'King of Sugilite' pendant in platinum, white gold, diamond and sugelite by Dior Joaillerie, designed by Victoire de Castellane. Part of the 2009 Reines et Rois Haute Joaillerie collection of 20 one-of-a-kind pieces, featuring ten queen rings and ten king pendants. Each with names evoking the stones that make up this imaginary kingdom. Now all sold to private buyers, this is the first time any piece of the collection has become available. A work of art of exceptional quality, craftsmanship and rarity. Complete with original box, certificate and receipt from Dior Paris. Originally purchased by a private buyer for $415,000 US, this irreplaceable masterpiece is offered for sale as an investment purchase opportunity.

Reines et Roi premiered at Diors world famous Townhouse, 30 avenue Montaigne, Paris. The spectacular exhibition of all 20 pieces from the collection invited viewers to enter a darkened room where they discovered all the kings and queens floating in dark windows to ghostly effect. The lighting process for this exhibition was complex and sophisticated, befitting the very fine, other worldly floating jewels. Viewers were given a compendium of the collection. This compendium can be sent to you as a pdf for further reading, by request.

"The skulls on these festive figures - borrowed from the Vanities of the Baroque era which beckoned us to become aware of the passing of time and therefore to enjoy life to the full - are sculpted in ornamental stones traditionally attributed with their own stores and beliefs: Chrysolite or 'cat's eye' used in the Middle Ages to embellish church ornaments; Jasper, worn as an amulet in Antiquity to cure headaches and Jade, whose virtues are reportedly beneficial for the kidneys...

Giving free rein to a powerful creativity decidedly liberated from any useless repetition, here Victoire de Castellane subjects her imagination to an extravagant constraint by not calling upon her talents as a colourist and only using platinum and diamonds. The headdresses, crowns, ruffs, necklaces and pendants on these royal figures, entangled in a meticulous platinum mesh-work requiring many setting techniques - including the most ancient rediscovered by the ateliers - thus assemble myriads of diamonds, also elaborated according to extraordinary varied cutting techniques. Sculpting the light and modelling their brilliancy, they compose a phenomenal crystalline and silvered polyphony sometimes enhanced by the sparkling iridescence of pearls.

The united and triumphant skulls of these royal figures emerge from this spectacular mono-chromatic opera as phantom-like and unreal as King Hamlets skull, named by Shakespeare as 'The Ghost'"

79.30g platinum. 4.65g white gold (clasp). 30.09 grams sugelite. 21.26 carats of diamond, F-G colour, VVS-VS clarity. 473 diamonds.