La Peregrina Pearl Necklace (Elizabeth Taylor / Cartier)

A wanderer from the Pearl Islands

La Peregrina is Spanish for the female pilgrim, or the wanderer. The earliest written reference comes from the historian Garcilaso de la Vega (1539-1616), who described an exceptional pear-shaped pearl brought to Spain from Panama. In the account he gives, it was found by an enslaved African man in the Pearl Islands and handed to Don Pedro de Temez, the colonial administrator, who gave it to King Philip II of Spain.

Its original weight is recorded as 223.8 grains, and it was said to be the largest pearl found up to that time. In 1913 it was drilled and cleaned so it could be fixed securely to a setting, which brought it down to 203.84 grains, the weight quoted when it was sold in 1969. The 2011 catalog gives about 202.24 grains, or 50.56 carats, and measures it at about 17.35 to 17.90 by 25.50 mm. It remains one of the largest symmetrical pear-shaped natural pearls known.

In May 2011 a Swiss gemological laboratory examined the pearl and confirmed that it is a natural saltwater pearl, and added a letter describing its rarity and historic provenance.

Two and a half centuries of Spanish queens

Philip II later named the pearl a Spanish crown jewel in his will, and it appears in royal inventories for more than 200 years. The 2011 catalog lists its royal owners: Philip II (1582-1598), Philip III, Philip IV, Charles II, Philip V, Fernando VI, Charles III and Charles IV (1778-1808).

It became a favorite of Spanish queens. Margaret of Austria wore it to celebrate the 1605 peace treaty between Spain and England, and Diego Velazquez painted both Elisabeth of France and Mariana of Austria wearing it. A story that Philip IV wore the pearl in his hat at his daughter's proxy wedding to Louis XIV in 1660 appears to describe a different pearl, now called La Pelegrina.

A long-repeated story says that Philip II gave La Peregrina to Mary I of England when they married, and Richard Burton believed it. But La Peregrina is first recorded in 1579, 21 years after Mary's death. The large pearl in her portraits is generally identified as a different jewel, the Tudor Pearl. Believing the story, Burton bought a portrait of Mary; when he and Taylor learned that the National Portrait Gallery in London had no original painting of her, they gave it to the gallery.

Bonapartes, an Abercorn sofa and a disputed pearl

In 1808 Napoleon installed his elder brother, Joseph Bonaparte, as king of Spain. When Joseph was driven out after the French defeat at the Battle of Vitoria in 1813, he took some of the crown jewels with him, La Peregrina among them. He left it to his nephew Louis Napoleon, the future Napoleon III, who sold it during his exile in England to James Hamilton, then Marquess and later Duke of Abercorn, for his wife, Louisa. The catalog dates the Abercorn ownership from about 1848 to 1914.

The pearl was heavy and slipped from its setting at least twice. Once it was lost in a sofa at Windsor Castle; once it fell during a ball at Buckingham Palace. Both times it was found.

When it came up for sale in January 1969, it was being offered by an American collector who had bought it from the Duke of Abercorn. Members of the exiled Spanish royal family argued that the real La Peregrina was a pearl owned by Queen Victoria Eugenie, widow of Alfonso XIII, in Lausanne. The sale went ahead after the auction house cited a standard history of European crown jewels that accepted the Abercorn pearl. The queen's pearl, still with the Spanish royal family, is usually called La Peregrina II today.

$37,000, a Las Vegas suite and a puppy

The sale took place on January 23, 1969, at auction in New York. A bidder at the sale who claimed to be a Spanish prince was quickly outbid; news reports at the time described him as a member of the Spanish royal family, but one later account identifies him as a Swiss-born man who claimed to be an illegitimate grandson of Queen Victoria Eugenie. The winning bid, $37,000, came from an anonymous telephone bidder. It was Richard Burton, who kept his name secret so he could surprise his wife.

Burton gave Taylor the pearl in February 1969, for Valentine's Day or her birthday depending on the account, at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas, where she was filming The Only Game in Town. It was then on a simple chain with small round pearls. In her memoir Taylor wrote that she was touching it like a talisman when she reached down and found it gone. She searched the suite quietly and spotted one of their puppies chewing on what looked like a bone. 'I just casually opened the puppy's mouth, and inside its mouth was the most perfect pearl in the world. And it was, thank you, God, not scratched.'

That summer she wore La Peregrina in a cameo in Burton's film Anne of the Thousand Days. In the early 1970s, inspired by a portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots, she brought photographs of the painting to Cartier, and designer Al Durante began a new setting. The finished 1972 necklace is a two-strand rope of natural pearls set with diamond and ruby flame motifs, from which La Peregrina hangs on an early 19th-century diamond bail. Taylor wore it to receive a film award in Italy in January 1973 and to a humanitarian award ceremony in Beverly Hills in January 1992.

A record in New York

In her later years Taylor occasionally lent the necklace to exhibitions. La Peregrina was first shown publicly in 2002 to mark her book My Love Affair with Jewelry, and in 2005 she lent it to the Smithsonian Institution for its exhibition 'The Allure of Pearls.' She died on March 23, 2011.

On the evening of December 13, 2011, La Peregrina was offered in New York as lot 12 of the evening sale of her jewels, mounted on the Cartier necklace and estimated at $2 million to $3 million. At least a dozen bidders chased it. The hammer fell at $10.5 million, and with fees the price was $11,842,500, a world auction record for any pearl jewel. The previous record for a pearl had been $7 million. The room applauded, and the buyer was a telephone bidder whose name was not disclosed.

The full sale of 270 jewels brought $137,235,675, at the time the most valuable private collection of jewels ever sold at auction, and part of the proceeds went to the Elizabeth Taylor AIDS Foundation. Burton's $37,000 purchase had grown to a price about 320 times larger in 42 years.

What the catalog describes

The 2011 lot is a two-strand necklace of fifty-six natural pearls and four cultured pearls, broken by eight plaques of round diamonds and cushion-cut rubies in a flame motif, in platinum and gold, 13 1/2 inches long and signed Cartier. From its center hangs a round-diamond flame set with a pear-shaped ruby, a detachable ruby and natural pearl link, and then La Peregrina itself on a silver foliate bail set with old mine-cut and rose-cut diamonds.

The pendant can also be worn as a brooch. The lot came with the seed pearl and platinum neckchain on which the pearl was sold in 1969, 30 3/4 inches long.

Weights in the published record differ by about a grain and a half: 203.84 grains after the 1913 drilling and at the 1969 sale, and about 202.24 grains (50.56 carats) in the 2011 catalog. The record is clearer on the pearl's Spanish provenance than on how it reached the Abercorns, where even a detailed modern account says only that the family was said to have acquired it from the Bonapartes. The catalog ends the Abercorn ownership around 1914, while that account says an American collector had bought it from the Duke shortly before the 1969 sale.

The numbers

Weight

About 202.24 grains (50.56 carats) in 2011; 203.84 grains after 1913; 223.8 grains originally reported

Dimensions

About 17.35-17.90 x 25.50 mm

Type and shape

Natural saltwater pearl, pear-shaped drop

Origin

Pearl Islands, Gulf of Panama, 16th century

Setting

Cartier, 1972, two strands of 56 natural and 4 cultured pearls with diamond and ruby plaques, platinum and gold, 13 1/2 in; diamond bail early 19th century

Designer

Elizabeth Taylor with Al Durante of Cartier

Timeline

1. 1579

   La Peregrina is first recorded, 21 years after the death of Mary I of England.

2. 1582

   Start of Philip II's ownership period in the 2011 catalog's provenance.

3. 1605

   Queen Margaret of Austria wears the pearl to celebrate peace between Spain and England.

4. 1808

   Joseph Bonaparte becomes king of Spain; the catalog's Spanish royal ownership ends with Charles IV.

5. 1813

   Joseph Bonaparte leaves Spain after the Battle of Vitoria, taking La Peregrina with him.

6. 1848

   Approximate start of ownership by the Abercorn family, who bought it from Louis Napoleon in England.

7. 1913

   The pearl is drilled and cleaned for a secure setting, reducing it to 203.84 grains.

8. Jan 23, 1969

   Sold at auction in New York for $37,000 to an anonymous phone bidder, later revealed as Richard Burton.

9. Feb 1969

   Burton gives the pearl to Elizabeth Taylor in Las Vegas; it briefly ends up in a puppy's mouth.

10. 1969

    Taylor wears La Peregrina in a cameo in Anne of the Thousand Days.

11. 1972

    Cartier completes the ruby, diamond and pearl necklace Taylor designed with Al Durante.

12. Jan 1973

    Taylor wears the new Cartier necklace to receive a film award in Italy.

13. 2002

    La Peregrina is shown in public for the first time, to mark Taylor's book My Love Affair with Jewelry.

14. 2005

    Taylor lends the necklace to the Smithsonian for 'The Allure of Pearls.'

15. Mar 23, 2011

    Elizabeth Taylor dies in Los Angeles at 79.

16. May 19, 2011

    A Swiss laboratory report confirms La Peregrina is a natural saltwater pearl.

17. Dec 13, 2011

    Sells at auction in New York as lot 12 for $11,842,500, the auction record for a pearl jewel.

The world in 1969

• Jan 20, 1969

  Richard Nixon is sworn in as the 37th president of the United States.

• Mar 2, 1969

  Concorde makes its first test flight, in Toulouse, France.

• Mar 17, 1969

  Golda Meir becomes Israel's first female prime minister.

• Jul 20, 1969

  Apollo 11 lands on the Moon; Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on its surface.

• Aug 15, 1969

  The Woodstock Festival opens near White Lake, New York.

• Nov 10, 1969

  Sesame Street premieres on National Educational Television.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, La Peregrina Pearl Necklace (Elizabeth Taylor / Cartier) is number 19 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (21 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• Burton bid anonymously by telephone so he could surprise Taylor; the auction house told reporters it could not even say what city the call came from.
• Taylor found the pearl in a puppy's mouth within weeks of getting it, unscratched.
• The Abercorns lost it twice, once in a sofa at Windsor Castle and once at a ball at Buckingham Palace.
• Spain's exiled royal family argued before the 1969 sale that the real La Peregrina was in Queen Victoria Eugenie's safe in Lausanne.
• The Cartier necklace was inspired by a portrait of Mary, Queen of Scots.
• The 2011 lot came with the plain seed-pearl chain the pearl was sold on in 1969.
• Burton and Taylor gave a portrait of Mary I to the National Portrait Gallery after buying it because of a story about the pearl that turned out to be wrong.