Victoria, Lady de Rothschild's jewellery, silver and tableware fetches £568,632 at auction - The Jewish Chronicle

There are the glitzy, high-society dinners you might read about in Tatler — and then there were the evenings hosted by the late socialite and style icon Victoria, Lady de Rothschild, who turned entertaining into an art form.

Known for holding birthday parties so lavish they attracted the attention of press around the globe, she was an avid collector and enjoyed showing guests her dazzling jewellery, silver and tableware.

Victoria, Lady de Rothschild

Victoria, Lady de Rothschild's home, Ascott House in Buckinghamshire

Following her death in January 2021, aged 71, Christie’s auctioned the first part of her collection last year. Then last week, Drewearts sold the remainder, fetching £568,362. Among the 282 lots that went under the hammer were a pair of £32,000 silver gilt cups designed by Paul Storr, a 19th-century silversmith-to-the-royals; and a four-row coral bead necklace that fetched £35,000, which Lady de Rothschild was thought to have bought on a trip to India.

Pieces from her home, including her furniture and artworks, were sold at the Christie’s auction last year.

Candlestick holder

A gilt oak leaf candlestick holder by Scottish artist Malcolm Appleby, which sold for £5,625

Lady de Rothschild was born to Florida businessman and racehorse owner Lewis Schott and his first wife, Marcia. She married British banker Sir Evelyn de Rothschild, scion of the celebrated 19th-century Rothschild banking family, in a Jewish wedding in 1973. The pair lived at Ascott House in Buckinghamshire and had three children before they split in 2000.

“She was very elegant, very disciplined... not only in the way she entertained but also the way she dressed,” said specialist James Nicholson, deputy chairman of Dreweatts.

One of her parties — a 21st birthday bash held for her daughter Jessica in 1995, in which she transformed the interior of London’s Royal College of Art to resemble the Manhattan nightclub El Morocco — drew coverage in the New York Times.

Pink ring

A pink sapphire and ruby serpent ring by French luxury brand Boucheron that also fetched £5,625

Her collection of one-of-a-kind items was amassed with advice from her friend Tomasz Starzewski, the celebrated fashion designer whose pieces have been worn by the late Princess Diana and other royals. “Some things had come down through her family from America, like the crocus vases, the Chantilly dinner service and some of the earlier silver, but most of the other pieces were things she had collected herself.

“After about 2000 she was hugely interested in young British and European craftsmanship, so she bought a lot of modern silver and bead jewellery,” Mr Nicholson added.

Necklace

A lapis lazuli and gold coloured necklace by Jacqueline Ryan, which sold for £9,375

“She was a great entertainer at home and that was really what the collection was about. It was about her entertaining style and the way she would dress the table. She was into ‘table-scaping’ long before it became a recent phenomenon.”

Another item to sell was a set of eight murano beakers made by the late Venice-based glass-maker Marie Brandolini, daughter of Béatrice Rosenberg de Rothschild, which fetched £2,375. Ms Brandolini’s foundry, Laguna B, creates designs inspired by an ancient technique perfected by Italian glassblowers that uses scraps of leftover material.

“They’ve obviously really captured people’s imagination and they’re going to be a highly collectible thing.” Lady de Rothschild’s eye for that quality “was one of the things that really came out” in the sale, added Mr Nicholson.

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