More than 200 pieces of jewelry and valuables from the Württemberg family, one of the former German noble families, will be on display at Sotheby’s in New York on Monday, the first stop of a multi-city tour that will begin on Nov. 6. The auction will be held in Geneva until the 7th.
“It’s not a classic collection in the sense that one person or a couple has collected works over the years,” said Philipp von Württemberg, a distant relative of the current heir, who worked as an independent professional artist. Advisor, participated in this auction. “It’s more like a family fortune that’s built up over generations.”
The family’s origins date back to the early 1000’s and ruled the area around what is now Stuttgart, Germany. The collection includes pieces from several European aristocratic dynasties, hence the title of the auction “Vienna 1900: Imperial Royal Collection”.
Nicknamed Empress Elisabeth of Austria, Andres White Correal, Sotheby’s vice-chairman of jewelry, said: “It immediately brings to mind the Viennese court, with its glamor and court-derived style, And those styles are all from Sissi.” She “loves rubies and pearls, and obviously, we found a lot of that in the collection.”
Among the most important collections highlighted by Sotheby’s are two natural pearl brooches, presented to the Grand Duchess Maria Theresa of Austria-Terschen on her marriage to the Duke of Württemberg in 1865 . The first was a devant de Corsage, a large brooch intended to be worn on the front of a gown, set with diamonds and pearls. As for the second, a portrait of the Duchess shows her wearing it with a lace ribbon around her neck. Each comes with a box bearing the name of Viennese jeweler Emil Biedermann and is estimated at $300,000 to $500,000.
There are also jewels by Viennese jeweler Köchert, including a tiara set with rubies and another with pearls, and a necklace of five strands of natural pearls with a delicate diamond clasp.
The collection also includes a three-star diamond brooch by Wilhelm Haarstrick, similar to the Köchert-made star worn as a hair accessory by Empress Sisi in Franz Xaver Winterhalter’s 1865 portrait.
Men’s accessories in the collection include a Patek Philippe pocket watch with an 1898 certificate, cigarette cases, tie pins and cufflinks.
Mr von Württemberg described his astonishment when he opened a box containing a pair of emerald cufflinks and found a note stating that they were of the Ottoman Sultan Abdul Hamid II A gift from King Ferdinand I of Bulgaria. They joined the House of Württemberg through the wedding of Ferdinand I’s daughter Nadezhda to Duke Albrecht Eugen of Württemberg (1924).
The tour plans stops in Frankfurt, Paris, London, Singapore, Taipei and Hong Kong. Mr White Correal joked that they might not have traveled in the past 80 years, but they were “going to do so now”, referring to the fact that the items had been in the vault since 1947.
