It was 1901 when Minnesota railroad magnate James J. Hill gave his daughter Charlotte a very heartfelt gift: a diamond locket in the shape of a heart. The pendant and an accompanying diamond bracelet were sentimental highlights of the Magnificent Jewels auction at Sotheby’s in New York City late last year.
“The diamond heart came in the most lovely velvet box,” says Robin Wright, Sotheby’s vice president and jewelry specialist. On the outside are Charlotte’s initials monogrammed in gold, while the inside reads Tiffany & Co. Offered by a direct descendent of the family, the bracelet and pendant pair sold for $22,500 to an undisclosed buyer.
The year 1901 was a pivotal time in Charlotte’s life. Her wedding to Yale graduate George Theron Slade was the social event of the season. Carriages pulled up to the grand Hill mansion on St. Paul’s Summit Avenue for the noon ceremony. Some 300 guests gathered in the drawing room to witness the vows then adjourned to the dining room for a wedding feast. White roses and green chrysanthemums adorned the house, plucked from the onsite greenhouse.
“This home was surely the grandest residence of its day,” says Lindsey Dyer, manager of the James J. Hill House. “People were curious about every detail of this event.” Newspaper accounts describe Charlotte’s dress as “an exquisite plain white satin gown with thin yoke at both front and back.” She was known to travel to New York and Paris, where she sketched favorite fashions to be recreated back in Minnesota.
It’s not clear if the heart locket was meant to be a wedding gift. Hill purchased it in 1900 from a New York jeweler. A ruby flag brooch and a brown diamond were also listed on the invoice.
For the auction, the pavé heart was attached to the diamond line bracelet, which features European-cut stones. “They don’t look like they match exactly,” Wright observes, surmising that the two were coupled at a later date. However the heirlooms came together, they moved past Minnesota and out into the greater world — an homage to a lavish way of life high on a St. Paul hill.
