Van Cleef & Arpels

Ava Gardner (1922 – 1990) 

Sotheby’s London 10 December 1990, lot 324.

Stefano Papi & Alexandra Rhodes, Famous Jewelry Collectors, Harry N. Ambrams Inc., New York, 1999, p. 40 and 43.

Ava Gardner (1922-1990)

Hailed as the most ravishing brunette during Hollywood’s Golden Age, Ava Gardner is forever synonymous with beauty and glamour. Born Ava Lavinia Gardner in Grabtown, North Carolina, Ms. Gardner was discovered by MGM talent scouts after her brother-in-law, a professional photographer, displayed a portrait of eighteen-year-old Ava in the window of his Fifth Avenue studio. Following a screentest, she was offered a standard studio contract at MGM where she was taught acting and elocution. Gardner became a star thanks to the 1946 noir classic ‘The Killers’ costarring Burt Lancaster where she played the treacherous gangster mole Kitty Collins. Lead roles followed in ‘OneTouch of Venus’ (1948) and ‘The Great Sinner’ (1949). Gardner’s career peaked in the early 1950s with films such as the classic musical ‘Show Boat’(1951), ‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’(1951), ‘The Snows of Kilimanjaro’(1952) and ‘Mogambo’(1953) opposite Clark Gable and Grace Kelly for which she received an Academy Award Nomination for Best Actress in a Leading Role. In 1954, Gardner played the role with which she is still most closely identified in ‘The Barefoot Contessa’ opposite Humphrey Bogart. Another career highlight was John Houston’s acclaimed adaptation of the Tennessee Williams play ‘Night of the Iguana’ (1964) costarring Richard Burton and Deborah Kerr.

In 1942 Ava Gardner married Mickey Rooney, one of MGM’s most important stars, while she was still playing bit parts. Her second husband was clarinetist and band leader Artie Shaw. Though the marriage was short-lived, he helped her to cultivate her tastes. Gardner’s final marriage and likely the most significant relationship in her life was to Frank Sinatra. When they were married in 1951, she was flying high, while his career was in a slump. She campaigned for his being cast in the hugely successful war drama ‘From Here To Eternity’ (1953) for which he won an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor. This role relaunched his career both as an actor and singer for the ensuing decades. While doing location shoots for ‘Pandora and the Flying Dutchman’ in Spain, Ava discovered she felt far more at ease in Europe than in the United States. In the mid-1950s she relocated to Spain for a number of years before settling in London for the remainder of her life.

In addition to her great success as an actress, Gardner was known for her charitable nature supporting causes such as the March of Dimes, The American Cancer Society and the American Red Cross. In 1986, she established the Ava Gardner Trust with the Queen Victoria Hospital and the Animal Health Trust as beneficiaries and later the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital and the Ava Gardner Museum. The Ava Gardner Trust is still active today, continuing the generous star’s legacy of charity.

Ava Gardner’s jewellery collection included a highly refined selection signed jewels by Van Cleef & Arpels and William Ruser dating to the 1950s and ‘60s. She prided herself on choosing and acquiring most of her jewels herself. She recalled how she acquired a magnificent 7.46-carat emerald in Los Angeles and subsequently had it mounted as a ring by Van Cleef & Arpels New York in 1961.

In 1989, Gardner decided to part with a number of jewels at Sotheby’s New York. After her passing the following year, the remainder of her collection was offered at Sotheby’s London, including this spectacular emerald and diamond ring. In Famous Jewelry Collectors, jewelry historians Stefano Papi and Alexandra Rhodes praise the jewel for its “almost flawless emerald…with its fantastic, saturated vibrant green color, so typical of ‘old mine’ Colombian emeralds,” making it the “finest piece in the whole collection.”

10^th December 1990, lot 324

Cf.: Stefano Papi and Alexandra Rhodes, Famous Jewelry Collectors, London, 2005, pg. 40.