Life

Wallace Simpson jewels up for auction

23.07.2010
The auction house Sotheby’s is to offer signature jewels from one of the most famed jewellery collections of all time, that of the Duchess of Windsor Wallace Simpson, in London this November.

Twenty pieces from the Duchess of Windsor’s jewel collection are up for auction, some of which document the love story between Wallis Simpson and King Edward VIII.

All told, the pieces are estimated to fetch in the region of £3m at auction, Sotheby’s said.

Throughout the Prince of Wales’s courtship of Wallis Warfield Simpson and during his brief period on the throne, as well as during their married life, the couple commissioned exquisite jewels from the great European jewellery houses.

The auction will feature pieces commissioned by the couple from Cartier, one of their favoured jewellers, including a heart-shaped emerald, ruby and diamond brooch engraved with the initials W.E. (Wallis, Edward) to mark the couple’s 20th wedding anniversary in 1957, and a favourite diamond bracelet of Simpson’s which supports nine gem‐set Latin crosses, each representing special moments of her life during the years 1934‐44.

“It is an extraordinary honour to bring once again to sale these jewels worn by a woman who was a leader of fashion and the epitome of elegance and sophistication for her generation and beyond. The offering comprises not only incomparable examples of the genius of Cartier in collaboration with the Windsors, but also pieces whose inscriptions tell the story of perhaps the greatest love story of the 20th century, the romance that led Edward VIII to abdicate the throne of Great Britain,” said David Bennett, chairman of Sotheby’s Jewellery in Europe and the Middle East.