René Boivin

Daisy Fellowes (1890-1962)

Magnificent Jewels, Sotheby's Geneva, 17 November 2009, lot 389.

Stefano Papi and Alexandra Rhodes, 20th Century Jewelry and The Icons of Style, London, 2013, p. 108 for this brooch.

Stefano Papi and Alexandra Rhodes, Famous Jewelry Collectors, London, 1999, p. 165 for this brooch.

Françoise Cailles, René Boivin Joailliers, Paris, 1994, p. 267 for a design drawing of a similar brooch dated to 1940 and p. 240 for a brooch of similar design set with an amethyst.

Daisy Fellowes (1890-1962)

Daisy Fellowes was a French socialite, fashion editor for Harper’s Bazaar, author and tastemaker who is considered one of the most influential jewelery collectors of the 20th century. Her collection included cornerstones of jewelery design such as her legendary Cartier 'Tutti Frutti' necklace, a pair of Art Deco emerald bead and diamond bracelets by Van Cleef & Arpels and numerous important jewels by René Boivin and Suzanne Belperron.

She was born Marguerite Séverine Philippine Decazes de Glücksberg, the daughter of the third Duke of Decazes. Through her mother, Isabelle-Blanche Singer (1869–1896), she was a granddaughter of Isaac Singer. His invention, the Singer sewing machine, greatly accelerated the general public’s ability to participate in changing fashion trends. After her mother passed away prematurely, she and her siblings were raised by their aunt Winnaretta Singer, Princess of Polignac (1865-1943), herself a renowned patron of the arts with a great interest in impressionistic music. In 1910, at the tender age of twenty, she married the Prince Jean de Broglie, a scion of one of France’s oldest noble houses.

In 1919, after her first husband had passed away, she married the Honourable Reginald Ailwyn Fellowes (1884-1953), a banker who was related to Winston Churchill. At this time she adopted the name Daisy Fellowes, Daisy being the English for Marguerite. Further than just changing her name she sought to re-invent herself as a living work of art after feeling decidedly repulsed upon seeing a bland and unremarkable portrait depicting her as everything she did not wish to be. She underwent a rhinoplasty, supposedly without anesthesia, and was dressed only by the best Parisian couturiers in highly original and sometimes controversial styles. Her witticisms, at times veering toward the outlandish and cruel, contributed to her reputation as "the most wicked woman in high society."

Daisy Fellowes loved planning striking outfits around her exquisite, sometimes unconventional jewels. She had a particularly good relationship with surrealist designer Elsa Schiaparelli who created the color 'shocking pink' for her. In fact, this color was inspired by a historical 17.27-carat colored diamond called the ‘Ram’s Head’ which Fellowes purchased at Cartier. The diamond had a provenance going back to Catherine the Great and the Princes Youssoupov. Unfortunately, it was stolen in 1939. The magnum opus of her collection was her 1936 Cartier 'Tutti Frutti' necklace. It is now part of the Cartier Collection and stands as one of the most influential jewels of the 20th century, even though it was substantially altered in the 1960s. In the 1950s, she commissioned a sapphire and diamond panther brooch from Cartier inspired by the lamb skin of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Though the panther is often associated with the Duchess of Windsor, her contemporary and good friend, this very brooch forms the template for many subsequent panther pieces. She was also an early supporter of Fulco di Verdura and Jean Schlumberger.

In Jeanne Boivin and her former protégée Suzanne Belperron, Daisy Fellowes found kindred spirits in her quest for original and fashion-forward jewels. From Boivin, she commissioned several extraordinary brooches including a large pigeon’s wing set with buff-top sapphires, an exuberant gem-set butterfly, a ruby and diamond orchid and this stylish 'grenade' brooch centering a large foiled sapphire dated to 1940. This was one of the earliest grenade brooches Boivin created, and the firm was to reinterpret it several times over the following decades.