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AuctionsFeb 07, 2016
The Iron Lady’s emerald necklace to hit auction block
The Chaumet Art Deco emerald and diamond necklace could garner as much as $274,000 when it goes up for sale next month as part of Christie’s auction of property from the late Margaret Thatcher.
London--Interested parties will have the opportunity to own a part of history when Christie’s puts a number of items belonging to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher up for sale next month. 
In December, the auction house will hold the “Mrs. Thatcher: Property from the Collection of the Right Honourable The Baroness Thatcher of Kesteven, LG, OM, FRS” sale of items related to her time in office.
It will comprise 150 lots sold in a sale at the Christie’s headquarters in London, as well as an online-only sale open running from Dec. 3 to 16 and featuring 200 additional lots.
Thatcher, who died in April 2013, served as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom between 1979 and 1990.
The item expected to lead the sale is a circa 1930 Art Deco emerald and diamond necklace by Chaumet, which is estimated to garner between $182,600 and $274,000.
The auction house also will offer a circa 1800 George III diamond flower brooch pave-set throughout with old cushion, pear and circular-cut diamonds that could sell in the range of $12,100 and $15,200. Thatcher often was photographed wearing this brooch both in Britain and abroad and is, in fact, wearing the brooch in her official portrait hanging in the Prime Minister’s office in London.
Thatcher also was often seen wearing a strand of pearls. This sale will include a two-row cultured pearl necklace composed of 66 and 69 cultured pearls, which is predicted to sell for up to $2,300.
In addition to jewelry, the sale also will feature personal items like Thatcher’s midnight blue velvet wedding dress, her red leather Prime Ministerial Dispatch Box, and a 20th century Kaiser bisque figure of an American bald eagle presented to Thatcher by U.S. President Ronald Reagan.
Other items included are speech notes, an array of her attire, and 18th, 19th, and 20th century English porcelain, glass, gold boxes and silver.
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