Bonhams to preview magnificent jewels from upcoming international sales

A special Ladies Only Afternoon Tea will also be held on Sunday 23rd November at 2pm to 4pm.

Bonhams' Ladies Only Afternoon Tea will be hosted by Jean Ghika, Head of Bonhams' Jewellery Department.

Jean will be on hand to provide advice on buying and bidding at auction.

The magnificent and mysterious three-strand natural pearl necklace of Anna Thomson Dodge - with links to Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia - is among the highlights to be previewed. Comprising 224 pearls and two Cartier diamond clasps, it is expected to fetch $500,000-700,000 when sold by Bonhams in New York on 16 December.

The necklace is being sold by descendents of the founder of the US motoring company, Dodge Automobiles.

Michigan-born Horace E. Dodge bought the pearls in 1920 from The House of Cartier for his wife Anna Thomson Dodge in the belief that they had once belonged to Catherine the Great, Empress of Russia.

Anna is thought to have worn the necklace just twice in her lifetime and one of those occasions was for her daughter's wedding, dazzling some 3000 guests and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, who played throughout the reception.

Ever since 1920, when Horace Dodge first bought the pearls, there has been speculation over the necklace's early provenance.

A Cartier sales invoice to Horace E. Dodge, Esq, dated 24 May 1920, states that the necklace was accompanied by an "enamel clasp representing Catherine, Empress of Russia" and "two diamond alternate clasps".

Many newspaper articles at the time and written since - including those from The New York Times and Detroit Times - have suggested that the pearls once belonged to Catherine the Great.

Furthermore, the heirs of Anna Thomson Dodge maintain that Horace bought the pearls from Cartier on that basis.

Whilst proof of a direct connection between the pearls and the Empress currently remains inconclusive - despite research by Bonhams to uncover the necklace's early provenance - it is a fact that in the early 1900s jewellery from Russian aristocrats found its way onto the open market only to find new owners in the wives of wealthy industrialists - many of them American.