We are delighted to be selling a small collection of costume jewellery given to the vendor’s mother by the ‘queen of romance’ herself, Dame Barbara Cartland. More than 30 pieces will be offered in five lots on 26 April in our Jewellery, Designer Handbags and Accessories Auction.
17 April 2023
The sellers’ mother, Hazel Clark worked for Dame Barbara from 1973 to 1995 with the items received over two decades as gifts for birthdays or Christmas.
Hazel went to work for Dame Barbara having seen a small advert in the local paper. Based at the writer’s home in Camfield Place in Essendon, Hertfordshire, she worked first as a secretary, predominately employed to type the final manuscripts before they went off for publication. At the time Mrs Waller was her personal assistant and Mrs Elliot the secretary who took down Dame Barbara’s words in shorthand during a two-hour dictation each day in the library. There was also a large amount of ‘fan mail’ to reply to and many signed photographs to send.
Allan warren, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Hazel stayed at Camfield Place for 22 years, eventually becoming Dame Barbara’s personal assistant before she retired. On occasion, when the author went on holiday, she would ask Hazel and her family to stay and look after the house. The vendor recalls decorating the Christmas tree as a girl and, when she was married, was loaned Dame Barbara’s Rolls Royce and chauffeur as a wedding car.
A costume jewellery suite, signed Ciner (£80 - £120)
The costume jewellery received as gifts, numbering between four and 11 pieces per lot, have modest estimates. Typical is a parure (teardrop necklace, bracelet, earrings, ring) by New York firm Ciner in a faux ruby paste and clear paste guided at £80-100.
To view the full catalogue for our 26 April Jewellery, Designer Handbags and Accessories Auction click here.
For more information, please contact jewellery@sworder.co.uk
A major highlight of our forthcoming Dreams – A Unique Private Collection sale on 9 July is a remarkable archive of letters and manuscripts by John Ruskin (1819–1900), the celebrated Victorian polymath. This unparalleled group – numbering in the hundreds – is believed to be the largest collection of Ruskin correspondence in private hands and spans a vast range of topics from art and architecture to politics, religion, and personal reflection.
2 July 2025
'The Scented Garden of Abdullah the Satirist of Shiraz' - also known as 'The Bagh-i-Muattar' - quickly caught the attention of our book specialists, when a copy bound in full vellum was brought in by a local client to our weekly valuation day.
2 July 2025
We are thrilled to launch The Glass Sale - a brand-new addition to our auction calendar! The inaugural sale will take place on Tuesday 28 October and will become a biannual fixture in our calendar going forward.
20 June 2025