Diamonds are forever, but their settings don’t need to be. And French socialite/Singer sewing machine heiress/fashion plate Daisy Fellowes knew that: In 1936, she commissioned Cartier to combine one of her necklaces and two mismatched bracelets into a single piece based on a collar the jeweler had made for the Maharajah of Patna. The result was a 1,000-stone platinum choker set with faceted diamonds, rubies, sapphires, and emeralds carved to resemble leaves, flowers, and tiny melons; Cartier christened it the Collier Hindou. “Daisy was one of the liberated heiresses of that period,” says ­jewelry historian Joyce Jonas. “They cut their hair and cut their dresses and did all kinds of stuff. The story of this particular necklace is in how she changed it.” Daisy didn’t stop there. In 1963, she hired Cartier to refashion the necklace for her daughter, the future Comtesse de Castéja. The new version, renamed a Tutti Frutti by Cartier, sold at auction nearly 40 years later for $2 million—then the highest price ever paid for a Cartier jewel.

More vintage pics from JCKonline.com:
+ Carol Channing’s Head Trip
+ A ‘Visit’ With Actress/Bulgari Fan Ingrid Bergman
+ The Suite Life of Joan Crawford