Jewels from Royal Court of Bulgaria to Hit Sotheby’s Auction Block

Jewels belonging to Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria are set to go up for auction for the first time during the upcoming luxury week at Sotheby’s in Geneva.

The sale will feature 114 pieces that have not been seen publicly in nearly 100 years, Sotheby’s said Monday. Called A Tsar’s Treasure, the jewels, belonging to the ruler of Bulgaria, who died in 1948, and his family, will be presented at the November 13 Royal & Noble Jewels sale in Geneva. Many of the pieces were created by the leading jewelers of the time, including Bapst, Eugène Fontenay, Froment-Meurice and Castellani, Sotheby’s noted.

Leading the sale is a tie pin with a fleur-de-lis motif, bearing a pear-shaped, 2.08-carat, fancy-gray-blue diamond. The lot also contains four other colored diamonds: a 0.65-carat fancy-pink, a 0.52-carat fancy-green, a 0.47-carat fancy-deep-brown-orange, and a 0.13-carat fancy-intense-green-yellow. The auction house expects that piece to bring in up to $700,000, with the entire collection forecast to garner up to $1.8 million.

“This collection of jewels has never left the family of Czar Ferdinand of Bulgaria,” said Philipp Württemberg, from Philipp Württemberg Art Advisory. “It is a very intimate ensemble. Some pieces belonged to Czar Ferdinand’s wife or mother, but many of the others show his personal choice and taste, like the fabulous colored-diamond pin or the extraordinary collection of cufflinks.”

Here are some of the other lots Sotheby’s will offer at the sale: