The Mellon Family Jewels Are Headed to Auction

When philanthropist, horticulturalist extraordinaire, and Jackie Kennedy's bestie Bunny Mellon—widow of Paul, a scion of Pittsburgh's Mellon banking dynasty—died in 2014, her vast collection of art, furniture, jewelry, and decorative objects, from Rothkos and rare blue diamonds, to cabbage porcelain and the wicker baskets for which she was legendary, came up for auction at Sotheby's. It was a five-day extravaganza featuring more than 1,500 lots that brought in $218 million.

Mellon provenance, in other words, is always something worth paying attention to. So when a small selection of important bijoux belonging to women from another branch of the family recently emerged from the family vault, Sotheby's Jewelry SVP Frank Everett, who was closely involved in that Bunny auction, didn't miss a beat. "As the years go by, every time we get a great collection from a great name, I think it's going to be the last one," he says. "When this call came, my ears stood up when I heard "Mellon" and "Pittsburgh." I said, 'Ok, get me on a plane. I'm going right now.'"

The women in question here are Constance Prosser Mellon and her daughter, Constance Barber Mellon, who went by Connie. (Eleven jewels that belonged to them will headline the Sotheby's Magnificent Jewels sale in New York next month.) Constance Sr. was married to Richard King Mellon, a cousin of Paul, nephew of Andrew (the U.S. Secretary of the Treasury from 1921-1932 and Paul's father), and a grandson of patriarch and Mellon Bank founder Thomas.

While his uncle leveraged his business acumen to secure a cabinet appointment and Paul became famous for the prizewinning thoroughbreds, blue-chip art, and fabulous real estate (a sprawling estate in the Virginia countryside, plus homes in Antigua, Nantucket, Paris, and New York) he collected with Bunny, Richard stuck to the family business—and he and Constance stayed close to the family seat in Pittsburgh, raising the city's profile as a milieu as worthy of midcentury American royalty as New York, Washington, or Boston. The Mellons gave generously to local causes and institutions—and made home base their 18,000-acre estate, Huntland Downs, in Ligonier, 50 miles from Pittsburgh.

"I think they were more low-key in their lifestyle, but still of course had to maintain a certain lifestyle," Everett says. "Beautiful jewels were a part of that." And they reflected Constance's environs. Her cousin-in-law Bunny appreciated the fantastical imagination of Jean Schlumberger (so much so she had amassed 142 of his jewels, all of which she left to the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts). Constance, on the other hand, was a classicist who liked Cartier, as is evidenced by the four pieces Sotheby's has acquired.

In the suite: a 1950s necklace strung with five Kashmir sapphires (the rarest kind), a 33.5-carat sapphire and diamond ring, and a 9.9-carat Colombian emerald and diamond cocktail ring. "They're very clean, simple, elegant, and ladylike in that midcentury way, but also serious and of a size that speaks to who she was in terms of her place in society," Everett says.

As for her daughter? Connie chose the pace of city life and was a fixture in the moneyed circles of Washington and New York. Naturally she had a sparkling collection to suit her social calendar. Her jeweler of choice? David Webb. "He was the designer of New York in the '70s," Everett says. "That's where she would have been shopping as a young, glamorous, fashion-forward woman. It makes perfect sense."

Connie, who died in 1983 at age 41, may have inherited her Aunt Bunny's love of bejeweled Animalia. Her mini-menagerie includes an exquisite Indian ceremonial elephant brooch covered in rubies, emeralds, and diamonds, with the beast's tusks rendered in white enamel, as well as a desk timepiece designed as a gold monkey holding a diamond-encrusted walnut.

Mother and daughter weren't so unlike either. Connie also had her own versions of important cocktail rings, one in ruby and one in sapphire, but designed in a modern way befitting her era. "It's interesting that they're from two different generations," Everett says. "Their jewelry is just so the fitting of their time. And they're inextricably linked to the style of the time."

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