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One of the most important collections of coloured stones formed in the 20th century was that of Luz Mila Patiño, the Countess de Boisruvray. The daughter of a Bolivian Tin magnate, together with her husband she used her inheritance to amass a group of rubies, sapphires and emeralds of extraordinary quality which when sold in 1989, became the 2nd most expensive collection of jewellery to have ever come to auction.Perhaps most notable in the collection was an extraordinary group of emeralds, almost all from Colombia, and with the extraordinary intensity of colour and brightness of crystal known in the trade as ‘old mine’. Christie’s is honoured to be offering the brooch from this suite, in its original elegant Van Cleef and Arpels mount, with the additional gemmological information that it has no clarity enhancement. Since the earliest times, emeralds have been enhanced with oil, to help conceal the flaws that are natural in the stones as well as to stabilise the stones. Only the purest most flawless of stones would not absorb the oil used in this treatment. The fact that this stone has been tested to have no enhancement is a testament to the extraordinary eye of the collector, who was able to perceive perfection long before there was a gemmological test for it!
A CHARMING EMERALD AND DIAMOND BROOCH, BY VAN CLEEF & ARPELS
來源
Sotheby’s New York, The Magnificent Jewels of Luz Mila Patiño, 26 October 1989, Lot 61
出版
Exhibition catalogue 'Legends of Van Cleef & Arpels, The Galliera Exhibition', Paris, 1992, no 85
榮譽呈獻
Phoebe Wong