Iconic Jewellery Gifts of History

New York, October 1969. A crowd of about six thousand people gathered outside the Cartier mansion on Fifth Avenue. Everyone had come to see a single stone.

It was a 69.42-carat diamond. Richard Burton bought it for Elizabeth Taylor, but the jewellers first displayed the purchase in their window.

Ten years later, Taylor would sell the diamond, with part of the proceeds supporting a hospital in Botswana, a country with which she shared a personal history.

Sometimes, a gift lives longer than the romance for which it was purchased.

The Taylor-Burton Diamond

The auction took place on 23 October 1969. Burton participated by phone through his lawyer, stopping at one million dollars. The stone went to Cartier for $1,050,000, then a record for a piece of jewellery at a public auction.

Burton did not give up. The next day, he reached an agreement with Cartier and bought the diamond for $1.1 million. The jewellers set one condition: the stone had to remain in their window first. Hence the queue on Fifth Avenue.

In November, Taylor wore the diamond to Princess Grace of Monaco's 40th birthday. The ring proved too heavy for her hand, and the actress soon commissioned a necklace for it.

The couple eventually parted ways. In 1979, Taylor sold the piece to New York jeweller Henry Lambert for a sum reported between three and five million dollars. Part of the money went to the hospital in Botswana, where Taylor and Burton had remarried in 1975.

La Peregrina

This pearl is about five hundred years old, discovered off the coast of Panama in the early 16th century. It belonged to Spanish kings and the English Queen Mary I.

In January 1969, La Peregrina appeared at a Sotheby's auction. Burton outbid a participant connected to the Spanish royal family, paying $37,000. Taylor received the pearl for Valentine's Day.

Once, at the Caesars Palace hotel in Las Vegas, the pearl went missing. Taylor found it in her puppy's mouth, and the pearl was left without a single scratch.

The actress later commissioned a necklace from Cartier featuring pearls, rubies, and diamonds, inspired by old portraits of Spanish queens.

In December 2011, the necklace sold at Christie's for $11.8 million, despite a valuation of only two to three million.

The Krupp Diamond

A year before his famous purchase, Burton gifted Taylor another stone: a 33.19-carat Asscher-cut diamond. It previously belonged to Vera Krupp, wife of a German industrialist. Burton paid about $305,000 for it.

Taylor wore this ring almost every day. It survived both divorces from Burton and stayed with her forever.

Christie's later listed the stone under a new name: The Elizabeth Taylor Diamond. It was bought by South Korean company E-Land for $8.8 million, far exceeding the expert valuation of 3.5 million. The owner's name nearly tripled the price.

Bulgari Emeralds

Taylor and Burton met in Rome in 1962 on the set of Cleopatra. The couple soon frequented the Bulgari boutique on Via dei Condotti. Burton was there so often he joked that the only Italian word Elizabeth knew was Bulgari.

For their engagement, he gave her an emerald brooch, and for their wedding in 1964, he added a necklace of large emeralds and diamonds. Both pieces became iconic parts of her image.

In December 2011, the necklace sold at Christie's for $6.1 million. The brooch, which Taylor also wore as a pendant, sold for $6.58 million, a record for an emerald piece.

Lesotho III

In 1968, Aristotle Onassis proposed to Jacqueline Kennedy, choosing a 40.42-carat marquise-cut diamond. The stone was cut from the 601-carat Lesotho diamond found in Africa a year earlier, with Harry Winston overseeing the cut.

In October, Jacqueline and Onassis married on his private island of Skorpios, Greece. She wore the ring rarely, as it mostly remained in a bank vault.

In April 1996, the diamond was listed at Sotheby's. Estimated at $500,000–$600,000, it sold for $2.59 million.

Wallis Simpson's Panthers

In 1936, Edward VIII abdicated the British throne to marry American Wallis Simpson. Cartier created jewellery for her that became the house's signature style.

In 1949, a brooch appeared: a panther lying on a 152-carat sapphire. Three years later, Simpson received a panther bracelet made of platinum, diamonds, and onyx, with emerald eyes. The bracelet resembled a small sculpture.

It was auctioned twice. In 1987 in Geneva, it fetched $1.27 million. In 2010, London's Sotheby's expected a maximum of 1.5 million pounds, but bidding ended at 4.5 million, a record for a bracelet at auction.

Lopez's Pink Diamond

In November 2002, Ben Affleck proposed to Jennifer Lopez, gifting her a 6.1-carat Harry Winston pink diamond. The ring was valued between $1.2 and $2.5 million and featured the engraving "sing".

Coloured diamonds were not yet in vogue, and Lopez's pink stone is often cited as a catalyst for interest in them.

The wedding was set for September 2003 but was cancelled days before the ceremony. In early 2004, the couple parted.

Nearly twenty years later, they reunited. In April 2022, he gave her a new ring with an 8.5-carat green diamond engraved with "not.going.anywhere"—a sign-off Affleck used in letters when they reconnected.

In July 2022, the couple married in Las Vegas, but in August 2024, Lopez filed for divorce.

The Legacy of Elizabeth Taylor

In December 2011, Christie's auctioned Taylor's jewellery collection, including La Peregrina, the Krupp Diamond, and the Bulgari emeralds. The entire collection fetched approximately $137 million.

Some saw these stones as gifts from men who loved her, while others saw them as a collection and investment. Regardless, every stone holds a story that no auction catalogue can fully capture: romances, divorces, a puppy with a royal pearl in its mouth, and the decisions that defined the lives of their owners.