THE ROCKEFELLER EMERALD
Last June at Christie’s Magnificent Jewels auction in New York, a dazzling piece of jewellery came up for sale, consigned by a private collector. The Rockefeller Emerald, step- cut and flanked by diamonds in art deco style and set into a platinum ring, measures 18.04 carats and made a huge $5.5m in the sale (est $4m–$6m). The winning bidder, American jewellers Harry Winston, paid $305,000 per carat, a world record that surpassed the previous holder of that honour, the suite of Bulgari emerald jewellery that Richard Burton gave to Elizabeth Taylor in the 1960s that sold in 2011.
The Rockefeller Emerald, mined in Colombia and with exceptional colour and clarity, has wonderful provenance, which is why the bidder for Harry Winston was instructed to buy the jewel at any cost. When John D Rockefeller Junior (David Rockefeller’s father) bought an emerald Van Cleef and Arpels brooch in 1930 for his wife (and David’s mother), Abby Aldrich Rockefeller, this emerald was at its centre. When Abby died in 1948, the emeralds in the brooch were split between their six children, and David, the youngest, inherited this outstanding jewel. He in turn had the emerald set into a ring by the jeweller Raymond Carter Yard, a man much admired by John D Rockefeller Junior. John D not only encouraged Carter Yard to set up his own firm in 1922 on Fifth Avenue, but also introduced him to the cream of New York society, from the Vanderbilts to the Woolworths and the Du Ponts. The Rockefeller Emerald lives on to tell another tale of high rolling history.