The Hutton-Mdivani Jadeite Necklace
The Hutton-Mdivani Jadeite Necklace, early 1930s ; 27 jadeite beads graduating in size from 15.40mm to 19.20mm. The clasp is set with rubies and diamonds mounted in platinum and 18k gold.
Made by: Cartier
Sold for: USD 27.4 million
Auction house: Sotheby's, Hong Kong
Sale date: April 2014
Seller: Private collection
Buyer: The Cartier Collection
From Sotheby's:
The Hutton-Mdivani Necklace offered in this sale is undeniably the most important piece of jadeite jewellery known to the world. This jadeite necklace brought together the finest jadeite in the most striking proportions, exhibiting a colour so delightfully saturated but never salient. Its grandeur is manifested by those luminous beads that emanate a soft and serene glow from within, echoed by a succulent and rich green that grant this jewel its captivating vivacity. This necklace is a true beauty almost too substantial to be real.
The most astounding fact lies in the size of its beads, even the smallest bead in this suite measures 15.40mm, far exceeding those that made their way into the auction markets, and the largest of all measures an impressive 19.20mm, not to mention that there are twenty-seven of such enormous jadeite beads in total, amassing to unprecedented illustriousness. In general, to fashion a strand of matching jadeite beads, all the beads must be carved from the same boulder, and as many as thrice the desired number of beads are often needed from which to select the most suitable and matching ones. With the immense wastage involved, jadeite bead necklaces rank among the most valuable andsought-after forms of jadeite jewellery. To put together a suite of such colossal and fine jadeite beads as those found on the Hutton Mdivani Necklace was utterly challenging, since a jadeite boulder of supreme quality and gigantic size must be recovered in the first place for to fashion such stunning beads.