Lady Wimborne's Whimsical Jewels, Plus a Whole Lot of Gratitude (From Me to You!)

Cecil Beaton's muse, my Thanksgiving meal plans, and a heartfelt thanks to all of you for reading all these years

It’s time yet again for the free weekly bonus newsletter here at Hidden Gems, and we’re beginning with some eye-popping Art Deco jewels that were sold at auction this week in London.

Christie’s

Lady Wimborne’s jewels fetch a princely sum at Christie’s

Christie’s in London superintended a showstopping online jewelry auction this week that featured 160 lots of spectacular earrings, necklaces, rings, bracelets, and tiaras. Nine of those lots belonged to one fascinating aristocratic lady: the Hon. Alice Grosvenor, wife of the 1st Viscount Wimborne. Alice had an impressive noble pedigree. Her father, Robert Wellesley Grosvenor, 2nd Baron Ebury, was a cousin of the 1st Duke of Westminster and a great-nephew of the 1st Duke of Wellington.

In 1902, Alice married Ivor Churchill Guest, Viscount Wimborne, who was a grandson of the 7th Duke of Marlborough (and, therefore, a first cousin of Winston Churchill). As Lady Wimborne, Alice became a popular society hostess, decked out in French couture and jewels from the fashionable houses of Cartier and Chaumet. She was a regular in the pages of society fashion magazines like Vogue and Tatler and became a favorite subject of the famed photographer Cecil Beaton.

On Tuesday, the hammer fell on the sale of nine lots of Alice’s jewelry:

• a coral, pearl, diamond, and emerald bangle from Cartier (sold for £406,400);

• a ruby, pink sapphire, and diamond pendant (sold for £304,800);

• a natural pearl necklace with a diamond clasp (sold for £533,400);

• an antique diamond and emerald tiara (sold for £48,260);

• an emerald, natural pearl, and diamond pendant (sold for £635,000);

• another natural pearl necklace with a diamond clasp (sold for £698,500);

• a pair of emerald and diamond earrings (sold for £139,700);

• a diamond necklace (sold for £177,800);

• and a diamond and emerald bracelet from Cartier (sold for £1,079,500).

All told, the Wimborne jewels sold in the auction for more than £4 million, or around $5.3 million USD. I can only imagine that, somewhere, Alice is pleased with the result.

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Queen Alexandra, ca. 1897 (Royal Collection Trust)

Alexandra’s jewelry inheritance

Last week marked a century since the passing of Queen Alexandra, the Danish-born wife of King Edward VII and mother of King George V. We commemorated the anniversary at Hidden Gems with a look at the way that Queen Mary, King George, Princess Victoria, and Queen Maud divided up Alexandra’s jewelry at Sandringham a few weeks after her death, as well as some of the places where those jewelry pieces are still being worn today.

An interesting postscript to the story crops up twenty years later, when the descendants of Alexandra’s granddaughter, Maud, sold her Russian sapphires and amethysts at Christie’s in 1946. The diamond and amethyst tiara from the collection was purchased by a diamond merchant, Norman Weisz, while the sapphire and diamond necklace was acquired by another dealer, Colonel Drayson. A day later, Drayson sold the necklace to Weisz. “I had to give Colonel Drayson a small profit,” Weisz told the Evening Standard after reuniting the pieces, “but it was worth it.”

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This year, and always, I’m thankful for you

At this time of year, I always like to share a little message of thanks to those of you who have been reading along with me at The Court Jeweller and at Hidden Gems all these years. This Thanksgiving, my gratitude feels even more overwhelming.

Anyone who reads news about the digital publishing world knows that it’s an unsteady time for the industry. Companies that used to focus on indexing websites through their search engines are now hoovering up web content to spit back through AI tools, without credit or compensation, and the resulting impact on those of us who publish original, human work has already been staggering.

I don’t know how much longer traditional web publishing will be a viable thing. I am lucky, though, because I’ve been fortunate to find a strong community of readers over the better part of two decades, and that puts me on surer footing than those who have simply counted on high volume sites stuffed with keywords to drive traffic.

I’m planning to stay the course for now, continuing to publish work at The Court Jeweller at current levels for as long as it is fiscally possible to do so while also paying for hosting and image licensing costs. I want you to know that those of you who are dedicated readers, coming back each day to the site, are the reason that I’m able to continue to share my work with you at TCJ.

Those of you who have subscribed to Hidden Gems have also helped to open up a new avenue for me to continue to share my work, one that is more insulated against changes in the digital publishing world. I am beyond grateful—always, but especially now—for those of you who have been readers for so long, and especially for those of you who have become patrons of my work at Substack.

I have always strived to produce work that will delight you and educate you, writing that helps you learn and be curious while also giving you a chance to marvel at beautiful things. For me, the most beautiful thing of all is your dedicated readership, and words cannot fully express how grateful I am for each and every one of you.

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Five more things I loved this week

📖 I’ve been so entranced by Meryl Gordon’s Bunny Mellon biography that I’ve barely had time to crack open another book this week, but two new review copies recently arrived in my inbox that I can’t wait to start: Angela Tomaski’s The Infamous Gilberts (Scribner) and Jenny Elder Moke’s Cross Your Heart and Hope He Dies (St. Martin’s Press). Both come out on January 20, and both are available for pre-order now.

🎙️ I was all ready to recommend another new favorite podcast this week, and then Amy Poehler dropped a new episode of Good Hang featuring Ina Garten as her guest. How could I mention anything else?

🍽️ We’re hosting a big Thanksgiving lunch for extended family this week, and I’m making the easiest recipe I know: a big crock-pot of potato soup. I cheat a little by using frozen hash browns so I don’t have to peel potatoes (shhhh!), and this recipe is the one I’ve had the biggest success with so far.

📺 Toddler parenting during the holiday season has me so exhausted that, in general, I’m watching the inside of my eyelids almost immediately after her bedtime lately, but I’ve got the DVR set for The More the Merrier on Hallmark Channel this weekend. I also managed to stay up for the end of the Dancing with the Stars finale last night. I won’t drop any spoilers for those of you who have to catch up later today!

🏈 One of my favorite activities is working on my latest needlepoint project (still the Jacinda Boneau “Thankful” canvas—which I’m definitely not going to finish in time for Thanksgiving!) while watching football. But my alma mater, Notre Dame, isn’t scheduled to kick off against Stanford until 9:30 PM my time on Saturday, so maybe it will be a Hallmark-movie-stitching Saturday instead? (If ND starts this game the same way they did the last one, I can go to sleep happily in the first quarter. Apologies to any Syracuse fans among us.)

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Christie’s

And next up here at Hidden Gems…

Following a tradition that I started last year, the Thanksgiving weekend edition of Hidden Gems is the bonus article for founding member subscribers of the publication. (Last year’s edition focused on the fascinating Countess Mona Bismarck.) If you picked up on a hint I left in an earlier newsletter, you may have realized that a piece about Bunny Mellon’s incredible blue diamond was on the way. Founding members will have full access to that article on Saturday!

Thank you for your generous patronage of my work, both at The Court Jeweller and here at my subscriber-supported Substack, Hidden Gems. Your continued support enables me to produce quality content focusing on history, royalty, and (most importantly) jewelry.