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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
