Stealing all the headlines at Sotheby’s (25/20/12% buyer’s premium) Fine Jewels sale in London on June 7 was the £540,000, 26ct ’tenner’ diamond, bought by the vendor at a boot fair in the 1980s. However, among the 370 lots were items with more illustrious provenances.
Acquired at Sotheby’s in July 1986 by a close friend of Margaret Thatcher, a geometric chevron design Cartier brooch had been on near permanent loan to the former prime minister. Thatcher wore the brooch on many public occasions, including the day she offered her resignation to the queen in 1991.
Set with brilliant and baguettecut diamonds, the brooch is accompanied by a facsimile of a letter from Cartier London, dated February, 1989, stating that the brooch was made as a single piece in 1937 and originally sold in 1939.