Sir Dudley Richard Forwood was taken aback one evening when he saw Wallis Simpson, the Duchess of Windsor, “beautifully dressed as always but blazing with rings, earrings, brooches, bracelets, and necklaces, and almost stooping under their weight.” Teasing her lightly, he asked, “Ma’am I wonder if you aren’t wearing a few too many jewels?”
According to biographer Anne Sebba, Simpson’s answer was resolute. “You forget that I am the Duchess of Windsor,” she replied. “I shall never let the Duke down.”
In collaboration with her husband, Edward, Duke of Windsor (formerly King Edward VIII), the scandalous Simpson, a twice-divorced American for whom Edward gave up the crown, created one of the most daring, extravagant, and unique jewelry collections of the 20th century. Famous for pairing giant modern jewels with perfectly tailored, streamlined couture, her gemstones often had an intoxicating effect on her high society friends.
“Alec Guinness remembers meeting the Duchess at a party in Paris, and as an actor he had never forgotten the theatrical impact of her amazing yellow diamond. He was unable to take his eyes off it. He describes it as having looked like a huge and delicious, gleaming candy,” Caroline Blackwood writes in The Last of the Duchess. “He was seized by a childish longing to eat it. The Duchess was wearing a simple black Mainbocher suit and not one other piece of jewelry on that occasion.”
Perennially at the top of the world’s best-dressed list, Simpson’s love of symbolic, often avant-garde jewelry made a lasting impact on designers and the public at large. “Her style revolutionized the way high society women wore jewelry: bold layering, modern shapes, and hidden messages were all part of her jewelry language,” Guilhem Merolle writes in Collectissim.
It was a style ethos she shared with her husband. By the time their torrid affair was in full swing in 1934, fashion writer Justine Picardie notes in Fashioning the Crown that his father, King George V, learned that Edward had already given his paramour around 110,000 pounds in jewels (around $13.4 million today).
Simpson was still married to her second husband, but Lady Diana Cooper noted she was “glittering, and dripped in new jewels and clothes,” which her husband, Ernest, had to pay to insure. According to Sebba in That Woman: The Life of Wallis Simpson, Britain's aristocracy could not believe that the heir to the throne was spending so much money on his American mistress.
“Diarist Mrs. [Marie] Belloc Lowndes assumed when she saw Wallis…that it must be costume jewelry,” Sebba writes. “Those in the know put her right, as they ‘screeched with laughter exclaiming that all the jewels were real, that the then Prince of Wales had given her fifty thousand pounds’ worth at Christmas, following it up with sixty thousand pounds’ worth of jewels a week later at the New Year.’ This was a staggering amount.”
Edward did not just buy the jewels, he obsessively helped design their Art Deco settings, forming a collaborative relationship with Jeanne Toussaint of Cartier and Renee Puissant of Van Cleef & Arpels, according to The Jewels of the Duchess of Windsor. He was accused of using loose jewels from the royal family collection and was suspected of taking the official crown jewels, even of stealing a magnificent set of emeralds from his paternal grandmother, Queen Alexandra (though this accusation was never proved).
Even becoming King Edward VIII in January 1936 did not stop the lovestruck royal. To celebrate Simpson’s 40th birthday that June, he used Indian rubies and diamonds that he had collected on a trip, collaborating with Van Cleef & Arpels for a magnificent platinum necklace engraved with the inscription “My Wallis from her David 19 VI 36.” (In 1939, Simpson redesigned the iconic piece into a woven waterfall design in the style of a tassel.)
On October 27, 1936, the now king proposed to Simpson with a Cartier platinum ring featuring a massive 19.77-carat emerald (once been owned by an Indian emperor) surrounded by small diamonds. Inside the band was the inscription, “We are ours now 27 x 36.”
The ring was a symbol of what was to come. On December 11, 1936, Edward abdicated the throne, and on June 3, 1937, the newly styled Duke and Duchess of Windsor were married in Monts, Indre-et-Loire, France. Self-centered and obsessed with style, the jet-setting couple continued to acquire jewels in France even as Europe descended into war. On their way to the Bahamas in 1940, where the duke would serve as governor, Simpson sported one of her new creations, a blazing Cartier flamingo brooch, encrusted with diamonds, emeralds, citrines, rubies, and sapphires.
But much of Simpson's early collection would be stolen during a now infamous unsolved burglary in the fall of 1946, when the duke and duchess visited Laura, the Duchess of Dudley at the time who later became the Duchess of Marlborough, and her husband at Ednam Lodge. On their visit, Simpson arrived with a case of priceless jewels. “The butler’s prudent suggestion that this trunkful of things surely to be found in an Aladdin’s cave should be put in the strong room was rejected by the Duchess,” the Duchess of Marlborough wrote later in her autobiography, Laughter From a Cloud, according to Blackwood. “Her jewel case, she said, would remain, as it always did, under her maid’s bed!”
The case quickly disappeared, including the new Cartier flamingo brooch. Simpson was livid. According to the Duchess of Marlborough, she showed “an unpleasant and to me unexpected side of her character.… She wanted all the servants put through a kind of third degree. But I would have none of this, all of them except for one kitchen maid being old and devoted staff of long standing.… The Duke was both demented with worry and near to tears.”
In agony, the Duke of Windsor hid a sapphire and ruby brooch featuring their entwined initials that Simpson had been wearing during the burglary, before the distressed party went out on a walk. But when they returned, he could not remember where he had put it and panicked. "We stayed up most of the night; he obviously feared to go to bed empty-handed,” the Duchess of Marlborough recalled in her autobiography. “At about 5 a.m. by some miracle we found it, under a China ornament. Never have I seen a man so relieved.”
For months, Simpson seethed about the burglary. “The Duchess continues to talk of nothing but her robbery…and how she has nothing left,” Lady Hartington (John F. Kennedy's sister Kathleen), recalled.
But with a massive 400,000 pounds payout from their insurance company, the couple were able to rebuild their collection into something even grander. Writer Richard Wallis believes that the Windsors may have arranged the robbery for a large insurance payday. Others believe they greatly exaggerated the number of missing pieces. “I believe the Duchess of Windsor defrauded the insurers by overstating the numbers and identifications of the jewels which had been disposed of,” historian Leslie Field told Tatler in 2024. She also noted that around 30 pieces they claimed had been stolen were later auctioned after Simpson’s death.
Whatever the truth, the Duchess of Windsor’s collection soon became legendary, as did her rules surrounding jewels. She had stones recut because she preferred modern settings, and adored pinkish red coral. She was also fond of diamonds, and often wore a 50-carat diamond ring, which Blackwood writes was nicknamed Dookess’ Big Ice.
“She also collected priceless rubies from Burma and Ceylon,” Blackwood writes. “She acquired many aquamarines because at some point she had been told they were her birthstone. The Duchess was always keen to have some very good reason for the jewels that were in her possession. Later when she read in women’s magazines that some astrologers believed that pearls—while others maintained that moonstones—were the valid birthstones for June, the month of her birth, the Duchess solved the problem this conflicting news presented by obtaining extra sets of pearls and moonstones, in addition to a few new sets of aquamarines.”
There were some stones Simpson avoided, despite her husband’s taste. According to Blackwood, the duke often urged his wife to wear opals because it suited her “elusive and complex personality.” But Simpson, who had a superstitious nature that she attributed to her southern background, believed that opals brought bad luck.
But there were many things the Windsors agreed on and helped to popularize, especially their love of Cartier’s iconic panther designs. “Toussaint and the Duke collaborated on many jewelry projects for the Duchess, and her post-war ‘Great Cat’ jewels were the inspiration of Toussaint, herself known as La Panthère, and Cartier designer Peter Lemarchand,” John Clume and Nicholas Rayner write in The Jewels of the Duchess of Windsor. “One of the most striking of these brooches features a sapphire and diamond panther astride an enormous Kashmir sapphire; bought and made in 1949 ‘for stock’ but with the Duchess in mind.”
As Sebba notes, Simpson also popularized the bold “bib” style necklace, which often included daring combinations of brightly colored gemstones. Most impressive were a 1945 Cartier necklace set with rubies and emeralds, and an iconic 1947 Cartier “bib” featuring turquoise, amethysts, and diamonds. They also purchased heritage jewels, such as a 31.26- carat cushion cut diamond solitaire ring, once owned by Evalyn Walsh McLean, owner of the “cursed” Hope Diamond.
The couple’s avant-garde taste also pushed more creative, “sculptural” jewelry designers into the forefront. One legendary necklace was created by French designer Suzanne Belperron. “This Art Moderne set includes two double-fluted bracelets adorned with blue chalcedony balls, old-cut diamonds and sapphires, as well as a necklace with a double strand of chalcedony pearls,” Merolle writes. “The flower-shaped articulated clasp is set with a sapphire cabochon surrounded by old-cut diamonds, all mounted in platinum.”
But not everything the duchess wore was obscenely grand. Simpson also popularized snail-shaped nautical ear clips, which she purchased from Fulco di Verdura's Fifth Avenue boutique, many of them designed by David Webb. The Windsors continued to create highly personal pieces symbolizing their enduring love. In 1957, the duke gave the duchess a heart-shaped diamond brooch including the initials W and E, with a ruby crown pointedly sitting atop the heart.
Despite their obsessive purchasing, according to historian Andrew Lownie, by the 1950s, the Windsors often failed to pay their massive bills from the great jewelry houses. But aware that having the world’s most stylish woman sporting their pieces was good for business, they let the duchess “borrow” elaborate pieces. Although Lownie claims they were rarely returned. "Rarely,” one Windsor servant noted, “was anything ever handed back.”
As the years went by, Simpson took her role as a trend-setting style icon more and more seriously. According to The Jewels of the Duchess of Windsor, in 1957 the Windsors purchased an Indian emerald drop necklace from Harry Winston. At a reception, Sita Devi, Maharani of Baroda (known as the Indian Wallis Simpson) noticed that the necklace Simpson was wearing had once been an anklet that she had recently sold. “My dear, have you seen,” the maharani said loudly, “she is wearing the beads I used to have on my feet.” The Windsors returned the necklace to Harry Winston the next day.
After the duke’s death in 1972, the duchess, in increasingly poor health, fretted about what to do with her massive collection. “Although both the Duke and Duchess had apparently agreed that no other woman was to wear the jewelry, which they wanted broken up and reset, they did not leave written instructions for this,” Sebba writes. According to Blackwood, Simpson also feared that the British royal family wanted her jewels, believing they thought some of the gems had been part of the royal collection. “Everything that I own is mine,” Simpson told a friend, according to Blackwood. “I don’t care what the royal family thinks. All the jewelry the Duke gave me is mine and I could melt it down if I felt like it.”
The situation became murkier as French lawyer Suzane Blum took increasing control over the affairs of Simpson, who had become increasingly paranoid and befuddled. According to Blackwood, friends, shut out by Blum, claimed they had seen pieces of Simpson’s collection at auction at Sotheby’s in New York, and they believed Blum was selling off the jewels without Simpson’s consent. After Simpson’s death in 1986, her estate (led by Blum, the executor) auctioned off more than 230 lots of jewels and other pieces at a massive two-day sale at Sotheby’s in Geneva. Simpson had reportedly designated that the proceeds go to the Institut Pasteur in Paris to fund biomedical and medical research.
The Duchess of Windsor Sale, held on April 2 and 3, 1987, was an international event, with more than 1,000 bidders crowded into a tent by Lake Geneva, while 600 more participated in New York, eager to get their hands on “the alternative crown jewels.” Designer Calvin Klein purchased a natural pearl and diamond necklace, while Joan Collins bought a sapphire pendant. Elizabeth Taylor paid around $565,000 for an iconic diamond and platinum brooch in the shape of the Prince of Wales’ feathers, while an anonymous bidder purchased Simpson’s emerald engagement ring for $1.98 million.
The sale was an astounding success, bringing in a record breaking $50 million. Those who could not afford the real things purchased costume jewelry versions, which were sold at department stores in the United States. Since the sale, some of the pieces have again come up for auction. In 2010, another record was broken when Simpson’s Cartier onyx and diamond panther bracelet sold at Sotheby’s for $7 million.
Cutting edge, cold, and glittering, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor’s greatest legacy may have been their shared passion for putting together a collection that rivaled the one the duke would have owned had he not abdicated the throne for love. Through their acquisition of some of the world’s most priceless jewels, they perhaps thought that through their gems, they had proved to the world that it was worth it.
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