Arts patrons Tim and Shigeko Bork bring new life to Evalyn Walsh McLean’s former Georgetown home.

By Ernesto Santalla, AIA, LEED AP
Photography by Joesph Allen

Shigeko, Skye, and Tim Bork in the drawing room of their R Street NW home. The sculpture seen inthe background is titled "Valiant Struggle #4" by Chinese artist Chen Wen Ling.

Originally designed in 1814 by architect George Howe, the eye-catching Georgetown residence of Tim and Shigeko Bork was once owned by Evalyn Walsh McLean, Washington socialite extraordinaire and owner of the famed Hope Diamond. McLean was known to slide the supposedly cursed gemstone across the floor of the drawing room during lulls in the lavish parties she hosted. The Dumbarton Tennis Club acquired the house (after it had expanded to the size of an entire block) but eventually sold it to then-U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Alexander Kirk. After the enormous property was subdivided into a series of separate mansions, the club’s pool became a back alley, the ballroom part of one house, and the main kitchen part of another. In the 1960’s, grande dame Ella Poe Burling renovated her large section in the style of the time and her home remained largely untouched until 2001 when the Borks purchased it after her death.
 
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Spectral tales to ponder on a chilly October night.

By Donna Evers

The Walsh-McLean House, now the Embassy of Indonesia.

The 1800’s were the heyday for ghosts in Washington. Seances were in high demand as the central attraction at house parties and even the most prominent people consulted with spiritualists in an attempt to reach their dearly departed. People believed in God and the devil with equal passion in those days and they were convinced that ghosts inhabited their former homes in search of the peace and resolution that had escaped them in death.

Now we want rational explanations for things that go bump in the night. Even so, powerful stories and images can still make us look over our shoulder on a dark evening. One such influence was the tremendous effect the 1973 film classic The Exorcist had on viewers, especially Washingtonians, who will never look at “the Exorcist Stairs” the same way. Maybe this can help us relate to previous generations’ fascination with ghosts.

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Auction experts advise on buying, collecting and investing in high quality jewelry

Sotheby’s: Worldwide Appeal

By Carol Elkins, senior vice president for jewelry, Sotheby’s

Oval fancy vivid yellow internally flawless diamond ring, 36.99 carats. Sold at Sotheby’s in December 2008 for $2.65 million.

Recent auction results prove that there is a strong and vibrant market worldwide for jewels, but not just any jewels. Asian buyers continue to pursue white diamonds, especially in sizes over 10 carats, as well as those of color. The two top diamonds in Sotheby’s New York December sale both went to Asians: an oval fancy vivid yellow diamond for $2,658,500, and a pear-shaped diamond for $1,224,500. Russians showed less interest in white diamonds in the latter half of 2008 than had been the case in the six months prior, and appear to be more focused on important colored stones as well as the great signed pieces, both period and contemporary. Buyers in the Mid- and Near East continue to seek out natural pearls and fine colored gem stones, but signed and period jewels do not appear as significant.

Savvy U.S. collectors are looking at mid-20th century jewels “on trend” with current tastes for fashions from the 1950’s through the 1970’s. David Webb’s signature enameled animal bangles and textured gold jewelry have re-emerged as the “look” for a new generation of collectors, for example, a coral and diamond elephant bangle bracelet by Webb brought $95,500.

Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Chanel, Verdura, and Schlumberger pieces are as popular as ever; and their prices have as much to do with the beauty of the designs as does the “provenance” or the stories connected with them.

In any instance, “rarity” is the driving force, whether it pertains to diamonds, colored stones or jewels by famous makers, and buyers around the world are willing to pay a premium for it.

Sloans: Capital Jewels

By Stephanie A. Kenyon, President, Sloans & Kenyon, Auctioneers and Appraisers

Signed Buccellati pearl and rose-cut diamond leaf design choker and matching drop earrings from the estate of Gladys Bendetsen auctioned by Sloans & Kenyon for $47,200 on Sept. 17, 2006.

Long before the nation’s capital became the world’s richest metropolitan area (yes, New York, Dallas and L.A., it’s true), well-heeled Washingtonians were known for their magnificent jewelry. Recall that legendary gold-mine heiress Evalyn Walsh McLean draped her neck, and occasionally that of her Great Dane, with the Hope Diamond! All through the Edwardian era and fabulous flapper fêtes of the 1920’s, and then the “Days of Camelot” and lavish entertaining of the Reagan era, stunning jewelry was – and remains – de rigueur at embassy soirées, inaugural balls and black-tie charity galas.

A stunning array of jewelry is available right here in Washington, some of which comes with bragging rights and even a touch of scandal. Jewelry from the estates of local luminaries has been auctioned over the years, including pieces once worn by Gladys Bendetsen (named one of Washington’s most attractive women in 1951), Baroness Constantine (“Garnett”) Stackelberg, Countess Adelaide d’Eudeville, and even Barbara Bullock (who embezzled teachers’ union funds to outfit herself in style).

Local residents have always favored beautiful baubles, especially at beautifully affordable prices. Bling from the finest makers, including Buccellati, Tiffany & Co., Cartier, and Van Cleef & Arpels, stars on the primary as well as secondary markets, supported by choice necklaces, bracelets, ear clips and rings by designers of only slightly less renown. Estate jewelry from the Victorian and Art Deco eras through the 1970’s is bountiful and obtainable at Washington auctions. A $5,000 bidding budget can secure a necklace resplendent with 88 diamonds, a pair of 19th-century gemstone encrusted platinum clips, or even a gentleman’s gold Cartier “panther head” ring. For $10,000 to $20,000, auction buyers might capture a carved 104-carat cabochon emerald brooch or a diamond floral “tremblant” pin sporting 123 brilliants.

It’s possible to build a collection of splendid pieces, each with its own story, right here in Washington – now more than ever a city of fashion and great taste, enhanced by the sparkle of beautiful and sophisticated jewelry.

Doyle: Investing in Gems

By Reid Dunavant, vice president/director of Doyle New York’s Washington, D.C. Office

Alexander Calder hammered silver fringe necklace, 1940. Sold at Doyle on Dec. 12, 2008 for $170,500 from the estate of William B.F. Drew.

We have found the auction market for jewelry in New York to be surprisingly resilient, even in times of economic uncertainty. Currently, global buyers are looking to jewelry, especially fine diamonds and signed pieces, as a tangible asset whose value has been proven to stay intact five, ten or 20 years hence. In this respect, jewelry is an antidote to the smoke-and-mirrors game many financial institutions are playing with their clients’ assets.

Intelligent buyers are also drawn to jewelry because they can truly understand the source of its value. They have done their research. They want the highest quality pieces by makers that will always reflect luxury: Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Tiffany & Co., and so on. When buying important jewelry directly at auction, as many individuals are starting to do, it is important to keep these factors in mind. If you do your homework, jewelry can be a integral part of diversifying your portfolio.

Doyle New York’s successful sale of Important Estate Jewelry on December 10 showed an unusually high percentage of top lots selling to private collectors, where formerly the majority of buyers had been dealers. Even as the art market softens, certain pieces of jewelry are positively influenced by cross-market appeal to the art world. In this sale, we had two pieces of hammered silver jewelry by Alexander Calder. Both far exceeded the high range of their estimates, reflecting the overall strength of the jewelry market and the resurgence of interest in this area of the artist’s work.

Christie’s: Hallmarks of a Great Collection

By Rahul Kadakia, senior vice president and head of jewelry, Christie’s

The late Doris Duke wears pieces auctioned at the $12 million Christie’s sale of jewels from her estate in June, 2004.

Great collections run throughout the ages and while they always contain a great gem or two – an important diamond, a beautiful sapphire or ruby or emerald – one usually sees a range of jewels and accessories from the Deco years. Among them might be signed bracelets, necklaces, and ear clips by the likes of Boucheron, Bulgari, Cartier and Van Cleef & Arpels plus simple, stylish pieces including gold chains, minaudières, lipstick holders, evening bags, and in some cases beautifully gem-set swizzle sticks for champagne flutes.

While the 1920s were a great period for jewelry manufacturing, the ’60s and ’70s were also notable for bold creations, especially by jewelers such as Harry Winston, an avid buyer and seller with a clientele that included royal and noble families and other prominent collectors throughout the world. A great jewel, however, does not always need to be associated with a famous maker (although it does add extra pizzazz). Its crafting will always tell you that it was created in a great workshop.

History and provenance are also important, a fact proven by the high prices achieved at auction for famous collections over the years. If you peruse past catalogues displaying photos of jewels once owned by Florence Gould, Vera Hue-Williams, Princess Salimah Aga Khan, Doris Duke, Princess Margaret, Ellen Barkin, and only recently Christina Onassis, one can’t help feeling transported by their taste and style and the interesting lives they led.

Such personal connections impact prices tremendously. For example, consider a single strand natural pearl necklace that sold at Christie’s Geneva in 1999. On its own, it might have achieved $200,000-$300,000, but since it had been previously owned by both Queen Marie-Antoinette and Woolworth heiress Barbara Hutton, the price skyrocketed to $1.5 million. Just last year in New York the Royal Baroda Pearls achieved a sensational $7.1 million. Naturally the pearls were very rare in their size and quality, but the provenance most definitely made all the difference in the price.

Thanks to major gifts from generous local residents, the Smithsonian Institution’s collection of historically important jewelry is one of the finest in the world

By Jeffrey E. Post • Photography by Len DePas

This 1920s Cartier Art Deco necklace with 393 natural Persian Gulf pearls was given to the Smithsonian by local donor Mrs. Arthur Wallace Dunn. The gold ear clips with Brazilian heliodores (golden beryl) were given by Helene Rubin, also of Washington, D.C.

Fifty years ago famed jeweler Harry Winston presented the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian Institution and the nation with the intention that it would be the cornerstone of a great National Gem Collection. The addition triggered a series of major gifts from generous individuals that have built the collection into the largest and finest of its kind in the world. It was appropriate that the diamond should return to the city that was such a part of its more recent history. After all, Evalyn Walsh McLean, queen of the Washington social scene in the ’20s and ’30s, and owner of the Hope Diamond from 1912 to 1947, added greatly to its fame and legend.
But there are many other Washingtonians who played critical roles in helping to build the National Gem Collection, perhaps most prominently Marjorie Merriweather Post and her daughters, who donated several iconic pieces such as the Napoleon Diadem and Necklace, Blue Heart Diamond, and Marie Antoinette earrings. Others include the unflappable Polly Logan, Mr. and Mrs. O. Roy Chalk, Libbie Moody Thompson, Mrs. Milton Turner, C. Thomas Clagett, Mrs. H. V. Rubin and Frances Miller Seay.

The Logan Sapphire

This magnificent 423-carat gem, mined in Sri Lanka and one of the world’s largest faceted blue sapphires (it is approximately the size of an egg), is the heaviest mounted stone in the Smithsonian’s collection. It was donated in 1960 by Polly Logan, a noted Washington hostess who had received it from her first spouse, Col. M. Robert Guggenheim, a mining and smelting fortune heir, ambassador to Portugal and notorious philanderer. Once asked by a friend how she could ever part with such a fabulous jewel, Mrs. Logan replied, “Every time I looked at it, all I could think of was my no good, cheating husband.”

The Chalk Emerald

The superb clarity and deep green color of this 37.8-carat stone ranks it among the very finest Colombian emeralds. According to legend, it was once the centerpiece of a necklace belonging to a maharani of Baroda in India. It was re-cut by Harry Winston and set in a ring surrounded by 60 pear-shaped diamonds (totaling 15 carats) then purchased by O. Roy Chalk, an entrepreneur whose holdings included the Washington bus and trolley systems. His wife Claire was fond of telling how she once endeavored to conceal the ring in the receiving line for a White House state dinner honoring Britain’s Queen Elizabeth II. It was bigger than anything Her Majesty was wearing that night, Mrs. Chalk told friends, and she didn’t wish to embarrass her. The Chalks gave the ring to the Smithsonian in 1972.

Marjorie Merriweather Post’s Wonderful Gifts

The fabulously rich Post Toasties heiress lived like a queen and had jewelry to match. In fact, much of her collection was of royal provenance. In 1964, after deciding to donate several of the most historical pieces to the Smithsonian, Mrs. Post showed up in the office of then-Secretary S. Dillon Ripley to personally deliver them. He later told of his profound astonishment when she pulled them out of a brown paper grocery bag.

The Marie-Antoinette Earrings

Although we don’t really know what connection these diamonds had to France’s ill-fated queen, tradition has it that the pear-shaped Indian (or Brazilian) stones, weighing 20.34 and 14.25 carats respectively, were among her favorite jewels. Whether or not they disappeared when the royal family tried to flee Paris in 1791, or after the mob sacked the Tuileries in 1792, they ended up in the possession of the Youssoupoff family of Russia, who sold them to jeweler Pierre Cartier in 1928. Mrs. Post purchased them the same year to wear on the occasion of her presentation at the Court of St. James and later presented them to her daughter, Eleanor Close Barzin, who gave them to the Smithsonian in 1964.

The Marie-Louise Diadem

Commissioned in 1810 by Napoleon Bonaparte as a wedding gift to his second wife, Marie Louise, the diadem was originally set with emeralds, which were replaced in the 1950s with Persian turquoise. It was originally part of a parure that included a necklace, comb, earrings and belt buckle. Marie Louise bequeathed the diadem to her Hapsburg aunt, Archduchess Elise, whose descendant, Archduke Karl Stefan, sold it to Van Cleef & Arpels in 1953. Mrs. Post purchased the diadem for the Smithsonian in 1971 but reserved the right to wear it on a number of occasions, including at the Red Cross Ball in Palm Beach.

The Napoleon Diamond Necklace

Napoleon presented this spectacular 263-carat piece containing 28 large old mine diamonds to Empress Marie-Louise after the birth of their son in 1811. At her death it passed to Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, who sent it to New York to be sold in 1929. An unscrupulous merchant priced it far below market value and returned only $16,000 to the owner before absconding with the rest of the money. A major scandal ensued after which it was returned to the archduchess. In 1948, another family member, Prince Franz Josef of Liechtenstein, sold it to a French collector who in turn sold it to Harry Winston in 1960. Mrs. Post acquired it from Winston and presented it to the Smithsonian in 1962.

The Blue Heart Diamond

If the Smithsonian didn’t have the Hope, a diamond called the Blue Heart would be the star of the collection. The world’s third largest and finest dark-blue diamond weighs 30.62 carats, about two-thirds the size of the Hope Diamond. The stone is sometimes mistakenly referred to as the “Eugenie Blue” after Empress Eugenie of France, the empress consort of Napoleon III, but she could never have owned this diamond because it was discovered only in 1908. About a year later, the 102-carat stone was cut and eventually sold to an Argentinean family by the name of Unzue. It stayed in their possession until the 1950s when it was acquired by Van Cleef & Arpels and sold to a German baron. In 1959, the Blue Heart was set into a ring by Harry Winston, who sold it to Mrs. Post. She gave it to the Smithsonian in 1964.

The Maximilian Emerald

This 21-carat emerald was once set in a ring worn by Mexico’s ill-fated Emperor Maximilian, the Austrian archduke whose misguided attempt to rule Mexico ended in his assassination in 1864. The emerald’s present setting by Cartier is enhanced by six baguette diamonds. Donated by Mrs. Post in 1964.

Karin Tanabe explores Michelle Obama’s modern style and the fashionable women who came before her

Michelle Obama, wearing an Isabel Toledo lemongrass day coat and dress, waves to the enthusiastic crowd gathered on the Inaugural Parade route. (Photo by Justin Sullivan, Getty Images)

Michelle Obama brings a refreshingly modern style to Washington. Loyal, as Pat Nixon was, to American designers, Mrs. Obama has helped lesser known names like Jason Wu, who designed her inauguration gown, and Chicago-based Maria Pinto, make headlines. When her daughters wore J. Crew coats, and she J.Crew gloves, during her husband’s swearing in ceremony, the company’s shares went up 10 percent the following day. At the inaugural balls, Mrs. Obama dressed with appropriate glamour, wearing 61-carat white gold and triple rose cut diamond earrings by Los Angeles-based jewelry designer Loree Rodkin. The jewelry was on loan to the first lady and will be donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History.

While conjuring images of first lady elegance in the White House, fond memories recall the timeless grace of Jacqueline Kennedy and the Hollywood glamour of Nancy Reagan. Mrs. Kennedy exuded chic by wearing the fashions of domestic designers, like Oleg Cassini, and classic French couturiers like Chanel and Dior. Mrs. Reagan was loyal to American designer James Galanos, but also looked across the pond to Yves Saint Laurent and Valentino. Arriving on the heels of one of the most frugal first ladies ever, Rosalynn Carter (who even brought a sewing machine with her to Pennsylvania Avenue), Nancy Reagan dressed with unapologetic glamour. Her wardrobe for her husband’s second inauguration was estimated at $46,000.
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Thoughts on Three Generations of The Social List of Washington.

By William Rolle

Helen Ray Hagner started her Washington “Social List” in 1930. She responded to what she believed to be a deficiency in the traditional blueblood social lists that did not register power brokers or foreign diplomats. Each new Presidential administration came with a whole new group of people whom no one had properly ranked or kept track of.

In addition to the old-family “cave dwellers”, there were government officials and the diplomats, who have an interior pecking order that no social seating could ignore. The diplomats have to be seated according to how long they have held their respective posts in Washington. The list also had to keep track of the “fanny pinchers” and “bad drunks” to maintain a good seating arrangement. Mrs. Hagner kept a file on them in code and in a secure place to protect their privacy.

From the very beginning, those who made the list (apart from officialdom) went through a selection process by an anonymous board. Some believed then as some believe today, that the board was a fiction. Social climbers sent cases of whiskey and roses to no avail. “Unpleasant notoriety” also got you removed from the list as it does today.

Through the years, the greatest Green Book service has been in seating dinners. Guests have been known to leave when they have not been seated according to their rank. Things get really fuzzy when government luminaries get seated with diplomats. The State Department did not (and still does not) issue an official list of precedence. William Howard Taft’s wife was a stickler for such things. She tried to organize a list of precedence, but was rebuffed by the Senate. Rumor has it that its members were loath to be outranked by anyone. So, it was left to the Green Book to ferret out the unofficial order.

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How the Hope Diamond came to Washington

By Donna Evers

The Hope Diamond today, as seen at the Smithsonian.

 The legendary Hope Diamond rotates slowly behind a thick wall of bullet-proof glass, reflecting the halogen lighting in flashes of brilliance as it moves. It is the most popular exhibit in the Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum for three reasons: its magnificence, its value and the famous curse. The gem is said to bring misfortune and death to anyone who owns it.

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The saga of the Walsh-McLean house is one the greatest rags-to-riches stories from Washington’s Gilded Age.

By Donna Evers

The Walsh-McLean residence housed the Federal Writers Project during the New Deal, was used by the Red Cross during World War II, and became the Indonesian Embassy in 1951. The 60-room mansion was designed in the Beaux Arts style and completed in 1902. Photograph, Deedy Ogden.

Thomas Walsh emigrated to the United States from in Ireland in 1869 at the age of 19 with empty pockets and a drive to succeed. He went out west to seek his fortune, and he found it. He struck gold in, of all places, a silver mine in Colorado in the late 1880’s. At its peak, the mine was producing $5,000 dollars worth of gold daily. In 1903, he sold it for $5 million, plus a percentage of its phenomenal annual output, and moved to Dupont circle.

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