Socialite’s Jewelry a White-Glove Sale at Christie’s

This Harry Winston ring, set with a pear brilliant-cut diamond weighing approximately 29.01 carats and flanked by three tapered baguette-cut diamonds, sold for $1.9 million at Christie’s New York Wednesday.

New York--The jewelry of a woman who was married to a member of the Bloomingdale family proved to be very popular when it hit the auction block in New York Wednesday. 

The property of Betsy Bloomingdale sold 100 percent by lot and totaled more than $4 million in Christie’s New York Magnificent Jewels sale, with the auction house noting that the collection begat competitive salesroom bidding.

California-born Betty Lee Newling, known as Betsy, married Alfred Bloomingdale, the heir to the Bloomingdale’s department store future, in 1946 and had three children with him. 

The couple was influential in business, politics, culture and fashion, and counted some of the country’s most notable families--Forbes, Paley and Reagan among them--as part of their inner circle.

Betsy Bloomingdale was a world traveler and socialite, known for throwing lavish dinner parties and wearing the most fashionable haute couture and fine jewels while entertaining. 

She died this summer at the age of 93. 

Her 29.01-carat pear brilliant-cut diamond ring flanked by three tapered baguettes sold for $1.9 million, making it the No. 4 lot in the sale, while a Harry Winston graduated diamond cluster necklace went for $1 million.

There also was a pair of diamond ear pendants by Harry Winston, each featuring a suspended cluster of marquise and pear-shaped diamonds attached to a circular and pear-shaped diamond surmount, that sold for $487,500, and a diamond cluster brooch that soared above its highest pre-sale estimate ($150,000) to sell for $223,500. 

Betsy Bloomingdale’s Harry Winston necklace was designed as a graduated pear, circular and marquise-cut diamond cluster necklace, with the largest 12 pear-shaped diamonds weighing 4.10 to 2.17 carats. Predicted to sell for as much as $600,000, it went for $1 million.

Christie’s Magnificent Jewels sale totaled $51.3 million Wednesday.

The top lot overall was a platinum ring set with a rectangular-cut 51.35-carat diamond, which sold for $5.6 million, followed by a 75.41-carat cushion-cut sapphire ring that went for $3.8 million.