If ever a woman has had an unprecedented love for jewelry it had to have been Elizabeth Taylor. Well my darlings, it is Elizabeth Taylor’s jewelry collection that broke world records and sold for a mere 115.9 million dollars. Christie’s states,  “It took eight hours and three auctioneers to sell 190 more jewels from Elizabeth Taylor’s storied collection,”  The Burton wedding bands alone fetched just over a million dollars. Surely she had all her precious stones in a home jewelry safe, if not, in museums.

Clearly, Elizabeth Taylor had an undaunting passion for jewelry that she never really considered herself the “owner” of.  In her own words she “I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can’t possess radiance, you can only admire it.” Perhaps it wasn’t even the jewelry she loved, but the radiance and beauty it possesses, qualities that anyone can easily fall in love with and develop an undaunting passion for.

Jewelry

“You can’t cry on a diamond’s shoulder, and diamonds won’t keep you warm at night, but they’re sure fun when the sun shines.” – Elizabeth Taylor

It is not a stretch to call her Hollywood’s greatest star, clearly she has legendary status.   Elizabeth Taylor clearly had a deep love for the radiance and beauty of many a sparking gem, or as she affectionately called them her lovelies.  One of the most stunning gems in her collection was known as the Taylor-Burton Diamond, and was initially a rough stone that weighed in at 240.80 carats.  It took 6 months of contemplation before this stone would be cut into what was to be a 69.42 pear-shaped stone that was the first gift Burton bestowed upon Elizabeth Taylor. 

The following description Burton described Elizabeth for the first time and alludes to why he may have given her the jewels that he did:

  • “She was so extraordinarily beautiful that I nearly laughed out loud. She … [was] famine, fire, destruction and plague … the only true begetter. Her breasts were apocalyptic, they would topple empires before they withered … her body was a miracle of construction … She was unquestionably gorgeous. She was lavish. She was a dark, unyielding largesse. She was, in short, too bloody much … Those huge violet blue eyes… had an odd glint… Eons passed, civilizations came and went while these cosmic headlights examined my flawed personality. Every pockmark on my face became a crater of the moon.”

Elizabeth Taylor’s passion for fine jewelry also included The Grand Duchess Vladimir Suite, The Krupp Diamond, La Peregrina Pearl, The Prince of Wales Insignia, and The Taj Mahal Diamond.  All totaled her jewels brought more at auction than any other in all of history.  Certainly she was and is an American icon, and her passion and exquisite taste for jewelry was reflected when they went for auction.