On Wednesday, Marlene Dietrich’s iconic ruby and diamond Van Cleef & Arpels Jarretière bracelet sold for $4.5 million at a Christie’s sale in New York. The Jarretière bracelet was said to hold a special place in her heart among all the jewels in her collection.
The actress commissioned the bracelet from jewellers Van Cleef and Arpels in 1937 and was regularly photographed with it. She famously wore the jewel in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1950 film Stage Fight. In the film, she played the role of an actress who had driven her young lover (Richard Todd) to murder her husband. She also wore it to the Academy Awards in 1951.
The huge cushion-cut ruby disk on the bracelet is rimmed with baguette-cut diamonds. The buckle portion of the jewel includes baguette, rectangular and pavè-set diamonds. The underside of the ruby disk is a flaring pavè-set diamond cone shape that rises to turreted motifs, accented by baguette-cut diamonds. The jewel is mounted in platinum.
"This bracelet is legendary in a lot of ways,” said Claibourne Poindexter, VP and jewellery specialist at Christie’s, when the auction was first announced in March. “It was one of [Dietrich’s] favourite pieces of jewellery. It’s bold. It’s very large in scale and has a wonderful curvature. She wore it so beautifully in Stage Fright." He added, "You get this appreciation for how sculptural the design is. It doesn’t really fit into any period. It’s not art deco jewellery. It’s not retro jewellery. It’s just sort of high glamour. It really is its own work of art.”