Gilded Age and American Heiresses -noble marriage,dollar princesses,Jewels for the Dollar Princesses, Great American dynasties fortunes were build in the Gilded Age. Golden Age important jewels Royal Jewellery & Aristocratic Jewels Heiress wealth families of the USA, Dollar Princess, Golden Age,Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, royal historic jewels, Doris Duke, Heiress, dollar Heiress, Belle Époque, Mrs Vanderbilt, Gladys Vanderbilt, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Nancy Leeds, Florence Gould, Vanderbilt Jewels, Rockefeller jewels, Doris Duke jewels;Florence Gould Jewels; Mackay Family, Mackay Jewels, Consuelo yznaga, Mary Ethel Burns, May Burns, morgan, May Goelet, jewel history, Barbara Hutton, Princess Mdivani, Barbara Hutton poor little rich girl, royaljewellery, royaljewelry, luxurylifestyle, American Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, Gilded Age Jewelry,grand jewels of the Gilded Age,America’s Gilded Age,
dollar-princess,Mrs Lehr,Gould,Vivian Gould, lady decies, gilded age, gilded age jewels, american royals,dollar princesses,american princesses,gilded age jewelry,gilded age famous jewellery,
American Heiresses – American Princessess – Gilded Age Noble Weddings:
Michaela Almonester, Baroness Joseph de Pontalba
Fern Andra, Baroness Freidrich von und zu Weichs zur Wenne
Eliza Astor, Countess Vincent Rumpff
Florence Audenreid, Countess Ludovic de la Forest-Divonne
Lilie Bouton, Baroness Guido von Nimptsch; Countess Gregory von Nostitz
Eloise Lawrence Breese, Lady Willoughby de Eresby
Anne Breese, Lady Alastair Innes Ker
Anne Brewster, Countess Henri de Frankenstein
Elizabeth “Myssie” Brown, Lady Hogg
Helen Bull, Marquise Ugo Spinola
Tennesse Claflin, Lady Cook, Viscountess of Monserrate
Margaret Crosby, Lady Huntingfield
Virginia Daniel Bonynge, Lady Deerhurst
Elizabeth Demarest, Lady Alastair Sutherland-Leveson-Gower
Charlotte Demarest, Countess Edward Zichy
Kinta Desmare, Countess Alfredo di Carpegna
Elsie de Wolfe, Lady Mendl
Annie Flagler, Lady Harden-Hickey
Helena Gillender, Marquise di San Marzano
Mabelle Gilman
Eleanor Guggenheim, Lady Castle Stewart
Eila Haggin, Countess Rudolph Festetics de Tolna
Clara Hammond, Marquise Manfredi Lanza di Brolo
Eliza Blakeney
Albertine Huck
Florence Hutchins, Baroness Alfred von Oppenheim
Kathleen Kennedy, Marchioness of Hartington
Mary “Minna” King, Marchioness of Anglesey
Catherine Kresge, Baroness Carl Wijk
Nancy Langhorne, Lady Astor
Margaret McCall, Countess Alphonse de Diesbach de Belleroche
Helen Magruder, Lady Abinger
Ella Moore, Countess Carl von Rosen
Lillian Moore, Baroness de Bildt
Consuelo Morgan, Countess Jean du Maupas du Juglart
Thelma Morgan, Lady Furness
Elizabeth Page, Marquise Giulio Spinola
Jane Perry, Duchess di Litta
Antoinette Polk, Baroness de Charette de la Contrie
Anna Robinson, Lady Rosslyn
Cara Rogers, Lady Fairhaven
Millicent Rogers, Countess von Salm-Hoogstraeten
Cornelia Roosevelt, Baroness Clemens von Zedlitz und Neukirch
Sybil Sanderson
Hermione Schenley, Lady Ellenborough
Alice Silverthorne, Countess Frederic de Janzé
Sarah Stokes, Lady Halkett
Mona Strader, Countess von Bismarck-Schönhausen
Margaret Strong, Marquise de Piedrablanca de Guana
Alberta Sturges, Lady Sandwich,Viscount Hinchingbrooke- the family Montagu
Clara Taylor, Lady George Cholmondeley
Margaret Thaw, Countess Roger de Perigny
Alice Thaw, Lady Yarmouth
Katherine Wolff, Countess Erwin von Schönborn-Bucheim, Baroness Eugene Rothschild
Frances Work
Mabel Wright, Countess Bela Zichy
First wife of the 5th Lord Decies – the heiress Helen Vivian Gould – pear shaped diamond tiara with scrolls from Cartier, wedding gift of her father, the magnate Gould, corbeille de mariage and trousseau with royal jewels from the Golden Age
Lady
Decies |Helen Vivian Gould|Cartier Diamond Stomacher Corsage
Ornament|American Heiress Wedding Present
She ordered to rebuild the delicate and exquisite Chaumet Garland Ruby Jewel, around the year 1942, to make a new choker from the Burma Rubies in Egyptian style with palmette.
THE VANDERBILT FAMILY JEWELS Jewels of Gladys Vanderbilt Countess Széchenyi
Gladys Moore Vanderbilt’s Cartier Diamond and Amethyst Tiara – and its Surviving Fragment
When Gladys Moore Vanderbilt (1886–1965), the youngest daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt, married Count László Széchényi of Hungary in 1908, her wedding became one of the most celebrated unions of the Gilded Age. To mark this transatlantic marriage, Alice Vanderbilt commissioned Cartier to create a magnificent diamond and amethyst tiara in the Belle Époque style.
The jewel was conceived as eight delicate sprays of lilies, rising gracefully above the bandeau, each set with old-cut diamonds. The innovative design allowed for interchangeable drops: either pear-shaped amethysts or similarly shaped diamonds could be suspended from the sprays, altering the tiara’s appearance according to occasion and fashion.
This tiara was more than a personal adornment; it symbolised the Vanderbilt family’s ambition and their determination to translate American industrial wealth into European aristocratic prestige. Gladys, one of the last of the great American heiresses of her generation, embodied this transfer of fortune and status across the Atlantic.
In the years that followed, the tiara was eventually dismantled-a fate not uncommon among great jewels of the period, as changing styles and inheritance divided once-cohesive parures into smaller, wearable pieces. Yet fragments survived, carrying with them echoes of their original splendour.
One such surviving jewel has now resurfaced: a Cartier diamond brooch, designed as a single lily spray, set with an old-cut pear-shaped diamond weighing 4.55 carats. Originally part of Gladys Vanderbilt’s tiara, the brooch retains the elegance of Cartier’s Belle Époque craftsmanship and stands as a rare tangible relic of the Vanderbilt legacy.
In November 2025, this brooch will be offered at auction in Geneva. Its reappearance not only revives the story of Gladys Vanderbilt’s celebrated wedding gift but also highlights the enduring allure of jewels that once served as instruments of social power, familial aspiration, and transatlantic identity.
In March 1912, Countess Széchenyi’s jewelries worth $200,000 ($8 million today) was stolen from her town residence in Budapest, the detective afterward found the jewels in a motor car garage, where they had been hidden by being wrapped in a piece of newspaper behind a barrel.
The tiara was divided between her children:
Countess Cornelia „Gilia“ Széchényi de Sárvár-Felsövidék 1908–1958 Eugene Bowie Roberts 1898–1983
Countess Alice „Ai“ Széchényi de Sárvár-Felsövidék 1911–1974 Countess Béla Hadik
Countess Gladys Széchényi de Sárvár-Felsövidé 1913–1978, Countess Winchilsea Nottinham |Viscountess Maidstone, Finch Hatton
Countess Sylvia Anita Gabriel Denise Irene Marie „Sylvie“ Széchényi de Sárvár-Felsövidék 1918–1998 Countess Antal Szapáry von Muraszombath Széchysziget und Szapar
Countess Ferdinandine „Bubby“ Széchényi de Sárvár-Felsövidék 1923–2016 Countess Alexander E. Eltz
Through her eldest daughter, Cornelia, she was the grandmother of three – Gladys Vanderbilt Roberts (b. 1934), Cornelia Roberts (1936–1982), who married Count Hans-Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi (1926–2004), and Eugene Bowie Roberts, Jr. (1939–2020).
Through her daughter Alice, she was grandmother to Count László Hadik von Futak (1932–1973) and Count János Hadik von Futak (1933–2004).
Through her daughter Gladys, she was the grandmother of Christopher Denys Stormont Finch-Hatton, the 16th Earl of Winchilsea (1936–1999) and the Hon. Robin Finch-Hatton (1939–2018).
Through her daughter Sylvia, she was the grandmother of Count Pál László Szapáry (b. 1950) and Countess Gladys Vanderbilt Szapáry (b. 1952).
Through her youngest child, Ferdinandine, she was the grandmother of Count Peter von und zu Eltz (b.1948) and Count Nicholas (Nicky) von und zu Eltz (1950–2012)
This enormous pear shaped diamonds are later used as pendant of her Diamond Loop Tiara….this was her first version:
more about the jewels:
THE DAZZLING COLLECTION OF DORIS DUKE
Florence Gould, a patron of the arts, died in her villa on the Mediterranean in 1983. She was 87 years old.
Mrs. Gould had moved to the villa after the death of her husband, Frank Jay Gould, in 1956. She was born in San Francisco, the daughter of Maximilien Lacaze, a French publisher who made his fortune in the United States. She interrupted her career as an opera singer in 1923 when she married Mr. Gould, who was the son of Jay Gould, the American railroad magnate.
When Florence J. Gould, a patron of the arts and daughter-in-law of the railroad magnate Jay Gould, was 80 years old, she packed most of her jewelry and went to Japan and Southeast Asia.
The necklaces, rings, bracelets, earrings, brooches and clips she took with her on that 1976 trip, jewelry now valued at about $8 million, will be auctioned next Wednesday at Christie’s.
“She let all the women in a geisha house try on her jewels,“ Daniel Wildenstein, the art dealer, recalled of an incident he witnessed as her companion on that journey. He was wary, he said, but Mrs. Gould was not, and “she was proven right – all the jewels came back.“
In Cambodia, Mrs. Gould, generously decked out in gems, traveled by elephant to see the temples of Angkor. On another occasion, Mrs. Gould, wearing rings on her fingers and jewels at her throat, rode off into the Cambodian jungle in a pedicab with only a guide.
“She was full of diamonds,“ Mr. Wildenstein recalled, adding that he feared for the safety of his friend and client.
“I was certain she’d never arrive alive. She wasn’t the least bit afraid. Of course, all was well.“ Mrs. Gould’s jewelry remained intact on that trip, and she wore most of it frequently at El Patio, her villa at Cannes, until her death at 87, a year ago. The bulk of the extraordinary jewelry holdings of the widow of Frank Jay Gould – he was Jay Gould’s youngest child and a real-estate tycoon who developed Juan-les- Pins on the Riviera – will be on view all this weekend and through next Tuesday at Christie’s, Park Avenue at 59th Street.
Not all of Mrs. Gould’s jewelry is in this sale – some pieces were sold earlier, and others were stolen. Following a 1978 theft at her estate, involving $1.4 million worth of jewels, Mrs. Gould spoke lightly of the loss. “She used to say, ‚Thank heaven, they only got my everyday jewelry,‘ “
John Young, a director of the Florence J. Gould Foundation, said, adding that the most valuable pieces stolen were a three-strand necklace of 97 pearls, worth almost $700,000, and an 85-pearl chain.
The purpose of the foundation, which benefits from most of Mrs. Gould’s $100 million estate, is to foster French-American amity. Mrs. Gould, who was born in San Francisco and studied opera before she became Mr. Gould’s third wife in 1923, died without heirs.
The star among the 87 offerings in the sale is a sapphire necklace valued at as much as $1.5 million. The design began as a simple necklace devised by Van Cleef & Arpels, using a spectacular 114.30-carat sapphire, “The Blue Princess,‘‚ with diamonds.
Mrs. Gould subsequently made “The Blue Princess“ the center of an assemblage of sapphires and diamonds, a necklace that she styled and Georges Bidault, a jeweler with a workshop outside Paris, fabricated.
Second only in value to the sapphire is the “Victory“ diamond, 31.35 carats, mounted as a ring, which was named for the Allied victory in World War II because the rough stone from which it was cut was discovered in Sierre Leone in 1945 at the end of the war.
The rough stone was the third- largest ever found in Africa. The ring is estimated to sell for up to $700,000.
Mrs. Gould had a passion for pearls, and more than one superb necklace remains.
A pearl and diamond fringe necklace by Alexander Reza, a Paris jeweler on the Place Vendome is estimated to sell for up to $300,000.
“If we had five of them, we could sell them all, so strong is the interest,“ Francois Curiel, Christie’s jewelry specialist, said. Mr. Reza also fashioned for Mrs. Gould an emerald-bead necklace of carved fluted stones, the size of marbles, which is estimated to bring up to $220,000.
She wore diamonds from head to toe – as Mr. Curiel discovered when he checked her closets and found a pair of diamond clips on her shoes. She wore fakes too – there are three fake diamonds, two fake sapphires and an ersatz emerald in the sale. The fakes and the fish – there are numerous fish-shape pins, crafted of sapphires and diamonds, and of ivory, diamonds and emeralds – are, according to Christie’s, attracting the most interest among lower-price offerings in the sale.
On April 12, 1984 her jewelry was sold for $8 million, the highest price then ever reached at auction for a single collection of jewelry.
Jewelry Collections Of Prominent Women
Jewelry that was owned by three other women who were prominent in their careers and as hostesses will be offered next week in three sales at Sotheby’s, York Avenue at 72d Street. Eleanor (Cissy) Medill Patterson, publisher of The Washington Herald until her death in 1948, was partial to the black-pearl necklace and earrings that will be sold next Thursday at 2 P.M.
Miss Patterson bought the string of 22 natural black pearls, separated by diamonds, with matching ear clips in 1934, when she saw them in the window at Cartier in New York.
According to an account in “Cissy,“ a biography of the publisher by Paul Healy, Cartier had just acquired the jewelry from Prince Youssoupoff, a Romanov, who told Jacques Cartier that two of the pearls had belonged to Catherine the Great.
Miss Patterson left the pearls to Evie Robert, a friend, who was a columnist, and whose daughter Alice Birney Robert Jones is the consignor. Sotheby’s expects the pearls will bring as much as $200,000.
Following the death in 1975 of Perle Mesta, the celebrated party giver who was Minister to Luxembourg under President Harry S. Truman, her jewelry was purchased by an antiques dealer, who sold it to a collector.
Now the collector, who has not been identified, is selling Mrs. Mesta’s suite of aquamarine and diamond jewelry, comprising a necklace, pendant, ear clips and brooch (up to $30,000), and an emerald and diamond brooch (up to $20,000). These will also be auctioned.
Thank you to Laura!
Oben abgebildet, Beatrice Mills, Countess Granard mit ihrem großen Diamant Kokoshnik, aus dem Jahr 1937.
Einem wahrhaft prächtigen Diadem mit orientalischer Inspiration, der für sie, bei CARTIER angefertigt wurde.
Seine geschwungene Linie wird durch parallele Reihen betont. Brillanten, Diamanten und birnenförmige Steine von hohem Wert sind in das Design integriert; einige sind Altschliff, sowie alte grosse Diamanten, die müssen aus der Sammlung der Familie Granard stammen.
Sie war Stammkundin von Cartier London und eine der letzten großen Käuferinnen eines Kokoshniks.
Sie bestellte einen Kokoshnik im Jahr 1922, einen anderen 1923 und einen dritten Kokoshnik 1937 – den letzten, oben im Bild, für die Krönung von König Georg.
Beatrice Countess von Granard 1883-1972, geboren als Beatrice Mills, Tochter des großen amerikanischen Financier und Bankiers Ogden Mills.
Eine berühmte Gastgeberin, Rennstallbesitzerin und Pferde-Züchterin, die als erste Frau den Grand Prix gewann, Sie heiratete 1909 den 8. Earl of Granard. Sie lebte zwischen London, Paris und Castle Forbes in Irland.
Der Aufenthaltsort des Diadems ist unbekannt.
Drei der fünf Art Deco Diamantbroschen, die Teil des Diadems waren, sind bekannt>>>>
::::::::::::::
The daughter-in-law of Gertrude Vanderbilt Payne Whitney, sister of Gladys Moore Vanderbilt (1886–1965), who married Count László Széchenyi (1879–1938), which had very good connections to the imperial court of Vienna, so it could be absolutely true, it had an imperial history.
The April 1898 announcement of George Vanderbilt’s engagement to Edith Stuyvesant Dresser was a leading topic in newspapers of the era. At age 36 and the only unmarried son from the famous American wealthy family of the Vanderbilts.
click for more history about:
