Two diamond-encrusted Cartier brooches once owned by the socialite Virginia Courtauld are going on display at her former medieval palace home in London, which has windows with a design similar to the jewellery.
Eltham Palace, a former Tudor residence, was transformed in the 1930s by the daughter of an Italian shipping merchant and her husband, Sir Stephen Courtauld, into an art-deco home, with a nod to the original features.
On Wednesday, charity English Heritage announced that brooches depicting a falcon and a white Tudor rose, given as a gift from Sir Stephen in 1937, are going on public display there for the first time.
Kevin Booth, English Heritage’s head collections curator, said: “Virginia Courtauld’s beautiful, Cartier diamond and gem-set brooches epitomise the glamorous, modern spirit that Stephen and Virginia brought to Eltham Palace when they restored and extended it in the 1930s.
“The brooches perfectly bring together the old in the form of Edward IV’s cyphers, and the new with a 1930s palette of pink tourmaline and blue sapphire, which is exactly what Virginia and Stephen set out to do at Eltham.
“The brooches are not only significant as pieces of high-quality Cartier workmanship, but as a deeply personal gift from husband to wife. It’s wonderful that they have found their way home.”
The Courtaulds took over the lease of the palace in 1933, when it was in a state of neglect, and restored it.
They retained a great hall built for Edward IV in the 1470s, which has stained glass windows that are mimicked on the brooches.
The couple commissioned the great hall windows to include Edward’s cyphers.
The jewellery depicts the cyphers of Edward IV, including the white rose of York upon the starburst, known as Rose en Soleil, and a falcon in a fetterlock shackle.
The falcon is set with single cut diamonds and the background of the brooch is half set with cross-hatched pink tourmaline gems and half with blue sapphires.
The rose is within a sunburst surround, set with single cut diamonds and a yellow citrine centre, its background similarly half set with pink tourmaline and blue sapphires.
English Heritage believes the brooches were worn by Lady Courtauld when she entertained guests.
They included British Army officer Fredrick Spencer Chapman, Ladykillers and Passport To Pimlico producer Sir Michael Balcon, and members of the royal family such as Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother, and Queen Mary, the wife of King George V.
The brooches were bought at auction from Dreweatts with a grant from the Art Fund, and a contribution from the Wolfson Foundation.
They sold for £19,000 according to the auctioneers.
Lady Courtauld was known as an eccentric and had a snake tattoo. She was first married to Italian count Paulo Spinola, and married philanthropist and mountaineer millionaire Sir Stephen in 1923.
The couple did not have children and they looked after her nephews, Peter and Paul Peirano.
Sir Stephen died in 1967, aged 83, and Lady Courtauld died in 1972.
Eltham Palace had been the childhood home of King Henry VIII, and was used by Tudor monarchs as a royal residence.
English Heritage manages the estate.
