Elizabeth Taylor Collection at Christie's

Blinded by diamonds and emeralds. (Click on photos to enlarge)
I had the good fortune this week to attend a preview of the Elizabeth Taylor Collection of jewelry, haute couture, art and decorative art which will be auctioned at Christie's this month. The live auctions will be held Dec. 13-16 in New York and the art work will be sold in January and February in New York and London. The online auction is on now, Dec. 3 through the 17th, so go bid on a bauble. See all the details at Christies.com.
Before the great movie star and humanitarian died this past March, she had amassed an extraordinary jewelry collection which is explored at VanityFair.com in a very interesting slideshow by writer and editor Ruth Peltason who collaborated with the star on her book Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair With Jewelry. The Christie's exhibition wonderfully displays the astounding jewelry collection as well as the star's clothing and art. The exhibition is really great fun to see, and visitors can buy tickets online for $30; proceeds go to fund AIDS research and which Elizabeth famously supported even early on when it was a brave and lonely thing to do.
In the gallery I approached a set of ruby jewelry and I said to a woman at Christie's, "Is this the ruby jewelry that Mike Todd gave her?" And the woman said, "I don't know, there is so much ruby jewelry!" We found the Mike Todd suite together, below. When he, her third husband, gave Taylor this jewelry, she famously put it on and went swimming in the pool, so comfortable was she, at the age of twenty five, with this level of luxury.

The most famous piece of jewelry in the collection is this necklace featuring a large pear-shaped sixteenth century pearl that was once owned by the Spanish crown. It was a gift from Richard Burton, and Cartier fashioned it into a pearl and diamond necklace.

The piece above the large pearl is also a detachable brooch, which you can see from the side, so that Taylor could wear it separately. Clever.

Yellow diamonds piled on top of white diamonds – breathtaking.

Richard Burton gave Taylor this gold and diamond Schlumberger brooch when they were in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, when he was filming The Night of the Iguana. You might remember that we had a wonderful family trip to Puerto Vallarta, and on a boat ride, the captain pointed out the villa where the Burtons lived.

I thought one of the most magnificent sets was a diamond and emerald group from Bulgari in Rome. Burton gave Taylor this glorious diamond and emerald brooch as an engagement present. It was one of her favorite pieces.

Here she wears it as a tiara in the movie The VIPs, which also starred Burton. For a wedding present, he added the amazing emerald and diamond necklace at the top this post, emerald drop earrings, two rings and a bracelet.

Here, Taylor wears the brooch in her hair and the necklace. That necklace rivals anything the czars wore.

Also on exhibition here is a selection of noteworthy fashion. This is Taylor's sweet sunflower yellow wedding dress when she married Burton in 1964, husband number five.

And the wedding dress she wore when she married him again, in Africa in 1975.

Pretty pastel shades –

An ivory Christian Dior evening gown and a canary yellow wrap trimmed with feathers. Behind it are cases and cases of diamond jewelry.

Upstairs was a huge gallery lined on all sides by fashion. A woman walked by and said to no one in particular, "She must have kept building houses just for this."

Caftans! And estimated at only $600-$800 each. One potential shopper said to another, "I wish we could feel the fabric."

A collection of Louis Vuitton luggage, because really, everyone should travel like this.

There were even more rooms of her paintings including, yes, a Pissaro and a Van Gogh, and a gallery of decorative arts, furniture, and memorabilia including three golden Oscars.
But we close with the Elizabeth Taylor diamond, formerly known as the Krupp diamond. At a staggering 33.19 carats, it was a gift from Richard Burton, and she wore it every day of her life. Click on the photo to see it better.

What a woman. And what a life.

A Trip to the 39th Street Flea Market

A frame purchased at the flea market made out of reclaimed wood from homes in South Africa holds art work by our friend Clover Vail.

Well, I got my broken camera back from Canon! They said they were going to charge $120 to fix it and I happened to mention in passing this blog and voila, it was repaired for free as a courtesy. Thanks Canon.
Since I got it back, I have been using the video function, and so we have something new for Bart Boehlert's Beautiful Things: a video! Let me know what you think. I got my MacBook upgraded, bought the iLife program which has iMovie on it, went to a class at the Apple store for iMovie, downloaded the video and edited it in iMovie, and uploaded it to YouTube. I mean, there is a steep learning curve!
We went on Saturday afternoon to the Hell's Kitchen Flea Market on 39th Street between 9th and 10th Avenues, and recorded the visit. Watch to see what we found:



TD and I are off tomorrow for the sand and surf of sunny Sarasota and Siesta Key, rated one of America's best beaches. Have a great weekend.

Glad Tidings for the Metropolitan Opera

Peter Gelb, the Met's general manager, and Ann Ziff. Photo from The New York Times.

Comes the news today that Ann Ziff has given the Metropolitan Opera here in New York a gift of $30 million. You may remember Ann Ziff – she is a friend of Bart Boehlert's Beautiful Things and a wonderful jewelry designer whose jewelry collection Tamsen Z was featured here on Dec. 3.

The New York Times reports that this is the largest single gift from an individual in the history of the Met, and that Ms. Ziff made it unrestricted, so that the Met can spend it any way it wishes. General Manager Peter Gelb says, "It came at a time when the Met is sorely in need of cash."

Just the other night, TD was marveling at the wonder that is the Metropolitan Opera, an institution which mounts different spectacular world class operas every day, except for Sundays, and sometimes two a day, over its long season, from September through May. We enjoyed so much our trip to the Met in January to see Der Rosenkavalier, and want to return again soon. Ann Ziff says, "I think perhaps the Met is the greatest...arts organization in the world."

Ann Ziff grew up in New York City, and her mother was Harriet Henders, a soprano who performed with conductor Arturo Toscanini, reports The Times. Ann married William B Ziff, Jr., the impresario behind Ziff-Davis Publishing, and they had three sons. William Ziff died in 2006, and now Ann is secretary of the Met's board and will become chairwoman next year.

She is also a gifted jewelry designer who sells her work to a private clientele. She told me that she will be opening a story on Madison Avenue this spring; I want to find out how that is progressing. Her specialty is combining unexpected colors and materials together for striking creations which were exciting to me. Here is a shot of her designs. I think Marella Agnelli would like her work, don't you? (See previous post.)


Ann Ziff is putting her artistic talent, and her money, to good use to create beautiful things. Three cheers for that.

Ziff's Dazzlers

I was delighted the other night to attend a private viewing of the Tamsen Z jewelry collection designed by Ann Ziff. The event was held at the Alexander Gallery on Madison Avenue at 74th Street, across the avenue from the Whitney Museum of American Art.
I was quite taken with the Alexander Gallery, located on the second floor, which specializes in American and European paintings and antiques.

Salmon color walls, offices with fireplaces, art and antiques everywhere – what a swell place to work.

The view from the party down to Madison Avenue.

In a central gallery, the lady of the hour was showing, and selling, her work to her friends. Ann Ziff started collecting precious beads and stringing them on to necklaces. Her artistry and expertise grew, and now she designs all kinds of precious and semiprecious jewelry. The displays were quite dazzling.

A giant ring featured a glassy green pariaba tourmaline that was cut in an abstract, modern shape and surrounded with diamonds. There was a breathtaking bracelet of white, yellow and brown diamonds on gold filigree so thin it almost seemed like fabric. This is a bracelet of pink sapphires with yellow and white diamonds.

I even like it out of focus: a sparkling confection of riches.

Thin, dangling earrings were made out of sliced meteorite. A dramatic necklace combined opals with Pre-Colombian gold. This necklace of boulder opals is timeless and classic but at the same time the color combination is unusual and exciting.

The designer is not constrained by traditional notions of jewelry. When I ask Ann Ziff about her design style, she says, ""Off the wall' is a little too strong, but I like the unexpected. I'll combine any stone with any stone as long as it looks good." In Spring 2010, she will be opening her own store on Madison Avenue, in the former Bulgari boutique, to be eponymously called Tamsen Z; Tamsen is Ann's first name. I ask her how she feels about opening a jewelry boutique in a troubled economy, and she replies, "My husband was in publishing and he always said that during a bad economy is the best time to advertise." Ziff's late husband, William B. Ziff, Jr., who passed away in 2006, famously built his family's publishing company, Ziff-Davis, into a hugely successful business based on niche publications like Car and Driver, Popular Photography, and PC magazine. The Ziff family sold the publishing group in 1994.

Her husband had encouraged Ann to begin collecting precious gems of her own. Now, she works continually on her designs, traveling with her gems between her homes on Fifth Avenue, in Aspen and Florida. Ann Ziff is her own best advertising. At her party she wears earrings of her design made of three descending discs of emerald, ruby and sapphire pave. They're set off by her dark hair, which is combed back and cut at the chin. Her emerald green silk blouse has a wide collar which frames the face and leads up to her green eyes. Not a lot of makeup. It's simple, refined, beautiful style; modern but romantic too: a Sargent portrait.