Beschreibung:

IMPORTANT DIAMOND NECKLACE Designed as two rows of graduated circular-cut diamonds, enhanced in the middle by marquise-cut diamond three-stone motifs, mounted in platinum, the largest eight diamonds in the center weighing approximately 2.29, 2.36, 2.37, 2.76, 2.87, 3.07, 3.32, 3.87 cts. ( may be worn as a choker or a bracelet), in a suede fitted case --15½ in. long By Winston With certificates 5364800, 5364801, 5364802, 5364803, 5364804, 5364805, 5364806, 5364807 from the Gemological Institute of America stating that the diamonds are G color (near colorless), SI1, G color (near colorless), VS2, F color (colorless), VS2, E color (colorless), VS2, G color (near colorless), VS2, F color (colorless), VS2 and F color (colorless), SI1 CAROLINE RYAN FOULKE All who knew Caroline Ryan Foulke acknowledged that she was a private person who enjoyed the beauty of life, both in her friendships as well as in her collections. She was not content to live the life of the idle rich. Rather she travelled extensively and, lived in fine houses that she personally decorated with appropriate furnishings, and devoted both her time and her money to philanthropic endeavors. Caroline Ryan Foulke was born April 8, 1910, daughter of Clendenin and Caroline O'Neil Ryan, But perhaps more importantly, the granddaughter of Thomas Fortune Ryan, a financial baron of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. His interests ranged from Wall Street and New York City's vast subway systems, to banking, insurance, and the tobacco industry. He was also reputed to have been the largest private owner of Belgian Congo diamond mines. He owned a townhouse at 858 Fifth Avenue where he amassed a collection of Etruscan bronzes and Renaissance sculpture, and was acknowledged to have one of the finest collections of Limoges enamels. He was a benefactor to many worthy causes; his gifts to the Catholic church amounted to almost $20 million. As Caroline grew older she continued her father's generosity by donating to many organizations, as well as contributing her collections to museums and historic homes. It was in this atmosphere of enormous wealth that Coroline Ryan Foulke grew up. Her early life was spent in her grandfather's home in New York, and summers at his 5,000 acre estate in Oak Ridge, Virginia, which was run as a farm and dairy but was complete with golf course, race course and train station. In the early 1920s Caroline attended the fashionable Foxcroft School near Middleburg, Virginia. It was there that she developed an interest in riding and sailing, activities that she would enjoy for the rest of her life. While at the school she attended studio art classes, producing sculpture some of which survives at the Robert E. Lee Memorial Association, Stratford Hall Plantation. As a child Caroline travelled extensively with her parents, always returning to New York, which she thought of as her home until her marriage to Jack Shaw in 1930. The couple moved to Baltimore where she actively participated in equestrian events. The marriage lasted but a few years and Caroline returned to New York, resuming her travels abroad. After her father's death in 1939 Caroline's mother moved to a new apartment in New York City, furnishing it with the finest eighteenth century American decorative arts. She was one of the earliest collectors to break with the tradition of decorating a New York apartment solely with exceptional French and English furniture. An article in The Magazine Antiques from 1942 featured her apartment, commenting "Mrs Ryan's special taste is for American furniture....and she has a collector's eye" for design. She sought expert advice when selecting appropriate period furniture, a dictum that her daughter would follow as she amassed her own collection. During the second world war Caroline moved to San Francisco, following her second husband, who was stationed on a destroyer escort, bound for the Far East. She joined the American Red Cross traveling to L