Pearl Lover

Top Photo by Cecil Beaton / Condé Nast Archive

Born in Kentucky, Mona Bismarck was one of the most influential tastemakers of all time.  She was famous equally for her beauty and fashion sense, particularly her trademark silver hair and pearls. Mona was the first American to be declared the Best Dressed Woman in the World in 1933, a distinction bestowed upon her by Paris designers Chanel, Molyneux, Vionnet, Lelong, and Lanvin.

Mona Bismarck. Photo by Cecil Beaton. Vogue, July 1, 1939

She  married five times  and  “she always married better and better,” says James Birchfield, author of the biography Kentucky Countess.  Mona’s marriages propelled her upwards in society. As Vogue described, she ascended quickly by marrying a series of older, wealthier men. She acquired the aristocratic title of countess by marrying Eddie Bismarck, a grandson of the German chancellor Otto von Bismarck, in 1955 and she reached its pinnacle with her third marriage to Harrison Williams, who was known as the richest man in America, if not the world.

Cole Porter immortalized her in his song “Ridin’ High” and wrote the line, delivered by Ethel Merman: “What do I care if Mrs Harrison Williams is the best dressed woman in town?” in the 1936 Broadway musical Red, Hot and Blue.  While Truman Capote satirized her  in Answered Prayers.

Mona in Palm Beach. From Vogue, April 1, 1931. Photo by Cecil Beaton / Conde Nast Archive

Salvador Dalí’s “The Portrait of Mrs. Harrison Williams (1943), depicts the famous countess. Sotheby’s London auctioned off this superb portrait for £ 2.5 million early February 2013. Photo by Sotheby’s.

She developed a close friendship with Cristóbal Balenciaga in her 30 years as a client and patron. After a railroad accident destroyed many of her clothes, she ordered 150 dresses from the couturier in one sitting.  Upon the closing of Balenciaga’s fashion house in 1968, it was said that Mona took to her bed for three days in despair. That’s how she took fashion–very intensely.

Dressed to the nines, Bismarck was regularly photographed by Steichen, Horst and her close friend, Cecil Beaton, who was devoted to Mona.

Mona Bismarck in pearls and Balenciaga at her home, Hotel Lambert. Photo by Cecil Beaton, 1955.

Hubert de Givenchy said,  “Mona would make sure that the pearls didn’t touch her dress when she sat down. It was important the jewels could move. “

Mona, wearing her trademark pearls. Photo by Peter Stackpole.

There were several pearl jewels in her collection, the most magnificent of which was a double-strand natural pearl necklace.  For natural pearls their size, their luster and colour were superb. They are matched with pearl and diamond earrings by Petochi.

The two-strand pearl necklace is strung with 37 and 33 pearls . The pearls vary in size from pproximately 7.7 mm to 15 mm. They are matched with a pair of 17.25mm pearl and diamond earclips by Petochi. Photo by Sotheby’s.

The double strand pearl necklace is joined together by a diamond clasp surrounded by a single layer of 28 tiny diamonds

In May 1986, this necklace sold for $410,000 surpassing the pre-sale estimate of $139,000-195,0000 at Sotheby’s in Geneva. The enhanced price realized for the Mona Bismarck two-strand pearl necklace in May 1986, represented the beginning of a trend towards the end of the 20th-century, during which a strong auction market for natural pearls was registered, where the final prices realized far exceeded the pre-sale estimates.

In her later years, she divided her time between her townhouse in Paris and her villa in Capri.  She died in 1983, but her legacy lives on through the Mona Bismarck Foundation in Paris, which promotes Franco-American cooperation through the arts.

All throughout  her life, she wore pearls. And when she did,  it was always, as Cecil Beaton once described, “little short of a tour de force”.

Photos by Cecil Beaton / Condé Nast Archive