(IDEX Online) - An aristocrat's novelty pig-shaped ruby and diamond evening bag fetched $150,000 at auction - way above its high estimate of just $4,000.
The 1905 piece, made by the Paris-based Lacloche Frères, has eyes set with cabochon rubies, the tail and trotters set with rose-cut diamonds and a line of cushion-shaped diamonds along the spine.
Sotheby's London offered the bag in a sale of jewelry and heirlooms owned by the late Countess Mountbatten of Burma, a first cousin of the Duke of Edinburgh, and a great-great-granddaughter of Queen Victoria. She died in 2017.
Other items in the auction included Queen Victoria's mourning jewels, which sold for $138,000 and her late husband's customized 1967 Jaguar 420, which fetched $172,000. The sale yesterday netted a total of $7.7m.
Pic courtesy Sotheby's ...