As a gemmologist and jewellery historian who worked for a time at Christie’s in London, Sarah Hue-Williams knows the stories behind many of the world’s top jewellery pieces.
About the 32-carat pink diamond that once belonged to the First Mughal Emperor of India and was rumoured to have been smuggled into England by a soldier who hid the stone inside his horse. It sold in 1990 for £4 million. About the jewellery collection of Christina Onassis, which included a carved figure of Buddha discovered during cataloguing in 2007 to be a missing masterpiece by Fabergé. And about the 19th-century Tiffany & Co. enamel orchid brooch that a 93-year-old client sent in a plain brown envelope to Christie’s for valuing, which turned out to be worth £36,000.
