Gold, Platinum, Colored Stone, Natural Pearl and Diamond Necklace - Sotheby's

Centering a ruby carved with foliate motifs measuring approximately 29.9 by 24.8 mm, suspended by a pearl measuring approximately 12.4 by 11.8 mm, supported by a necklace set with ten cushion-cut cabochon sapphires weighing approximately 207.00 carats, accented by 20 old European-cut diamonds weighing approximately 5.50 carats, further decorated with ten carved emerald leaves, length 18½ inches, with French assay and maker's marks; circa 1915. Estimate: 75,000 - 100,000 USD 

Property formerly from the estate of Doris Mercer

Accompanied by GIA report no. 2155308900 stating that the pearl is natural, saltwater.

Doris Mercer (1889 – 1963), the daughter of a Pittsburgh police captain, ran away from home at the age of eighteenseeking fame on the New York stage. Having limited success as an actress and being a comely blonde beauty, she married three times: first to society gossip magazine publisher Percival Harden, then to retail magnate Sebastian Kresge, founder of K-Mart, and lastly to Prince Farid-Khan Sadri-Qajar of Persia. With this final marriage, Doris became a princess, a title she assumed for the rest of her life despite having legally relinquished the honor upon her divorce. After living in Paris for almost a decade, she returned to the United States where she purchased property from the Glen Alpin Estate in Harding Township, New Jersey. Despite her extravagant early life, Doris was beset with hard times in her twilight years. She experienced the theft of her sizeable jewelry collection which was later recovered by the FBI in a Texas junkyard. She suffered further insult when maliciously swindled by a suitor whom she had hoped to make husband number four. In order to pay property taxes, Doris was forced to auction the contents from her Glen Alpin Estate along with her fabulous jewels in 1959. This necklace was purchased by a relative of Doris’s attorney and the “Princess Necklace,” as it became known, was passed through the generations to the present owners.

Sotheby's. Magnificent Jewels. New York | 17 Apr 2013 - www.sothebys.com