Just over sixty years ago, Viscountess Nancy Astor passed away, leaving behind a legacy as political as it was jeweled. This month, one of her most spectacular jewels, the Nancy Astor’s Cartier tiara set with turquoises and diamonds, resurfaces on the market for the first time at Bonhams in London.
Born Nancy Witcher Langhorne in Danville, Virginia, Nancy Astor was one of the most influential female figures of the 20th century. The first woman to take her seat in the British Parliament in 1919, she was a brilliant orator and a leading social figure, but she also embodied a certain English art de vivre, where elegance and conviction went hand in hand. Her symbolic attributes include a number of legendary tiaras.
One of them, however, has never before been presented at public auction: an oriental-inspired Cartier tiara, adorned with carved turquoise and diamonds, made in the 1930s for Lady Astor. This rare and bewitching piece will be auctioned on June 5, 2025 at Bonhams London, with an estimate of between £250,000 and £350,000.
A unique creation in Cartier history
The tiara, now known as the “Astor Turquoise Tiara”, was originally a diamond band that was enriched by Cartier London in 1930. At the jeweler’s request, his London workshop – English Art Works – added carved turquoise elements: fluted feathers, stylized leaves and radiating panels. These ornaments, directly inspired by Indian, Persian and Egyptian decorative art, testify to Cartier’s taste for oriental motifs at the time.
The set, of rare visual harmony, was registered in the Cartier archives in November 1930 and sold the following month to Viscount Astor, probably as a Christmas gift to his wife.
A jewel at the crossroads of worlds
It was at the London premiere of Charlie Chaplin’s film City Lights in 1931 that Nancy Astor first wore this tiara publicly, photographed with Chaplin himself and George Bernard Shaw. She later lent it to her sister Phyllis Langhorne Brand, for an official presentation at Buckingham Palace.
This family gesture inspired a new chapter: in 1935, Phyllis’s husband, Robert Henry Brand, commissioned a second turquoise and diamond tiara from Cartier, in the same spirit as Nancy’s. This “sister tiara” is now part of the Cartier collection. This “sister tiara” now belongs to the Cartier collection and is currently on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, having traveled to Dallas, the Louvre Abu Dhabi, and several major exhibitions.
Nancy Astor's Cartier tiara: A fragment of history at auction
Lady Astor’s turquoise tiara, now on sale, features a central brilliant-cut diamond, flanked by three turquoise plumes, each set with single-cut and brilliant-cut diamond stems. On either side, fan-shaped panels, also cut in turquoise, frame the composition in a spectacular setting.
This tiara is not only a masterpiece of Art Deco jewelry: it tells a story of visionary women, intimate commissions, shared family tastes, and a strong link between America and England, embodied by Nancy Astor herself.
