Yet another fabulous jewel with significant provenance has popped up in the showroom of M.S. Rau in New Orleans, and this time, the piece is linked to an aristocrat from one of Britain’s most famous (and infamous) families.
M.S. Rau, the family-run fine arts and antiques gallery located in New Orleans, is advertising the sale of the Duchess of Devonshire’s Aquamarine Brooch, which features two aquamarines totaling 180 carats together. The firm describes the piece as a “remarkable Belle Époque brooch” featuring Santa Maria blue aquamarines and diamonds set in platinum. The jewel, made around 1905, is a little over 3 inches in length and comes in its original fitted case from Harvey & Gore.
The brooch’s most famous owner was the Hon. Deborah Mitford, who became Duchess of Devonshire through her marriage to Andrew Cavendish, the 11th Duke. The couple were not destined to inherit the family title. His elder brother, William, was heir to the dukedom until his death while fighting in Belgium in 1944. Andrew became the 11th Duke on the death of his father (who was in the care of a doctor later found to be a serial killer) in 1950.
Deborah became chatelaine of Chatsworth, the family’s enormous estate in Derbyshire. She was a key society figure in the twentieth century, chronicling her adventures in a collection of memoirs. One of them, Wait for Me!, features a photograph of Debo wearing the aquamarine and diamond brooch. In the image, she’s sitting beside the photographer Cecil Beaton at one of the biggest parties of the 1960s: the White Ball thrown by Prince Rupert Loewenstein, financial manager of the Rolling Stones, at his Holland Park home in the summer of 1969.
At some point before her death in 2014, Deborah gave the brooch away to a friend. That lucky (unknown) recipient offered the jewel for sale in an auction at Bonhams in London in September 2021. On that occasion, the piece fetched £94,000. M.S. Rau is hoping to sell the brooch for far more this time around. The current price of the jewel on the firm’s website is set at $348,500—almost three times the amount that it brought five years ago.
M.S. Rau has been on something of a roll lately where royal and aristocratic jewels are concerned. At the beginning of 2025, they acquired a pearl and diamond bar brooch that once belonged to Queen Mary. The piece was part of Mary’s collection of jewelry set with conch pearls.
More recently, I wrote at Hidden Gems about another remarkable Rau acquisition: a pair of diamond and pearl earrings that belonged to Queen Marie Amélie, the wife of King Louis Philippe I of the French. Those earrings are still currently on offer (price upon request).
One of M.S. Rau’s public relations reps reached out to me about this brooch, and I couldn’t help but ask her how Bill Rau and his staff make decisions about acquiring these historical pieces, especially given their American locale. Bill noted that his team travels extensively to research and survey these grand pieces, but in the end, it’s all about the client. The family has developed relationships with collectors over generations, and they trust the firm to acquire important jewels and handle big transactions. I’ll be very interested to see if the Devonshire aquamarines can bring the kind of price they’re hoping for this time around.
Speaking of Hidden Gems, be sure to stay tuned later this morning for my free weekly Wednesday issue. This week’s jewelry news includes a look at another important aristocratic jewel, which made a dazzling wedding appearance just a few weeks ago. Subscribers at all tiers will find the article in their inbox, so make sure you’re on the list!
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