breakers, “open a little window onto the Gilded Age”.