This weeks Thursday Throwback is the fictional 'Heart of the ocean' necklace which features in the blockbuster movie Titanic that came out in 1997 and was the first film to gross a billion dollars.
Did you know that the fake prop necklace used in the film was later re commissioned as a real sapphire and diamond necklace? It's true.
The Heart of the Ocean (also known as Le Coeur de la Mer) was originally made as a prop for the movie by the jewellers Asprey & Garrard and was made out of cubic zirconia's and set in white gold but after the movie they where requested again four years later to remake it for real this time to be sold for the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
One of the biggest challenges facing the jewellers at the time was where to find a sapphire that big! They searched the world and looked at several candidates but eventually found a 174 carat triangle sapphire in Sri Lanka, which was re cut to the famous heart shape and down graded to 171 carats. Next was the diamonds, all 36 carats of them. All the diamonds where matched up on there sizes and then re cut to match each other, there was 103 diamonds in total.
They used beeswax and hand tools to position the diamonds just right in the platinum setting, often taking them back out for re positioning until they where perfect, next they added the centre piece sapphire, le Coeur de la mer.
The necklace sold at Sotheby's auction house in Beverley Hills for $17 million and with the agreement that Celion Dion could wear it to the 1998 Academy Awards ceremony, which she did 2 nights later.
Whilst researching this necklace I came across a real necklace that was actually on the Titanic. It wasn't heart shaped and it may not have even been a sapphire but it did have a love story like the movie. It belonged to a young woman called Kate Florence Phillips from Worchester, England she was running away with Henry Samuel Morley to elope. He was the owner of some “Purveyors of High Class Confectionery” shops in London and she was one of his employees, he was also married with a child. In order for them to run away together he had sold his shops and left his wife and child with some money before booking tickets on the unsinkable Titanic with Kate. As a present he brought her a necklace it had a blue square in the middle and diamonds around that. They boarded in second class as Mr and Mrs Marshall and where excited for their future together.
Unfortunately for them their dreams where shattered when the ship hit the iceberg and sunk. Henry Samuel Morley couldn't swim and died in the waters and Kate Florence Phillips survived with only the necklace and her nightgown on her. She was rescued by the Celtic and taken back to England where she found out she was pregnant and later gave birth to a baby girl.
Did you know that the fake prop necklace used in the film was later re commissioned as a real sapphire and diamond necklace? It's true.
The Heart of the Ocean (also known as Le Coeur de la Mer) was originally made as a prop for the movie by the jewellers Asprey & Garrard and was made out of cubic zirconia's and set in white gold but after the movie they where requested again four years later to remake it for real this time to be sold for the Diana, Princess of Wales Memorial Fund.
One of the biggest challenges facing the jewellers at the time was where to find a sapphire that big! They searched the world and looked at several candidates but eventually found a 174 carat triangle sapphire in Sri Lanka, which was re cut to the famous heart shape and down graded to 171 carats. Next was the diamonds, all 36 carats of them. All the diamonds where matched up on there sizes and then re cut to match each other, there was 103 diamonds in total.
They used beeswax and hand tools to position the diamonds just right in the platinum setting, often taking them back out for re positioning until they where perfect, next they added the centre piece sapphire, le Coeur de la mer.
The necklace sold at Sotheby's auction house in Beverley Hills for $17 million and with the agreement that Celion Dion could wear it to the 1998 Academy Awards ceremony, which she did 2 nights later.
Unfortunately for them their dreams where shattered when the ship hit the iceberg and sunk. Henry Samuel Morley couldn't swim and died in the waters and Kate Florence Phillips survived with only the necklace and her nightgown on her. She was rescued by the Celtic and taken back to England where she found out she was pregnant and later gave birth to a baby girl.
I learn such a lot from reading your blogs . Thank you
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