/internal/media/dispatcher/1337285/resize%25253Aformat%25253DthumbnailEmerald and diamond brooch (known as the Post Brooch)1929Oscar Heyman Bros.Marcus & Co.Overall: 5.3 x 5.4 x 1.1 cm (2 1/16 x 2 1/8 x 7/16 in.)Platinum, diamond, emeraldWilliam Francis Warden Fund, Marshall H. Gould Fund, Frank B. Bemis Fund, Mary S. and Edward J. Holmes Fund, John H. and Ernestine A. Payne Fund, Otis Norcross Fund, Helen and Alice Colburn Fund, William E. Nickerson Fund, Arthur Tracy Cabot Fund, Edwin E. Jack Fund, Frederick Brown Fund, Elizabeth Marie Paramino Fund in memory of John F. Paramino, Boston Sculptor, Morris and Louise Rosenthal Fund, Harriet Otis Cruft Fund, H.E. Bolles Fund, Seth K. Sweetser Fund, Helen B. Sweeney Fund, Ernest Kahn Fund, Arthur Mason Knapp Fund, John Wheelock Elliot and John Morse Elliot Fund, Susan Cornelia Warren Fund, Mary L. Smith Fund, Samuel Putnam Avery Fund, Alice M. Bartlett Fund, Benjamin Pierce Cheney Donation, Frank M. and Mary T. B. Ferrin Fund, and Joyce Arnold Rusoff Fund2008.1791The platinum and diamond brooch features a 60-carat emerald at its center. Carved in India in the 17th century, the emerald displays iris blossoms on the front. The reverse, carved later, features a carnation flower. An agent of the American retailer Marcus & Co. purchased the emerald in Bombay in the 1920s—after it was likely removed from a more traditional Indian ornament. Suspended from the center of the brooch, the emerald is rounded on both sides and framed by a horizontal bar with two large table-cut emeralds and diamond swag with 13 tear-shaped emeralds drops. Oscar Heyman Bros. fabricated the brooch, and a pencil drawing of the design can be found in the company’s archives.
This important ornament was owned by Marjorie Mariweather Post, a socialite and the owner of General Foods. Post was a serious collector of jewelry. Emeralds were a favorite and she purchased others around the same time in anticipation of her presentation at the Court of Saint James. While this carved emerald brooch never made it to her royal court presentation, it remained a treasured part of Post’s jewelry collection. She wore it in two painted portraits—one of which still hangs in her bedroom at Hillwood, her home-turned-museum outside Washington, DC—and in photographs throughout her lifetime. It was always prominently positioned at the center of a low-cut neckline and paired with other important necklaces, bracelets, and rings.
Jewelry / Adornment5.30000000005.30000000001.10000000001.100000000051498501