As a gemmologist and jewellery historian who worked for a time at Christie’s in London, Sarah Hue-Williams knows the stories behind many of the world’s top jewellery pieces.
About the 32-carat pink diamond that once belonged to the First Mughal Emperor of India and was rumoured to have been smuggled into England by a soldier who hid the stone inside his horse. It sold in 1990 for £4 million. About the jewellery collection of Christina Onassis, which included a carved figure of Buddha discovered during cataloguing in 2007 to be a missing masterpiece by Fabergé. And about the 19th-century Tiffany & Co. enamel orchid brooch that a 93-year-old client sent in a plain brown envelope to Christie’s for valuing, which turned out to be worth £36,000.
Rather than write a dry book about carats, cut and clarity, price and provenance, Hue-Williams wanted to collect such stories in a book that other jewellery obsessives could enjoy. The result is Hidden Gems: Jewellery Stories from the Saleroom, which Hue-Williams has penned in collaboration with a former Christie’s colleague, Raymond Sancroft-Baker.
“Storytelling is so powerful, especially today with our ‘reality culture’ and our demand for instant access and insight,” Hue-Williams says. “What people really want is to get behind the scenes. My aim was to use stories to showcase jewels and bring them to life as intimate – rather than inanimate – objects.”
Gems of Princess Margaret, Elizabeth Taylor
The Cambridge University-trained gemmologist, who splits her time between London and Sydney, has included pieces once owned by Princess Margaret and Elizabeth Taylor, among others. She’s happy to bust preconceptions about the women history associates with over-the-top necklaces, earrings, bracelets and brooches.
“The presumption is that royalty will only be interested in very high-end pieces, but in Princess Margaret’s case, she genuinely had a love of jewellery of many different genres,” Hue-Williams says. “Hence she was not at all bothered about the fact that the emeralds she saw in a brooch one day were actually synthetic, man-made. Even after the jeweller concerned pointed this out, she subsequently bought the brooch, simply because she liked it.”
And don’t assume Elizabeth Taylor was only interested in stop-and-stare pieces by the top jewellers of her day. “The Elizabeth Taylor story starts with her purchasing a Georgian necklace and matching earrings,” Hue-Williams says. “These were just two of a number of antique jewels that she owned. She was a very discerning and knowledgeable collector, despite most of us tending to associate her with the biggest, most dazzling bits of bling. She had a great respect for the history of jewellery and what has come before.”
As to which piece in the 300-page book Hue-Williams would most like to keep for herself, she says they are like children and that it would be too hard to choose ... before settling on a 1920s vanity case by Cartier which Christie’s offered for sale in 2000.
“It featured an onyx panther prowling in a wonderful mother-of-pearl cypress tree landscape, with a turquoise tree motif and a cabochon ruby sun,” she says. “The detailing was exquisite, epitomising everything a high-jewellery house like Cartier stood for. I wasn’t at all surprised that it sold for £130,000, a world record for a vanity case at the time.”
Hidden Gems is published by Unicorn Press. It is available in Australia at Pierre Winter Fine Jewels in Paddington, Sydney and at selected bookstores.
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The AFR Magazine's annual Arts issue is out on Friday, February 24 inside The Australian Financial Review.
