Deirdre McQuillan's style file
HOT ROCKS One of the most striking aspects of wealthy and powerful jewellery collectors, as recounted in a new book, is how much time they spent getting their pieces reworked and redesigned. The prima donna Renata Tebaldi, for instance, had all her gold jewels from one period melted down, and a diamond bib necklace broken up to make new pieces. The Duchess of Marlborough, whose taste for simple pieces later became more elaborate and opulent, had a necklace set with 14 diamonds weighing over 130 carats. Daisy Fellowes was Cartier's biggest buyer of Indian-style jewels, while Barbara Hutton, the Woolworth heiress, adored jade. So vast was the Duchess of Windsor's jewellery collection that it fetched more than $3l million at auction in 1987. Most of the information in Famous Jewelry Collectors comes from the auction houses. A story was told about how the Duchess of Windsor acquired a pair of cabochon and emerald diamond anklets from the Maharajah of Baroda and had them remade as a necklace which she wore to a masked ball in Paris. The Maharani attended the same ball and recalled that the jewels used to be her anklets. The Duchess never wore the necklace again.
Famous Jewelry Collectors by Stefano Papi and Alexandra Rhodes is published by Thames & Hudson (£17.95 in UK)
RUBADUBDUB Rubber washing-up gloves decorated with pearls and a leopard print trim (from Stock, 33 South King Street €26.50) are a guaranteed way to lessen the load for fashion-conscious domestic goddesses. Now Marks & Spencer has a new household range called Desperate Housewives, no doubt inspired by the television series, that features zebra-print brooms, brushes and even dustpans. (€17, €14 and €8 respectively) There is also a blue flexible silicone tray (€14) for all those dainty buns you want to cook, a country-living jug with fake flowers (€40) and a patchwork quilt (€155) in the same range.