It was the first valuable diamond necklace fashioned in the United States, and Leland Stanford wanted to give it to his wife on their 26th anniversary. So, when the couple traveled east in 1876 for the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition, Leland bought the "Riviera demi-parure" from Tiffany's. It was the beginning of Mrs. Stanford's collection of Tiffany bijoux that grew to include three sets of Spanish crown jewels and six strands of pearls from Empress Eugénie of France. The collection earned her a nickname: the American Queen of Diamonds.
All that remains of the collection is a peeling painting of 34 exquisite baubles. Mrs. Stanford commissioned the life-size rendering in 1897 as a way to remember the jewels, which she planned to sell to bolster the University's precarious finances. The original is stored in the basement of the Cantor museum, but a reprint appears in John Loring's new book Tiffany Jewels (Harry N. Abrams, 1999), which tells the story of Tiffany's decadent creations and the Gilded Age women who wore them. Mrs. Stanford's jewels were sold, and Tiffany experts say their whereabouts are a mystery. But the proceeds went to a nobler purpose -- an endowment to buy library books. Its name? The Jewel Fund.
