Inside the Spectacular Gems and Jewelry Exhibit at Hillwood

Because you know jewelry completes the outfit.

Currently on view at the Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens is a new exhibit, Spectacular Gems and Jewelry from the Merriweather Post Collection.

The exhibit displays jewelry from Marjorie Merriweather Post’s coveted personal collection, which includes pieces from Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpeels, Harry Winston, and Verdura.

As Kate Markert, Hillwood’s executive director explained to K Street Magazine, this socialite and collector had many pieces custom-made just for her.

Standout pieces are a tiara that Marjorie Merriweather Post wore for the Red Cross Ball, another tiara that featured coils that inserted in to create movement, a hummingbird brooch made out of rubies, diamonds, gold, and silver, a bracelet paying homage to the moon goddess Diana, and two pieces of jewelry that each had a gigantic peridot stealing the show.

Marjorie Merriweather Post had high standards for jewelry, which she was encouraged to learn from her father so that she wouldn’t be ripped off. She knew what a good emerald was. Her expectations for a piece of jewelry, according to Markert, were that it needed to be beautiful, perfectly crafted, and possess a royal provenance.

The result is an exhibit that showcases the importance of jewelry in a woman’s fashion collection and that this jewelry, when picked carefully, can tell stories about the wearer.

The exhibit will be on view until January 1, 2018.

*Images courtesy Hillwood Estate, Museum & Gardens.  Photographs by Square Moose, Inc.