Best wishes,
Alejandro E.
That is very interesting J-F. I wonder which of the daughters got the bow brooch? And which got the sapphires?
If one of the daughters got the bow, then it is possible that it was sold to one of the brothers, but of course that is just a supposition based on the press releases which stated it had been owned by the Astor family.
If the bow brooch was sold back to the mainline of the Astors, then it is possible that Charlotte Astor (Drayton) Haig inherited it. As she is said to have been disinherited by her father, she is the one most likely to have done a trade with her brother. But who knows? When she died in Paris on 30 July 1920 her estate (for England at least) was valued at only 62,429/4/4 pounds sterling.
Re the sapphires: I wonder if these could have included the smaller tiara from the parure belonging to the French Crown Jewels? But how to explain the necklace and brooch?
In his book on Christie's, Vincent Meylan states that the main sections of the parure were given to Aline de Rothschild as a wedding present when she married Edward Sassoon in 1887. And the photographs of her daughter, Sybil, Marchioness of Cholmondeley, at the 1937 coronation prove this is the French parure. So what The Mrs Astor had were either other parts of the parure or a copy. I wonder which?
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