Jackie’s glamorous gems to go under the hammer

JACKIE COLLINS was a tour de force. Glamorous, outrageous, clad in panther-black with leopard print accessories, knuckle-duster diamonds, a raven back-combed mane and lashings of eyeliner she knocked spots off her own fictional heroines. She was a delight to interview.

Endearingly she wore studio headphones under her chin so she didn’t crush her coiffeur. One gewgaw of gossip followed another. Salacious snippets flowed trippingly off her tongue. Yet, amid the glitz and bling, Jackie was first and foremost the adoring mum of her three daughters, Tracy, Rory and Tiffany.

Now Jackie’s treasure trove of possessions is to be sold at auction at Bonhams’ LA branch. Among the artefacts are her six-carat diamond solitaire – with an asking price of £80-£120,000 – her two stunning Beryl Cook paintings and a faux leopard three-piece suite at £2,000.

No doubt in the two years since their mother’s passing the girls have done their best to accommodate as many items as possible from her extensive collections but there’s no doubt the purchase of her favourite things by strangers concentrates the mind.

Is there any point accumulating stuff if it just ends up under the auctioneer’s gavel? Or is the thrill of living among rare and gorgeous things you’ve earned the funds to buy reason enough to spend, spend, spend?