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Fife diamond rivière
Posted by Thomas on May 12, 2019, 1:27 am
A while ago, I discovered an important British Royal jewel, whose sale by an Italian auction house went unnoticed:
"A necklace, early 19th century, in diamonds, silver, and white gold"
This huge diamond rivière was sold in September 2017 for 220.000 € in Florence, by Pandolfini, a leading Italian auction house.
The sale was entitled "Masterpieces of Italian Collections", and the rivière (lot 11) was sold as the property of an Italian collection, acquired on the International market following the sales conducted in the 1970s by the Duke of Fife.
Judging from photographs of Princess Louise, Duchess of Fife, and Princess Arthur of Connaught, Duchess of Fife suo jure, it seems that the rivière sold in 2017 was the largest rivière worn by both princesses.
As sold, the rivière possessed fittings to attach pendants on the seven principal collets, and had been most unelegantly lengthened.
The Auction house provided a detailed condition report, with the size and characteristics of each collet-mounted diamond, as numbered in this picture:
1 ct 8,50 O VS2 2 ct 4,20 M VS1 3 ct 3,60 L VS2 4 ct 2,50 N VS1 5 ct 1,70 N VS2 6 ct 1,40 L SI2 7 ct 1,50 M I1 8 ct 1,40 N I2 9 ct 1,40 N I1 10 ct 1,30 M I1 11 ct 1,00 M I1 12 ct 0,90 M SI2 13 ct 0,80 M I1 14 ct 0,90 M SI2 15 ct 0,90 M I1 16 ct 0,60 L I2 17 ct 0,70 L SI2 18 ct 0,45 M SI2 19 ct 3,50 L SI2 20 ct 0,45 N VS2 21 ct 0,70 J I2 22 ct 0,70 L SI2 23 ct 0,80 K SI2 24 ct 0,90 L I1 25 ct 0,90 K I1 26 ct 0,80 K I2 27 ct 1,00 L I2 28 ct 1,50 J SI2 29 ct 1,30 L SI2 30 ct 1,20 L I2 31 ct 1,40 M SI1 32 ct 1,50 K I1 33 ct 1,60 K I1 34 ct 1,90 L VS2 35 ct 2,90 L I1 36 ct 3,80 L SI1 37 ct 3,80 M SI2
Incredible find Thomas! I am amazed at the low quality of the diamonds, as I would have expected someone as wealthy as the first Duke of Fife to have acquired higher quality stones.