From the jewelry collection of DAME NELLIE MELBA
BELLE EPOQUE TURQUOISE AND DIAMOND BROOCHES
Cabochon turquoises, rose and old-cut diamonds, detachable brooch fttings, with interchangeable central collets and additional half-pearl fittings , 1910s, 11.0 cm and 5.2 cm, red Cartier case
Christie's will be offered in Geneve Nov 2019 this jewelry $150,000-200,000
About the jewel collection of Nellie Melba:
Granddaughter Of Melba To Wed Engaged To Mr. Howart Vestey.
The engagement is announced to-day of pretty 21-years-old Miss Pamela Armstrong, of Coldstream, Victoria, Australia, granddaughter of the late Dame Nellie Melba
She is to marry Mr. William Howart Vestey, son of the Hon. Samuel and Mrs. Vestey, of Stowell Park, Gloucestershire. The wedding is to take place shortly. Dame Melba adored her grandchild and left her a fortune and her famous collection of jewels, presented to the singer by Kings and Queens of Europe.
The will provided that Miss Armstrong should inherit the jewels on attaining her majority, or on her wedding day, for Pamela was schoolgirl of 14 when the famous singer died.
Among the jewels, which were valued for probate at £14,000, is a small brooch of pearls and rubies presented to Melba by Queen Victoria. Mr. W. H. Vestey is grandson of the first Baron Vestey of Kingswood.
Nellie Melba - Helen Porter Mitchell was born in Melbourne in 1861 to a working class family, and decided from an early age that singing would be her vocation. After modest success in her home country, she emigrated to Europe. In Paris she studied under mezzo-soprano and leading teacher Mathilde Marchesi, who recognised her for the star she was. It was Marchesi who suggested that Helen change her name to 'Melba', a shortened version of her home town name of Melbourne. Nellie returned to London and encountered great success, performing regularly at the Royal Albert Hall and in Covent Garden. Her art took her around the world, from the Metropolitan Opera in New York to Egypt, London, Saint Petersburg, and Australia, where she last sang before her passing in 1931.Dame Nellie Melba is an icon of Australian culture, with her portrait gracing the Australian 100$ bill. A suburb in Canberra and the music hall of the University of Melbourne were both named after her. The renowned French chef and culinary writer Auguste Escofier also honored Dame Melba by creating a dessert made of peaches, raspberry sauce, and vanilla ice cream, known as 'Pêche Melba'. As recalled by Hans Nadelhofer in his famous book Cartier Jewelers Extraordinary, 'Lillian Nordica was one of the great operatic prima donnas of her day, together with Nellie Melba, Lina Cavalieri and Mary Garden, all of whom wore their Cartier jewels as much on the stage as in private life. Thus Victor Dautremont, Pierre Cartier's young London assistant, was regularly sent down to Covent Garden with extravagant jewelry for Nellie Melba, which had to be warmed before it could touch the sensitive skin of the artist. These tragediennes of the operatic stage enjoyed the ecstatic idolization of a public which was to turn its attention, after 1925, to the more remote idols of Hollywood'.By tradition Dame Melba's jewellery collection was acquired at Cartier and in the long list of famous Cartier clients, she was unquestionably one of their most prominent ambassadors. Christie's offered these beautiful turquoise and diamond Belle Epoque jewels, acquired by Dame Melba at the peak of her career, and which remained in her family to the present day
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