Speaking of those legendary jewels, they are always inextricably linked to the royal family, nobles, rich and famous women, and the jewels represent the aura of their wealth, and also witness their love-hate hatred and extravagant and flashy life. Today's protagonists are barbara Hutton, a legendary American woman known as the "Billion Dollars" of the last century, and her sky-high jewelry.
Barbara Hutton's life was full of ups and downs, with a star-like appearance and radiance, and she inherited a hundred million-dollar inheritance from an early age, and her life was extremely luxurious and generous. Gift jewelry, apartments, yachts, etc. to friends, art to museums, and Winfield Manor in London to the U.S. government. She simply pursues love and happiness, and even spends a lot of money to buy affection, but she has encountered seven marriage changes, being deceived, used, abused, raped, and then self-depraved, drifting around, drinking and drug abuse... Hurt all the time, but never found love and peace of mind in his life. In his later years, his love dreams were shattered, and he lost his only son, mentally weak, and died in loneliness. After her death, an inventory found only $3,000 left.
In 1936, Barbara bought Winfield Manor in London
All roads lead to Rome, but some people are born in Rome, barbara Hutton is a rich family born with a golden spoon, born in New York in 1912, grandfather Frank Hutton was born in New York in 1912. Frank W. Woolworth was the founder of the world's largest Woolworth retail chain at the time, his mother, Edna Woolworth, the only child of the Woolworth family, and his father, A. E. Woolworth, a well-known banker and investor in New York. F. Hutton is the co-founder, and Barbara is the only child of her parents, the sole heir to the billionaire family property.
Woolworth Department Store
▲ In 1913, Barbara's maternal grandfather Woolworth spent $13.5 million on Broadway to build the world's tallest building with a height of 241 meters, and on the night of its completion, President Washington personally pressed the button to light the lights of the building.
When Barbara was five years old, her mother ended her life in a fit of rage due to her father's infidelity to the marriage. The father did not regret this, but left the young Barbara, she followed the nanny to various relatives, the unstable and loveless childhood cast a shadow on her life.
Barbara with mother
When Barbara was 7 years old, her beloved grandmother died again, leaving her with a $28 million trust fund, inheriting a fortune when she was an adult at the age of 18, and she spent $70,000 to hold a lavish adult dance for herself, following the tradition of New York high society at that time, and began a life of extravagant celebrity. By the time Barbara was 21, the money had snowballed to $42 million (equivalent to $2 billion today), and Barbara became one of the world's youngest female richest men at the time, known as the "Billion Dollars."
Reincarnation is indeed a technical work, effortless, Barbara only relies on reincarnation to have amazing wealth, she lives a luxurious and flashy life, luxury cars, expensive jewelry and clothing, private charter planes are the basic configuration, in her later years, she is not even willing to walk by herself, it is all held by people.
In 1930, at the age of 18, Barbara Hutton
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="40" > seven marriages and sky-high jewelry</h1>
First marriage (1933–1935), husband: Alexis Mdvani
In 1933, Barbara, who had traveled to Europe to escape the pressure of public opinion, met Alexis Mdvani, a prince from Georgia, when in fact Alex went into exile in Paris because of the October Revolution in Russia, with nothing but the title of prince. In order to get close to Barbara, Alex abandons the original match and enters the palace of marriage with Barbara. I thought that the prince and princess could live a happy life without shame and shame, but this marriage was nothing more than a conspiracy, and the prince of Georgia valued only the wealth in her hands, and he squandered Barbara's property to the fullest, and they ended in divorce in only two years.
However, in this marriage, the dowry that the father gave to Barbara was very generous. It is said that the pearl necklace that Barbara wore at the wedding once belonged to Marie Antoinette, queen of Louis XVI of France, and was also one of her dowries.
Portrait of Marie Antoinette
Barbara Hutton
In addition, her father's wedding gift to Barbara included a world-famous jadeite necklace from Cartier Haute Couture, consisting of 27 jadeite beads ranging in diameter from 15.40-19.20 mm, and a necklace buckle made of rubies and diamond necklaces.
Barbara has been carefully treasured since her marriage, and only wore it publicly for the first time at the 21st birthday party. After several failed marriages, a mentally weakened Barbara gave the necklace to her friend Losuise Van Ailen. With Louisa also marrying into the Mdivani family, the pearl necklace was treasured by the Mdivani family for more than 50 years, until it first appeared at auction in 1988, after three auctions, the price also ranged from $2 million to $4.2 million, and finally was repurchased by Cartier for $27.44 million (about 214 million Hong Kong dollars), and set a new auction record for jadeite jewelry.
Barbara Hutton and Alex Midwani at the Metropolitan Opera in New York in 1933
Barbara is one of the few Western celebrities who loves to collect Oriental jadeite jewelry. In her dowry, in addition to the sky-high jade necklace, there are two jade bracelets, which are said to have been lost from the Royal Family of the Qing Dynasty in China, one of which was sold for HK$7.04 million at the Sotheby's auction in Hong Kong in 1988.
In 1934, Barbara Hutton purchased a diamond stud earring from Van Cleef & Arpels.
Second marriage (1935–1938), husband: Count Kurt Haugwitz-Reventlow
Not long after the end of the first marriage, Barbara married her second husband, count Colt von Haugwitz-Reventrov, a nobleman from Denmark. The marriage was even worse, and Haugwitz married Barbara with ulterior motives, not only coveting her money, but also subjecting her to domestic violence and mental devastation, and she began to use drugs and alcohol, and also suffered from anorexia nervosa. Until she was admitted to the hospital and the Count was imprisoned, the nightmarish marriage that lasted three years came to an end. In this marriage, she was relieved to have given birth to her only son, Lance Reventlow.
The misfortune of marriage has stimulated Barbara's enthusiasm for jewelry, and those brilliant and luxurious jewelry seem to be a light in Barbara's unbearable life, during which she has purchased a lot of van Cleef & Arpels and Cartier's fine products. For example, van Cleef & Arpels " Ludo Bracelet " , a gift from her second husband to Barbara , was custom-made to Van Cleef & Arpels in 1935 , consisting of an adjustable white gold chain encrusted with diamonds. ↓↓↓
Van Cleef & Arpels Ludo bracelet / 1934
In 1937, when Barbara filmed Vogue, she wore a Chanel dress, which was also a necklace, bracelet and earring set with Van Cleef & Arpels diamonds and moonstones. ↓↓↓
In order to match the emerald necklace given by her father, barbara customized a jadeite ring with diamonds and rubies from Cartier in 1934. ↓↓↓
In addition to her passion for big-name customization, Barbara has also purchased a number of antique jewelry. She also houses a vintage necklace of fine jadeite from the Romanov royal family in Russia, the Romanov Necklace, which was made in 1885 and once belonged to the Grand Duchesss Vladimir of Russia.
Designed by Fabergé for two months and meticulously carved over 14 months, the necklace uses a total of more than 360 carats of gemstones, including 79 emeralds of 186.85 carats and an emerald center stone weighing 30.65 carats. What makes the necklace special is that it can be split into three separate parts, which can be converted into multiple wearing styles, and the neck of the necklace and the emerald water drop pendant underneath can be split. Barbara is said to have spent more than $1 million on the emerald necklace that year.
Barbara had a soft spot for emeralds, and in 1936 she bought an emerald crown from Cartier, which was studded with 7 huge emeralds. ↓↓↓
These emeralds originally came from an emerald necklace by Mary, Grand Duchess of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, Russia, as a wedding gift from her father-in-law, Tsar Alexander II, who later inherited it from her son and sold it to Cartier.
Third marriage (1942–1945), husband: Cary Grant
After the divorce, Barbara returned to live in the United States, coinciding with World War II, and she won the public favor for her generous anti-fascist donations. It was also during this time that 27-year-old Barbara met her third husband, Hollywood star Gary Grant, in California.
Despite the perception that Gary was a playboy who clung to the powerful, and their marriage was derided as "cash and Cary," in this marriage, Gary did everything he could to love Barbara and help her quit drinking and drugs. Although their marriage lasted only three years and eventually divorced due to personality incompatibility, Gary was the only man who loved Barbara deeply, and the only husband who did not ask Barbara for high alimony, and the short time spent with Gary became the happiest time in Barbara's life.
Their lives are extremely luxurious, and Barbara's passion for jewelry has not diminished, and she is still keen to customize and collect antique jewelry from big names. In 1944, Barbara customized a "Spirit of Beauty" brooch to Van Cleef & Arpels, a pixie set in diamonds, emeralds and rubies. ↓↓↓
During this time, Barbara spent thousands of dollars to buy an emerald necklace from the Russian Empress Catherine II. ↓↓↓
Catherine II's emerald necklace, earrings
In 1946, after her third divorce, Barbara bought a large number of brooches, bracelets, watches and other jewelry. Among them was a diamond purchased from Bulgari, one of the most famous pieces of jewelry in Barbara Hutton's collection, the "Pasha Diamond Pssha Diamond". ↓↓↓
Pasha, who once belonged to the Governor of Egypt, Ibrahim Pasha, was originally a 40-carat octagonal diamond, which Barbara ordered to be recut into a crystal clear round diamond and set in a ring, and the weight of the diamond changed from 40 carats to 36 carats.
Cecil Beaton's photograph of Barbara in 1961
In the same year, she also purchased a Van Cleef & Arpels diamond crown. The crown is set with 22 gorgeous pear-shaped diamonds, the largest of which are 54.82 carats, 21.49 carats and 21.62 carats. When she was bedridden in her old age, she still wore the crown on her head. ↓↓↓
Fourth marriage (1947-1951), husband: Igor Troubetzkoy
After the third divorce, Barbara moved to Paris. Two years later, at the age of 32, she met her fourth husband, a Russian prince, Igor Qubeko, in this romantic city. Igor also has the title of prince, and his real identity is a professional racing driver who has won many awards at home and abroad, so Barbara is crazy fascinated. As a professional racing driver, Igor could not accompany Barbara all day, coupled with the luxurious and empty life Barbara's inextricable drug addiction also made Igor extremely bored, and three years later the marriage ended in divorce again, and Barbara once again paid high alimony.
In 1947, while marrying Igor Qubeko, Barbara bought a ruby crown from Cartier. The crown is a lotus flower with a strong oriental character, made of gold set with diamonds and rubies, and can be worn as a crown or as a necklace. The crown is said to have belonged to Queen Amelie of Portugal.
Barbara's ruby bracelet. ↓↓↓
Barbara's Burmese non-burnt ruby diamond earrings. ↓↓↓
Barbara's gold-encrusted natural pearl diamond earrings sold for $194,500 at Sotheby's in New York in 2012. ↓↓↓
Fifth marriage (1953-1954), husband: Porfirio Rubirosa
After four failed marriages, Barbara, who was already exhausted, did not give up the pursuit of true love, and at the age of 41 she entered the marriage again, this time married a diplomat of the Dominican Republic, Porfirio. Once again, Barbara, who thought she was true love, met Aquaman again, and the marriage lasted only 53 days, with Porfirio snatching $2.5 million from Barbara during the divorce.
Sixth marriage (1955-1959), husband: Gottfried Alexander
Married for the sixth time, Barbara married her long-time friend Gottfried Alexander, who has the title of Baron, is a famous tennis star in Germany, two-time French Open runner-up, one Australian Open runner-up, two-time Wimbledon runner-up, one US Open runner-up, and one US Open men's doubles champion. He married Barbara to escape the persecution of homosexuality at the time, and although he tried to help Barbara fight drug addiction and depression, the marriage did not last long.
During this time, Barbara was fascinated by Cartier tiger-shaped jewelry. In 1957, she purchased a Cartier tiger-shaped brooch, made of gold set with diamonds, onyx and emerald-embellished with tiger eyes, which are now bought back by Cartier. ↓↓↓
Along with the Cartier Tiger Brooch, there is also a pair of tiger-shaped earrings, also made of gold set with diamonds, onyx, and emeralds embellished with tiger eyes. ↓↓↓
Barbara's other Cartier tiger brooch, the center stone is a giant emerald, gold inlaid with diamonds, onyx tiger standing on an egg-faced emerald. Sotheby's was auctioned in 2005 for 311,200 francs. ↓↓↓
Barbara's Fire Opal Diamond Ring was made in 1960 with an egg-faced opal set around a ring of diamonds. ↓↓↓
Seventh marriage (1964-1966), husband: Raymond Doan
In 1964, at the age of 52, Barbara began her seventh marriage, and her seventh husband, Raymond Dorn, was a former prince of the Champasak Kingdom of Laos. Before getting married, Barbara had said, "Whether the marriage is happy or not, this will be my last bride." The marriage lasted only two years, most ironically after Barbara bought Raymond a princely title, and then he divorced Barbara.
After seven failed marriages, the disheartened Barbara did not enter the palace of marriage again, she began to be self-deprecating and profligate, and she began to date young men, looking for solace from different men.
Barbara's life is still extravagant and flashy, the jewelry is still shining, and the man who accompanies her has never been broken, but he has never got inner peace. It wasn't until 1972, when her only son, Lance, died in an air crash that Barbara was completely crushed and mentally retarded.
Barbara with son Lance
In her later years, Barbara lived in a hotel for many years, and her wealth was even more profligate, and when she met someone who could please herself, she gave jewelry and property, during which time her wealth shrank a lot, and she lived by selling her property and jewelry. Barbara died of a heart attack in 1979 at the age of 66, leaving only $3,000 in her account. Barbara spent her life trying only to get a warm home, but she did not get what she wanted until her death.
Barbara's legendary life of ups and downs, in addition to the amazing wealth born in a tragic life, but also those valuable jewels. And what we see is only the tip of the iceberg, how much jewelry Barbara once owned, I'm afraid she herself is not clear.