This story began in April 2019, when the auction house Christie’s announced the auction, which experts dubbed the auction of the century. About 400 items from the incredible collection of jewels of the Qatari Sheikh Al Thani were put up for sale, qualitatively and quantitatively surpassing most jewelry collections in the world.

On June 19, 2019, Al Thani’s jewelry was sold in New York for a record $109 million. The auction went down in history as one of the two most expensive Christie’s jewelry auctions in modern history. It lost just $7 million to the 2011 auction, where Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry collection went under the hammer for $116 million.

Sheikh Al Thani has an impressive collection of Cartier jewelry, which allowed him to put up for sale 21 pieces, while, according to experts, he still has enough left. This collection was assembled by the sheikh to explore in detail the influence of Indian art on the work of Louis Cartier.

Cartier’s passion for the Orient began in 1903 when he saw Islamic art at an exhibition at the Musée des Arts d’Arts in Paris. Another big impression was the ballet “Scheherazade”, shown by Sergei Diaghilev in Paris in 1910.

It is believed that it was after him that Cartier turned to the bold “peacock” combination of emeralds and sapphires in his jewelry. And in 1911, a real love affair began between Cartier and India, when he went on a long journey through this country. His trip was part of the events associated with the accession of King George V of England to the throne as Emperor of India, but Cartier also pursued his own goals – to purchase the beautiful gems that India was famous for.

One of the most expensive jewelry from the Al Thani collection sold at auction was just such a diamond corsage brooch in the “garland style”. Cartier created it in 1912 by order of the tycoon and financier Solomon Bernato Joel, who made his fortune in diamond mining in South Africa.

The brooch was a gift to his wife Nellie Ridley. For this jewel, Joel provided Cartier with four of his finest stones – a pear cut diamond of 34.08 carats, an oval cut of 23.55 carats, a marquise cut of 6.51 carats and a heart cut of 3.53 carats.

Next in price was a modern Cartier necklace with diamonds, emeralds, pearls and vintage spinels. One can see certain stylistic reminiscences of the Mughal era in it, and this is an important feature of the jewelry, demonstrating how important the tradition of creating jewelry in an emphatically historical style, which began a century ago, is for the jewelry house.

Three Cartier brooches were sold at the auction, associated with the 1925 World Exhibition in Paris, which became the reference point of the Art Deco style, which I mentioned just above. For that exhibition, Louis Cartier created over 100 unique pieces, including a stunning Bérénice jewelry set consisting of a tiara, brooch and necklace set with onyx, pearls, diamonds and a huge 141.13 carat engraved Taj Mahal emerald. The necklace remained unclaimed and was dismantled after the exhibition, and the emerald became part of the brooch.

Along with the Taj Mahal, another brooch was sold from the same Cartier booth. Like the Bérénice necklace, the brooch originally looked a little different, but in 1927 Cartier redesigned it to give it its current look.

The third was a belt brooch, the fate of which was much more interesting. It was purchased by Sybil Sassoon, Marchioness of Cholmondeley and became her favorite piece of jewelry. This brooch can be seen in the photographs of the marquise. She used it as an accent piece in her laconic evening gown, and she wore it to the coronations of King George VI in 1937 and Queen Elizabeth II in 1953.

In the 1920s, Cartier had one of its most legendary clients, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala. He supplied the firm with precious stones, and the jewelers turned them into many exceptional pieces of jewelry. True, none of them was as famous as the impressive ruby \u200b\u200bNecklace of Patiala.

In the history of jewelry, Paul Iribe was less known, but his design finds are of great importance. It is in his products of 1910 that elements of the Art Deco style can be seen for the first time. In that year, inspired by Diaghilev’s Scheherazade, Irib created sketches for a series of 11 pieces of jewelry, which were masterfully embodied by the jeweler Robert Linzeler. Egret was part of this series.

Starting collecting in 2009, Sheikh Al Thani gave any amount of money for the finest jewels, eventually amassing an excellent collection that also included some fantastic diamonds. The largest in the Al Thani collection is the 70.2-carat blue Golconda Eye of the Idol diamond, which the sheikh did not put up for sale.