CELEBRITY NEWS

Katharine Hepburn Diamond Brooch at Sotheby's

Pat Dwyer, Jewelry.com

A gift from Howard Hughes,Hepburn's diamond brooch is expected to bring $15,000 - $20,000

A year after her death, Sotheby's is holding a sale of artifacts from the estate of Katharine Hepburn ranging from personal photos and movie contracts to her Los Angeles home and items of silver screen memorabilia associated with our greatest actress. Among the nearly 700 items on sale is a platinum, diamond and sapphire Jardinière brooch given to her by Howard Hughes.

Expected to fetch $15,000 - $20,000 at the New York auction to be held June 10, the circa 1930 brooch is designed in the form of a Jardinière, set with 104 old-European, round and single-cut diamonds, 2 triangular-shaped diamonds, and 5 baguette diamonds with a total diamond weight of approximately 5 1/4 carats. 10 carved-sapphire leaves, mounted in platinum and signed Trabert & Hoeffer, Mauboussin, accent the diamonds.

Hughes, the eccentric multi-millionaire and movie producer, gave the brooch to Hepburn during their courtship. She wore it casually on personal occasions (as seen in the picture here of Kate The Great standing near one of Hughes many airplanes) and also in the 1945 film Without Love, with co-star and real life love Spencer Tracy.

The June 10th and 11th sale includes furniture, paintings and decorations from Hepburn's homes in New York City and Connecticut and will also include a selection of clothing and accessories epitomizing her elegant style and inimitable fashion sense, myriad photographs from throughout her life, artifacts collected during her extensive travels while performing and filming in Africa, London, Venice, Australia and Paris and personal items such as her address books and passports, among other personal papers.

Hidden amongst the items of memorabilia is another piece of jewelry. This one, a ring designed as an accessory for Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine, wife of Henry II, whom Hepburn played in the 1968 feature film The Lion In Winter. The piece, an archeologically correct in design silvered metal ring, has a decorative motif along the band, a triangular point and a flower. The ring (pictured here) covered the top of the finger only with a clasp to adjust size on the underside.

For her role in The Lion In Winter, Hepburn won the third of her record breaking 4 Academy Awards for best actress. The ring will come under the hammer in the second session of the auction with an estimated opening bid of $800-1,200. Though this item, being a true Hollywood treasure, should go for many times that amount.

The sale is expected to fetch approximately $1 million, and will be on public exhibition at Sotheby's from June 3rd to 9th.

Leila Dunbar, Senior Vice President and Director of Sotheby's Collectibles department, commented, "Her iconic status as one of Hollywood's most important actors is only matched by her zest for life at its fullest".

Born in Connecticut in 1907, Katharine Hepburn rose to stardom quickly, winning her first Best Actress Academy Award in 1933 for her performance in Morning Glory, only a year after she started appearing in films. From the beginning she specialized in playing self-confident, independent women, starring opposite leading actors including Cary Grant, James Stewart and Humphrey Bogart.

In 1936, Cary Grant introduced Katharine Hepburn to Howard Hughes. A romance sparked between the two, and it was during this time that Hughes presented Hepburn with the Art Deco Brooch.

Hepburn gave the brooch to her sister Marion, who later gave it to her daughter Katharine Houghton. Houghton, Hepburn's beloved niece, is also an actress and played her daughter in the famous, groundbreaking film Guess Who's Coming To Dinner.

Other great triumphs of Ms. Hepburn's film career include The African Queen in 1951, The Philadelphia Story (which, in 1940, resurrected her then stalled career) and her Oscar-winning performances in Morning Glory (1933), Guess Who's Coming To Dinner (1967), The Lion In Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond in (1981). Hepburn died at her Connecticut home in June of last year at the age of 96.

Some source material reprinted with permission from IDEX Magazine (http://www.idexonline.com/). Additional Material By: Pat Dwyer, Jewelry.com