This lustrous strand of natural pearls was the topmost strand pictured here on Winifred Marguerite “Daisy” Corah Wessel who is posed with her husband, Enrique Luis Wessel, upon their presentation to the Danish Court. Enrique “Harry” Wessel was a shipping magnate and Chilean Ambassador to Denmark for several decades beginning in the mid-1920s. The Wessel family provided the funding for the Magasin du Nord department store in Copenhagen, and after moving to Denmark, Harry remained managing partner of Wessel / Duval Shipping company in Santiago Chile. Upon learning of the Germans’ plans to round up Jews during World War II, Harry Wessel spread the word and the lives of 7,000 Jews were saved through a network of boatmen on the Eastern coast of Jutland.

During the Wessels’ time in Denmark, their daughter, Winifred May Wessel married John Lord Booth, the son of Ralph H. Booth of Detroit, who had recently been appointed by Herbert Hoover as the American Ambassador to Denmark. The marriage of these two important diplomatic families in 1931, was said to have been a wedding of royal splendor, attended by the Kings of Norway and Sweden and a host of international dignitaries. Winifred “Daisy” Wessel wore the original 5-strand pearl necklace at that momentous social event. This single strand, Lot 62, was gifted to Daisy’s oldest daughter, Winifred, who cherished it until the time that she bequeathed it to her daughter, Jacklyn.