Boucheron

Marie-Louise Mackay (1843-1928)

Countess Mona Bismarck (1897-1983)

The Magnificent Jewels of the late Countess Mona Bismarck, Sotheby’s Geneva, 13 May 1986, lot 25.

Vincent Meylan, Boucheron: The Secret Archives, Woodbridge, 2011, p. 64 - 65 and the cover illustration for this necklace dated to 1888.

Stefano Papi and Alexandra Rhodes, Famous Jewelry Collectors, London, 1999, p. 136 for this necklace.

Stefano Papi and Alexandra Rhodes, 20th Century Jewelry and The Icons of Style, London, 2013, p. 122 where this necklace is illustrated with the other items from the ruby and diamond suite which Mona Bismarck commissioned to complement this necklace.

This exquisite ruby and diamond necklace tells the story of not one, but two extraordinary American women who through immense fortune and discerning taste conquered international high society and chose Paris as the setting for their greatest triumphs.

Marie-Louise Mackay (1843-1928)

Marie-Louise Hungerford was born in Brooklyn in 1843 as the daughter of a barber and a laundress. In 1867, she married the Irish immigrant John Mackay. Five years later John discovered a silver mine in Nevada, changing his family's fortunes forever. Later John Mackay also founded one of the first United States telegraph companies, and helped finance the New York, Texas, and Mexican Railway Company, further enlarging his business empire. The couple had two sons: John born in 1870 and Clarence in 1874.

Though the couple embodied the American dream of finding riches in the West, Gilded Age society did not accept them as social equals. New York's elite, the so-called 400, resented John and Marie-Louise Mackay both for being nouveau-riche as well as for their Irish ancestry. After being rejected by New York society, John and Marie-Louise set up residence in Paris in 1876. There Mrs Mackay became a loyal client of Boucheron. Between 1876 and 1902 she frequently appeared in the company's order books, acquiring some of the most important and ambitious jewels created by Boucheron in the 19th century, including an elaborate sapphire and diamond necklace with matching earrings, a natural pearl and diamond bangle of paisley design and a diamond circlet tiara. In Paris, Mrs. MacKay found the social recognition she so desired. She socialized with royalty such as the exiled Queen Isabella II of Spain, and from the 1880s onwards, she also took part in the London social seasons with resounding success.

Marie-Louise Mackay permanently returned to the United States in 1919 to spend her final years closer to her only surviving son, Clarence. She passed away in 1928, just one year before the Wall Street Crash which would annihilate the immeasurable wealth built by her husband. It is unknown exactly how her jewels were dispersed following her passing, though it is likely that this necklace was purchased anonymously by Harrison Williams in the 1930s for his wife Mona.

Mona Bismarck (1897-1983)

Mona Travis Strader was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1897. Twice married and divorced before the age of thirty, she married her first husband, the wealthy businessman Henry Schlesinger in 1917. Her second husband was the affluent banker James Irving Bush, said to be the handsomest man in America.

In 1924, she settled in New York and soon met Harrison Williams, twenty-four years her senior, and one of the richest men in America. After the wedding in 1926, the couple spent their round-the-world honeymoon cruise on Williams’ yacht ‘Warrior’, the largest and most expensive yacht in the world at the time. The couple moved into a neo-Georgian mansion on upper Fifth Avenue in New York and acquired Oak Point, a huge property in Bayville on Long Island's North Shore, as well as a home in Palm Beach and the Villa Il Fortino in Capri. Her husband’s fortune gave Mona free rein in her love of the arts. She purchased works by Goya, Tiepolo and Fragonard to furnish the New York estate, and also commissioned contemporary interior interior decorators such as Syrie Maugham to decorate her homes. Salvador Dali painted her portrait in 1943.

Mona became a lifelong friend and photographic subject of Cecil Beaton. He described her as ‘one of the few outstanding beauties of the thirties… who represented the epitome of all that taste and luxury can bring to flower’. By the early 1930s, Mona’s beauty and elegance were a subject of note on both sides of the Atlantic. In 1933, she was voted ‘the best-dressed woman in the world’ in the annual poll held by the major French couturiers, including Chanel, Molyneux, Vionnet, Lelong and Lanvin. In the photographic portraits of Mona taken in the late 1920s and 1930s, her beauty is enhanced by her stylish jewels.

She had a preference for classical, 19th-century jewelery as exemplified by this important ruby and diamond necklace created by Boucheron in 1888. Mona Bismarck customised the necklace by adding a ruby and diamond pendant at the centre back. She added this personal touch to other important necklaces in her collection to add some flair to the nape of the neck. This additional pendant has since been removed. To match the antique necklace Mona Bismarck commissioned a suite of ruby and diamond jewels from the Roman jeweller Petochi including two rings, a pair of earrings and two bracelets, all featuring a classic design of cushion-shaped rubies framed by old mine-cut diamonds. Sotheby's Geneva has had the honour of re-offering one of the bracelets from this suite in recent years (Royal and Noble Jewels, 13 November 2024, lot 1172).

Harrison Williams died at Oak Point in 1953 and Mona inherited a vast fortune. The following year, she married Edward, Count von Bismarck, grandson of Otto von Bismarck, the chancellor who united Germany. They moved to Europe, and in 1956 purchased a hôtel particulier in Paris at 34 Avenue de New York, which she completely redecorated. Mona was a glamorous and admired hostess in Paris and on Capri, entertaining guests such as the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, Winston Churchill, Aristotle Onassis and Maria Callas. She was always resplendent in her jewels and beautiful gowns.

After the death of Count von Bismarck in 1970, Mona had an unhappy marriage to Umberto de Martini, who died in a car accident in 1979. Her last years were spent quietly, and she died in Paris in 1983 at the age of 86. Her legacy continues through a foundation that bears her name, based in her home in Paris, which fosters Franco-American bonds through art and culture.

In 1986, Sotheby’s Geneva had the privilege of selling the magnificent collection of jewels of the late Mona Bismarck. Her jewels demonstrated her love of beautiful gemstones, as well as her devotion to the luxurious pursuits of life.