Field Trip! Part VII - Personalities at the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

I know it’s about time I brought this thing to a close but I've been having so much fun researching, writing and viewing all the beautiful jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels. However, something even more interesting exists...the back stories behind the jewelry, as well as some of the photos where the jewelry is being worn.

For example, did you know Muhammad Ali’s wife, Veronica, is the other woman in the photo above being pushed out of the way?  Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis (1929-1994) is wearing her gold VC&A “Wonder Woman” cuffs and hoops (actually they are an early “Perlee” creation) and is doing a pretty good job of arm wrestling Muhammad Ali.  Ali's wife, Veronica, is the woman being ignored.  Jackie and Ali met in 1977 at the Rainbow Room kicking off festivities for the Robert F. Kennedy Tennis Tournament in New York.  

Most of the time you see this photo…and I always wondered who Jackie was talking to.  These cuffs were sold at the infamous 1996 Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis estate auction at Sotheby's.  With an estimated worth of $1,500-$2,000 at that time (based on a gold price of a little over $400 an ounce, versus around $1500 per ounce today) these cuffs sold for $167,500.  You do the math if they were on the auction block right now.

One of the most spectacular pieces in the entire exhibit is the emerald and diamond necklace and earrings that belonged to the Maharani of Baroda.  There are many interesting stories about the Maharani Sita Devi of Baroda, (1917-1986), or as she was known, “The Indian Wallis Simpson” (you already know she was probably trouble).  Already married to someone else when she met and immediately fell in love with the Maharajah Pratapsinh Gaekwad of Baroda in 1943, she (and the lawyers) concocted a Chinese fire drill of events in order to obtain a divorce from her current husband so she could marry the Maharajah later that same year.  She converted to Islam and obtained a divorce under the grounds that she was unable to stay married to her present Hindu husband.  After the divorce, she re-converted back to Hinduism and was now free to marry her lover, the Maharajah of Baroda.  I'm exhausted just thinking about planning such a thing but hey, you go girl, jewels were at stake and a girl’s gotta do what a girl’s gotta do.

The Maharani placing the priceless seven strand pearl necklace on the Maharajah.   He is having agita after finding out how much these pearls are worth.

One of the only photos of the famous necklace.  Circa 1880.  All the stones in this necklace are diamonds.

After her marriage, she received gifts of jewels from the Baroda treasury that dated back to Mughal times. These included a magnificent seven-strand natural pearl necklace (see indigestion photo above) and an incomparable three-row diamond necklace (above) that suspended both the Star of the South diamond (cushion cut center top at 128.80 carats) and the English Dresden diamond (pear shaped below at 78.53 carats).  She also received many other Indian jewels from her husband and it was from these various jewels that she extracted the emeralds and diamonds used by Van Cleef & Arpels in her 1949 commission to create a most magnificent necklace and earrings. From time to time we have a cheesy remounting events in our store where customers can use old stones in new settings, but so far, nothing has turned out like this.

The “Hindou Necklace” first appeared for sale in Monte Carlo in 1974 where the Maharani had been residing since the 1960's.  It remained in private hands until 2002 when the necklace and the earrings were auctioned at Christie’s in Geneva with both pieces selling for $1,647,976. 

Completed in 1950, the piece was christened “The Hindou Necklace” by Van Cleef & Arpels. Made in platinum, with thirteen emerald drops (Colombian in origin), weighing approximately 150 carats, they are suspended from a panel of pavé-set diamonds and decorated with carved emeralds. The entire design originated from her Mughal beads.  Sita Devi liked to be green in so many ways and was ahead of her time in terms of recycling.

The earrings are comprised of five polished octagonal shaped emeralds and five drop-shaped emeralds with each earring containing a suspended diamond briolette weighing approximately 20 carats. As per a mystical Indian belief, these precious stones set within a circle are meant to gather and radiate cosmic energies to favor the one that they adorn.  It would have been cheaper to own Stonehenge.

The Maharani must have been a real hoot at party.  In 1953 the Maharani of Baroda sold Harry Winston a pair of anklets, consisting of cabochon emeralds and rose-cut diamonds.  Winston used them to create a necklace which the Duke of Windsor bought for the Duchess of Windsor.  The Duchess and the Maharani were both present at a ball in 1957, and, observing the necklace on the Duchess, the Maharani remarked rather loudly that the emeralds had looked just as good when she wore them on her feet. The Duchess needed some of those calm-me-down pills and returned the necklace to Winston the next day. Harry Winston promised not to sell the necklace to anyone who might wear it in the Duchess's presence or know this paper bag over the head story.  Years later Christina Onassis was turned down when she tried to buy it.

Field Trip! Part VI - Grace Kelly at the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Mystery Set
Sapphire and Diamond earrings
owned by Elizabeth Taylor.

Welcome to Part VI, Personalities.  This should be the last segment of our look at the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, but there are so many interesting stories I may have to stretch it out to one or two more.  "Personalities" is the segment everyone loves the most because it looks at famous individuals who owned and wore some of the most beautiful jewelry ever made. But as Elizabeth Taylor once said, "I’m fortunate to have some very important pieces of jewelry. I don’t believe I own any of the pieces. I believe that I am their custodian, here to enjoy them, to give them the best treatment in the world, to watch after their safety, and to love them.” She also wrote, "Sometimes I wonder what will become of everything, because just like the Duchess of Windsor’s collection, they will all be up for auction one day. They will be scattered to the four corners of the world, and I hope that whoever buys each piece loves it as much as I do and takes care of it and realizes that having jewelry is a temporary gift. In truth, we ‘owners’ are just the caretakers… Nobody ever owns anything this beautiful. We are only the guardians.”

This is so true.  It's a testament to how pearls, diamonds, emeralds, rubies, and other stones found naturally in the earth and sea, and the jewelry made from them, stand the test of time and live on, much longer than those who have temporary custody of them. Stones can be re-fashioned, re-cut, re-set, even re-turned so they can live on for others to enjoy.

While researching the personalities and their jewelry for this blog, I spent hours looking for videos and photographs of not only famous people and their VC&A jewelry, but the famous people wearing their famous VC&A jewelry.  I got lost while viewing You Tube videos (actual home movies in most cases) as if they were photos of my own children or family pictures from when I was a little girl.  The pictures and videos took me back to a nostalgic time when things were easier and life was better...or so it seemed, anyway. We are drawn to celebrities because their fantasy lives take us away from our mundane existence, and the way we read about them and follow their lives, we feel we know them well.  We have opinions about their spouses, children, clothes and more, and even grieve when they pass away - just like they were a member of our own families.  

Grace Kelly was one of those people.  Born and raised in Philadelphia, my home town as well, the Kelly family almost felt like one of the neighbors.  A trip to downtown Philadelphia with my father always included a "Kelly Mansion" drive-by.  In reality, the "Kelly Mansion" is much smaller than I remembered as a little girl, given the size of the mac-mansions that exist in suburban neighborhoods today.  Kelly, became a devoted VC&A client, but not until she married Prince Ranier III in 1956.  After their marriage, Ranier made VC&A the official jeweler of the Royal Family of Monaco.

Grace Kelly, wearing the wedding ensemble of naturally found pearls fashioned by Van Cleef & Arpels into a necklace, bracelet, earrings and ring.  If you remember my June pearl post, naturally found pearls, as opposed to cultured pearls, are extremely rare.  Cultured pearls started to replace natural pearls in jewelry starting in the late 1800's when Mikimoto perfected the cultured pearl process.  Prince Ranier III gave these pearls to Grace Kelly in 1956, the year they were married.  This suite is extremely valuable due to the size of the pearls used, as well as the number of pearls needed, in order to make a triple strand necklace and double strand bracelet...all made with perfectly matching natural pearls in size, color and luster.  

Grace Kelly temporarily owned 
one of the most beautiful tiaras ever to sit on a head.  

Today this tiara is in Van Cleef & Arpels’ Private Collection.

Princess Grace wore this diamond tiara only once, at the pre-wedding ball honoring her daughter Caroline and Philippe Junot in 1978.  It was made in platinum, set with pear-shaped diamonds, marquise-shaped diamonds and round diamonds, and weighed 77.34 carats.  That is a very heavy thing to wear on your head.  It is rumored she immediately resold the piece back to VC&A after the wedding.  I had no idea Grace churned jewelry...especially to VC&A.  I get hysterical thinking of Grace Kelly, the day after a big event, appearing sheepishly at the counter of VC&A, with a bag holding the tiara and the receipt, making up a story and trying to convince the salesperson why the tiara didn't work out.  Buying jewelry to wear to an event (usually to impress friends) is an annoying but common practice among some customers.  We know when customers are doing it but can't really stop them, however, we do fantasize about the piece getting lost or stolen...just to teach them a lesson.

Daisy Fellows
platinum, diamond and emerald
manchettes,
hooked together as a necklace.
Paris, France, 1926

Please take time to view this You Tube video.  Entertainment Tonight - 70's Style!  Sorry that it is another one in French but bear with it until 2:15 when you will see footage of Caroline's pre-wedding ball.  Grace invited many celebrities from her day including Ava Gardner, who has so much jewelry in her hair she looks like a Christmas tree, and Gregory Peck, looking awkward doing the Robot, then swinging Ava back and forth obviously trying to shake the jewelry out of her head.  Velma Dinkley from Scooby Doo and her mother eye up Cary Grant in a very weird way, and, at 3:56, a woman wearing what could possibly be Daisy Fellows' diamond and emerald manchettes worn together as a necklace, followed by a woman in red wearing another amazing diamond necklace.  But the pièce de résistance is toward the end of the film where you will see Grace Kelly, gloriously celebrating her daughter's upcoming wedding, and looking beautiful wearing her diamond tiara, sparkling like her head was on fire.    

Field Trip! Part V - Exoticism at the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Van Cleef & Arpels in New York.  
744 5th Ave
New York, NY 10019

Part V – Exoticism at Set in Style at the Cooper Hewitt, blah, blah,blah.  We are almost done with this exhibit – one more to come after this.  This post is a little late because #1, The Duchess of Cambridge wore a yellow gold charm bracelet and #2, my sister and I went back to revisit this exhibit one more time before it closes on July 4th.  For those of you who didn't have a chance to see this exhibit, I hope you will enjoy these blog posts.

Dazzled by the beautiful stones during my first visit, I was much more critical the second time around, noticing age and wear on some of the jewelry, as well as a few mismatched stones.  The exhibit is still drawing a big crowd, including the obnoxious people all around me who were taking way too much time hovering over one item and clogging up the flow of traffic.  As a result, people were stomping their hooves and crowding all around my sister and me, like when you are checking out at the food store and the next person moves right up into your personal space where you should be in order to pay the cashier.  People please..... can you keep your coffee breath to yourselves and floss before you leave your caves.

The Exotics in the VC&A collection are just that - jewelry inspired by travels to the foreign and exotic lands that weren’t on the Average Joe's radar back in the 1920’s.  Some of the VC&A vision came from the Arpels' travels all over the world responding to commission requests from wealthy moguls, which in turn, expanded their global clientele even more.  Due to this growing international clientele, these exotic influences in design became a solid part of the VC&A aesthetic.

Platinum and diamond Cambodian bracelet. 1938

VC&A had many wealthy Americans as clients as well.  One of their first commissions was made by Eugene Higgins (1860-1948) heir to his father, Elias's, New York City carpet manufacturing fortune. A wealthy and handsome bachelor, Higgins sold the family business in 1889 shortly after taking control of it and spent the fortune on a leisurely lifestyle, i.e., he partied all the time. In 1908, Higgins asked VC&A to make a replica of his yacht, the 304’ Varuna. They complied with a duplicate Varuna sitting on top of a sea of smooth, carved jasper.  A white enamel life preserver floats on top of the jasper and when pushed, rang Higgins’ butler for duty.  Unfortunately for Higgins, calling the butler didn’t help in late in 1909 when the real Varuna was wrecked off the coast of Madeira.  Higgins lost a crew member and the ship.  Party over.

This is all he had left.  He played with it in the tub.

VC&A‘s jet-setting clientele encouraged them to design jewelry with "foreign" themes.  They created pieces which imitated the traditional style of these faraway lands using the materials that suggested those influences such as the use of lacquer and jade for a Japanese or Chinese creation.  

Sometimes they adopted exotic motifs for other pieces, as in the gorgeous bracelet below, reflective of the Egyptomania inspired by the excavation of King Tut's tomb in the early 1920s.

Can you believe this.....

Inspired this!  The Egyptian Bracelet.

Field Trip! Part IV - Fashion at the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Open Minaudiere. 1935

In Part IV of Set in Style, the Van Cleef & Arpels exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, we bring you Fashion.

As the story goes … in 1930, Charles Arpels was having dinner with friends, among them, Florence Jay Gould, wife of a philanthropist, when he noticed the tin box she took out of her purse that held her lipstick (some say it was a metal Lucky Strike cigarette box).  He was surprised that such a glamorous woman didn’t have a more luxurious container for her cosmetics, and, right there at the dinner table, the clever, ornate and utilitarian Minaudiere was born.





“Minaudières” by Van Cleef & Arpels from “The Spirit of Beauty” exhibition from Van Cleef & Arpels inspirations on Vimeo.

Taking inspiration from the smaller Nécessaire, Arpels decided it should hold everything (MacGyver style) that a fashionable woman could possibly need for a night out on the town.  It was an engineering wonder that contained fitted, hinged compartments which held lipstick, cigarettes, compact, watch, hankies, etc., and, when open, resembled a bejewelled piece of camping equipment.  Women looked so chic pulling a cigarette out of their Minaudiere's, however, the less dexterous may have needed help closing all those little lids because it looks like you could cut a finger off if you were in a hurry. 

Now this is my idea of a Kindle cover.
Black lacquer, gold and diamonds.

She came a long way from the tin box.
Pearl and diamond Nécessaire once owned by Florence Jay Gould.

Do you think this fits the IPhone?  
Ruby, emerald, sapphire, diamond, jade and gold Nécessaire, 1926.

An 18^th century version of the Minaudiere, The Nécessaire was smaller and only held a few personal items like sewing needles and small scissors.  My...how far we've come.  Just think of Minaudiere and Nécessaire as French words for "make-up bag."  Women still refresh their make-up at the dinner table, although with today's manners, it's not unusual to see a woman throw a piece of Samsonite up on the dinner table and do a full makeup – 10X magnified mirror and all.  Gone are the glamour days of just carrying your essentials on a night out.  We carry so much stuff in today's gigantor handbags that a girl needs a cortisone shot in her shoulders from time to time just to carry her Marc Jacobs around town.

But you would be wrong if you thought the diminutive Minaudiere was a complete thing of the past.  Judith Leiber, one of the longest sustaining luxury handbag designers, continues to produce some of the finest Minaudiere's you can find.  Emigrating to the United States with her husband in 1947, Ms. Leiber honed her skills by working for some of the leading handbag manufacturers in New York.  Starting her own company in 1963, her unique, intricate marvels were a cut above the rest.  Made from the finest Austrian crystals and, in some cases, semi-precious stones, they are not cheap.  Not only have her bags been found on the arm of most of our first ladies since the 1950's, and some of Hollywood's most famous women, but you can also find them as part of permanent collections in London, New York, Washington, DC, Houston and Los Angeles. Here are some of the more hysterical - I mean unique ones....

Habibi Minaudiere. $5995-This party is so boring I'm going to rub the side of this bag and when the genie comes out, I'm going to wish I was somewhere else.

Panda Minaudiere. $4695 - For those of you who have ever been addicted to a Panda Cam, now you can just sit this thing on top of your computer.

Beehive Minaudiere. $5600 - Are Pooh and Piglet available as key fobs?

Field Trip! Part III - Nature at the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Believe it or not, this is a Van Cleef & Arpels brooch.
Would you wear it?

Welcome to Nature, Part III of Set in Style, the Van Cleef & Arpels exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Many of the pieces in this category were brooches and, no offense, brooches (or pins) are probably the most boring piece of jewelry one can own.  Even the word brooch sounds old, like it should come in a mothball can.

I think brooches are boring.
Unless we're talking about one of VC&A's Set in Style treasures,
then that's a different story.

Every now and then, a client will come to my counter (usually an older person) to ask if we have any brooches. When we say we don’t have any in stock, this person often looks at us like we are dumb as rocks for missing the biggest selling opportunity to ever come along.  Sometimes, this person will continue to give me an attitude, at which I say things like, “gee, I haven’t even seen a brooch in the past 30 years.” (Like, hello, go back to your coffin - it's almost daylight).

Therefore, if you are a younger person, most likely you don’t own a brooch since they haven’t been in style for a really long time. You might have one or two lying in the bottom of your jewelry box like I do, but you don’t wear them because you have so many other cool things that you wear all the time, however, there are those women who still wear them (corporate world, attorneys, etc) because of the way they can finish their look.

I think pins look best on suits, but women just don’t wear that many suits anymore.  Today, women tend to show a Iot more skin, and it’s hard to pin a pin on skin. I really haven't seen pins since the Alexis Carrington Dynasty days of the 80's when suits were structured and had runway sized shoulder pads. Pins actually soften the look of a suit, and that’s why women like Hillary Clinton and Madeleine Albright look good in pins because they can be somewhat cardboard in appearance when conducting business. However, take a look at Hillary Clinton at her daughter Chelsea's wedding last year. I thought she looked her best in her silky, turquoise caftan (rather than as we usually see her).

 

Looking more like wood.

Flowing and looking less like wood.

                                                                  
 
Someone who really knows how to wear a pin is Madeleine Albright.  She used pins to set a tone for important meetings during her tenure as Ambassador to the United Nations and as Secretary of State.  She, as many women do, used jewelry to commemorate an event or indicate how she felt.  She did this through pins, and she did it well.  She wore an antique snake pin when she met with Saddam Hussein, and a “hear  no evil, see no evil, speak no evil” monkey pin when she met with Vladimir Putin to indicate her position on the Chechen atrocities. Putin told President Clinton he could tell how a meeting with Albright might go depending on her pin.

This was an imaginative and creative use of jewelry, and her book, Read My Pins, tells us the thought process behind the pins she chose to wear depending upon whom she was meeting. Think about a woman as busy as Albright.  Not only did she have to do her hair and get dressed in the morning, she also had to pick out the right pin. I will never complain again about getting ready for work in the morning because one thing I don't have to do is coordinate my jewelry with history.

You go girl....I think she's pissed because she wasn't allowed
to go down in that hole and pull Saddam out!

 

But I digress. The brooches inspired by nature in the VC&A exhibit are magnificent.  The platinum and diamond “Orchid” brooch (1928), the gold and diamond “Snowflake” brooch (1948), the diamond and pearl “Bunch of Grapes” brooch (1915), the diamond and emerald (or sapphire or ruby) “Sycamore Leaf” brooch (1951), and my personal favorite, the enormous and completely ridiculous “Scarlet Macaw” brooch (1995). Made from diamonds, rubies and sapphires, the beak is made from coral and onyx. This brooch, as other VC&A brooches, is really big.  Of course, that means more precious stones, which equals more expensive, but that’s what VC&A’s is all about. I just get a fit of hysterics when I think of someone wearing this pin on her shoulder.  ARG!

My orchids always die.  I would take better care of this one.

What a shame you can you only wear this in winter.

The Grapes of Want.

I would have no problem raking these leaves if they fell in my yard.

Must be worn on the shoulder while on a wooden ship.

Field Trip! Part II - Innovation at the Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

Today we are taking a look at another category of jewelry from the Set in Style, The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum. Today’s subject is “Innovation,” and who better to analyze than an original famewhore, the Duchess of Windsor and the “Zip” necklace.  Around 1939, the Duchess collaborated with Renee Puissant, the artistic director of VC&A, and asked the renowned jeweler to create a platinum and diamond zipper for one of her evening dresses. Zippers were relatively new at the time, but even for someone as ostentatious as she, a platinum and diamond zipper for a dress was a little over the top. Can you imagine having the kind of downtime that allows you to come up with such an idea?

Never mind the scarcity of platinum during this time. Keep in mind that even today, compared to silver and gold, there is relatively little platinum available. Per the Platinum Guild, “Platinum is 30 times more rare than gold. If platinum mining ceased today, the available supply would be exhausted in two years, compared to a quarter of a century for gold," so you can imagine how rare the metal was in the 1930s.  The Guild further states, “With the outbreak of war in 1939, platinum is declared a strategic metal in the USA, used for the manufacture of armaments. Its use for making jewelry is forbidden.” (But Wallis whined, "I need that zipper - buttons are so hard to do!"). So while it was a very creative notion on the part of the Duchess to use one of those newfangled zipper things as a jewelry idea, her self-focused sense of timing was terrible.  

Another bad idea.  We should not be making these PR decisions on our own anymore.

Although the zip was never actually sewn into her dress, VC&A achieved the first zip necklace around 1940 with two gold ribbons and small diamond set hooks on each side that slide into each other. It can be worn open as a necklace or zipped up and wrapped around your wrist and worn like a bracelet. In the image below, the back actually unclasps from the top of the necklace to form a bracelet.

Innovation.  Van Cleef & Arpels Zip Necklace.
  

It took a full 10 years to perfect the design technique, and by 1951 it was fully developed and the “Zip” necklace was born.  The Iconic Zip Necklace continues to be a formidable part of the VC&A collections.

       

Eve Best as Wallis Simpson in "The Kings Speech" wore a number of authentic Van Cleef & Arpels pieces in the film.

Some say the Duchess is famous for the quote, “You can never be too rich or too thin.” Well, she was rich and she was thin, and by 1950's, her cigarette induced, osteoporitic, wizzened frame was very fashionable. Today, when I see someone like that, I'm already doing calculations in my head about how long they have to live.  

Living the life of luxury can be hard on a girl.  Photo:  Richard Avedon.

Field Trip! Part I - Transformation at Van Cleef & Arpels Exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum

My sister and I ventured to NYC the other day to check out, Set in Style: The Jewelry of Van Cleef & Arpels, exhibit at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum. Organized by Sarah Coffin, curator and head of the Product Design and Decorative Arts Department, the exhibition opened February 18, 2011, and runs through July 4, 2011.  Organized by six themes, Innovation, Transformation, Nature as Inspiration, Personalities, Exoticism, and Fashion, more than 300 pieces were on display, each piece better than the next.  The next few blogs will cover an amazing piece of jewelry from each category.

The piece that prompted our sojourn was probably one of the first “push presents” ever given, the Walska Brooch.  A “push present” is the gift a man gives a woman after he watches her do whatever it takes (short of standing up in those frigging stirrups) to deliver their new sprout.  He realizes some type of compensation must be in order because he can't believe what he just witnessed: "I thought it was a bowling ball with hair - but it was actually the baby!" Trusted advisers tell him that jewelry calms her central nervous system so he begins to search for the perfect gift.

I really thought push presents were a newer trend but this gift was given in 1971 so it’s not as new as I thought.  After seeing this Van Cleef & Arpels masterpiece, one can only surmise this man was very impressed with his wife’s birthing powers.  Luckily, for that extremely wealthy man who pondered the question way back in 1971, “What could I possibly give my wife when this baby finally comes out," he found the Walska diamond available and requested VC&A to create something beautiful and appropriate for the occasion of his first child’s birth.

Keep in mind it’s the thought that counts when your husband presents his gift to you because it would be almost impossible to top this little thing that VC&A came up with:

This piece features a 95-carat yellow diamond suspended from the bird’s beak and meant to depict the newborn bundle. Transformations. Photo by Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt Museum.

Looking like it could weigh about as much as a newborn, the Walska brooch is a sapphire, diamond, and emerald studded brooch in the form of a stork carrying the little bundle of joy.  The brooch comes apart to make a pin, earrings and pendant, but it's the "little bundle of joy" that is the star of this show.  It’s the original Walska diamond, a 95 carat briolette yellow diamond previously owned by Ganna Walska (1887-1984).

Walska was an opera singing, marriage addicted, guru seeking, garden designer.  The diamond industry refers to her stone as the “great unknown” as little history is available.  Much more is known about Lotusland, a 37 acre estate and botanical garden in California Ms. Walska purchased in 1941 (the same year she purchased the yellow diamond) and dedicated the remaining years of her life to.  She spent the next 43 years creating and expanding Lotusland, which today is a non-profit botanical garden of rare plants.  The Lotusland website reports, “So determined was she to finish the work she had begun that in the 1970’s she auctioned off some of her jewelry in order to finance her final creation—the cycad garden," so it’s certainly plausible she sold the diamond to keep the Santa Barbara imaganerium running and perhaps that's how it became available to VC&A.  Both the diamond and Lotusland are masterpieces that live on today….one gem traded for another.