Queen Nazli of Egypt wore this Van Cleef & Arpels necklace to her daughter’s wedding in 1939. Sotheby’s said she attended the event “literally covered in diamonds.”
A platinum and diamond necklace made in 1939 for Queen Nazli of Egypt will be up for auction early next month and is expected to fetch as much as $4.6 million.
Made by Van Cleef & Arpels, the Art Deco necklace is set with more than 600 round and baguette diamonds weighing a total of 217 carats and arranged in a sunburst motif. Queen Nazli commissioned the necklace, as well as a matching tiara, for her daughter’s wedding ceremony.
The necklace will be part of Sotheby’s Dec. 9 sale of Magnificent Jewels in New York, which will offer more than 500 lots including additional historical jewels and “important” diamonds and colored gemstones.
Among them, and expected to be in the overall top 10 of the sale, are two sapphire rings. One of the rings is set with a 25.87-carat cushion-cut sugarloaf cabochon sapphire expected to sell for as much as $4.5 million; the other ring holds a 9.11-carat cushion-cut sapphire and has a pre-sale high estimate of $1 million.
When it comes to diamonds, a 38.27-carat square emerald-cut stone flanked by additional diamonds and set into a platinum ring could sell for up to $4.5 million. A pear-shaped fancy pink diamond weighing 6.93 carats, also set into a platinum ring, has a pre-sale estimate of $2.5 million.
Another historic jewel in the auction is a Suzanne Belperron suite comprised of a pair of white gold, chalcedony, sapphire and diamond cuff bracelets and a platinum, white gold, chalcedony, sapphire and diamond necklace. Together, they are expected to bring in as much as $1.2 million.
The suite was made circa 1935 for the Duchess of Windsor, Wallis Simpson, and was first sold at Sotheby’s Geneva in 1987.
