Vanderbilt Gilded Age Jewels Heading to Auction
- Editor OGN Daily
- Oct 1
- 1 min read
The Vanderbilt family has long captured the American imagination. Now, interested bidders can capture glitzy mementos of the dynasty’s wealth.
“The Vanderbilt family jewels stand as the purest embodiment of Gilded Age elegance - pieces of extraordinary beauty, historical resonance and fascinating provenance,” says Benoît Repellin, Phillips’ head of jewelry. The jewels are expected to “capture the imagination of collectors worldwide.”
Many of the items on the auction block belonged to Gladys Vanderbilt, who became Countess Széchényi when she married Count László Széchényi of Hungary in 1908. The daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt II, chairman of the New York Central Railroad, Gladys and her siblings grew up extraordinarily wealthy. Smithsonian Magazine reports that they were raised in the largest private mansion ever built in New York City, which sat on Fifth Avenue where the Bergdorf Goodman Building is today, and spent their summers at the Breakers, a Gilded Age mansion in Newport, Rhode Island.
The crown jewel of the Phillips collection is the 'Vanderbilt Sapphire', a Tiffany & Co. brooch with a sugarloaf Kashmir sapphire at its center, surrounded by a decadent design made of old-cut diamonds. Gladys received it as a gift from her mother, Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt, who was the matriarch of the Vanderbilt family for more than 60 years. The piece weighs almost 43 carats, and it’s expected to fetch between $1 million and $1.5 million.
Prior to the auction on 10 November, the items will be displayed in Hong Kong, New York, Singapore, Taipei, London and Geneva.
