$201,450
Important Antique 18kt Gold, Diamond, and Enamel Demi-parure, comprising a necklace designed as graduating floriform blue enamel links set with twenty old European and old mine-cut diamonds graduating in size from 2. 65 to 0.75 cts., approx. total wt. 25.91 cts., interspersed with diamond melee, approx. total wt. 12.93 cts., lg. 16 in., and earclips en suite, set with old mine-cut diamonds weighing approx. 1.54 and 1.35 cts., highlighted by diamond melee, approx. total wt. 3.79 cts. Provenance: Descended in the family of Samuel Colt (1814-1862) and Elizabeth Jarvis Colt (1826-1905) of Hartford, Connecticut. Although the name Colt is associated in the modern imagination with adventurers like T.E. Lawrence and Wyatt Earp, the inventor Samuel Colt was himself a bold and energetic figure whose ambition and achievements influenced the course of economic and military history in nineteenth century America. Together with his wife Elizabeth, he embodied nineteenth-century ideals of entrepreneurship and philanthropy. Sam Colt was born into an old Connecticut family. His father, whose fortunes were volatile, was active as a merchant speculator and manufacturer engaged in the West Indies trade. During his formative years at school in Glastonbury and Amherst, Sam became fascinated by a scientific encyclopedia known as the "Compendium of Knowledge," to which he devoted himself at the expense of the required Bible studies. At the age of sixteen, observing the action of the ship's capst Read more…
Auctioneer:
Skinner
Date:
2010-03-16
