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Piece of the Week: The Dodge Pearl Necklace
This important pearl piece far exceeded its pre-sale estimate at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction this week.
All eyes were on the record-breaking Winston Pink Legacy this week, but it wasn’t the only important piece to sell at Christie’s Geneva’s Magnificent Jewels auction.
The Dodge Pearl Necklace, estimated to fetch between $240,000 and $340,000, ended up selling for $1.1 million.
Christie’s said the necklace is “steeped in the history of one of America’s great entrepreneurial families,” having been owned by Horace Elgin Dodge, a founding brother of the Dodge Motor Car Company.
Dodge purchased it from Pierre Cartier for his wife, Anna Thompson. Cartier told Dodge that the necklace once belonged to Catherine the Great, which is likely, considering Cartier purchased many pieces of imperial and aristocratic jewelry following the Russian Revolution in 1917.
The necklace, which originally encompassed five strands, sold to Dodge for $825,000, or what would be $70 million today, in one of the most expensive jewelry transactions in history. It was passed down through the Dodge family and eventually split into various pieces, with three strands (in two separate necklaces) being offered at the Magnificent Jewels sale.
The two-row necklace features 86 and 76 natural pearls, respectively, and one cultured pearl, all of which are sized between 10.35 and 4.35 millimeters. The single-row necklace features 62 natural pearls between 0.05 and 4.20 millimeters. The diamond clasps display cushion-, square- and old-cut diamonds set in platinum.
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