A Sapphire Worn by Russia’s Last Dowager Empress Sells for $4.9 Million

Harold Cunningham//Getty ImagesThe top lot at Sotheby’s annual Royal and Noble Jewels sale in Geneva this week belonged to Russia’s former imperial family. On Wednesday, a 197.80-carat sapphire set in a Cartier bracelet sold for 4.1 million Swiss francs, or about $4.9 million. That was more than double its high estimate of 1.7 million francs, about $2 million. Sotheby’s did not identify the buyer, who was described as a private collector by the Associated Press.

According to Sotheby’s, the cushion-shaped blue sapphire originally came from Ceylon, now known as Sri Lanka, and its unusual cut suggests it was first shaped during the Mughal Empire in South Asia. It became part of the Russian crown jewel collection sometime in the 19th century and is considered one of the most important surviving gems from the Romanov court. Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna, the mother of Tzar Nicholas II, wore it at the Winter Palace Ball of 1903, an event that the auction house said was “widely regarded as the last great spectacle of Imperial Russia.” Cartier set the stone in its current diamond and rock crystal bracelet in 2015.

The sapphire’s journey to auction began with the Russian Revolution. Maria Feodorovna, born Princess Dagmar of Denmark, fled Russia in 1919 aboard a British warship, carrying only a small box of pearls and diamonds into exile. (Her sister, Queen Alexandra of the United Kingdom, was the mother of the British monarch at the time, King George V.) After Maria Feodorovna’s death in 1928, her daughters, Grand Duchess Xenia and Grand Duchess Olga, sold off most of the jewels she escaped with, some of which were acquired by Britain’s Queen Mary, such as the Sapphire and Diamond Pearl brooch.

The rest of the former Tsarina’s jewels were left behind in Russia, where the Bolsheviks seized them. The Soviet government kept the most historic pieces and sold much of the rest abroad to raise money. In 1927, the sapphire bracelet was bought through Cartier by Ganna Walska, a Polish socialite and aspiring opera singer.

Princess Birgitta’s sapphire necklace, also once linked to Maria Feodorovna.

The Duchess of Devonshire’s black opal tiara, which can also be worn as a necklace.

The Romanov stone wasn’t the only royal treasure on offer at the auction this week. Jewels from the late Princess Birgitta of Sweden, sister of King Carl XVI Gustaf, far exceeded expectations, with a rare padparadscha sapphire brooch selling for about $1.35 million and a sapphire and diamond parure, also linked to Maria Feodorovna who was said to have previously owned the stones themselves, bringing in approximately $1 million. The sale also included the Mellerio Orléans Tiara, a diamond tiara made in 1862 that vanished for nearly 70 years, which sold for $617,000, and a black opal tiara worn by the Duchess of Devonshire at Queen Elizabeth II’s 1953 coronation, which sold for $2 million.

Rachel King (she/her) is a news writer at Town & Country. Before joining T&C, she spent nearly a decade as an editor at Fortune. Her work covering travel and lifestyle has appeared in Forbes, Observer, Robb Report, Cruise Critic, and Cool Hunting, among others. Originally from San Francisco, she lives in New York with her wife, their daughter, and a precocious labradoodle. Follow her on Instagram at @rk.passport.

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