DIOR: AN AMETHYST, ENAMEL AND GEM-SET 'DIORETTE' COCKTAIL RI...
Hammer
€8,000
DIOR: AN AMETHYST, ENAMEL AND GEM-SET 'DIORETTE' COCKTAIL RING Designed by Victoire de Castellane The oval-shaped amethyst within a surround of polychrome enamel and gem-set insect and flower motifs, with a green enamel leaf motif extending along the hoop, mounted in 18K gold, signed Dior, numbered, with maker's mark, French assay mark, ring size J (EU50)
For similar examples, see:
Michele Heuze (Author), Victoire de Castellane (Preface), 'Dior Joaillerie', Rizzoli New York, 2022, page 90, 100-101.
Juliet Weir-de La Rochefoucauld, 'Women Jewellery Designers', ACC Art Books, 2017, page 190.
"Just because something is real doesn't mean it has to be boring." Few remarks better explain Victoire de Castellane's approach to jewellery. When she joined Dior in 1998 as Artistic Director of its newly created jewellery department, she brought with her an unusually free attitude to precious materials. After fourteen years at Chanel, working with Karl Lagerfeld and developing costume jewellery with an appetite for colour, scale and pop culture, she approached diamonds and coloured stones without the solemnity traditionally associated with high jewellery.
That instinct has always been innate in de Castellane. Born into the Castellane family in 1962, she grew up watching women use jewellery as an extension of dress and personality, particularly her paternal grandmother, Silvia Hennessy, Comtesse de Castilleja de Guzmán. At five, she transformed a charm bracelet from her mother into earrings, and at twelve, she had medals melted down to make a ring. Fashion itself was part of the family world around her. Her uncle Gilles Dufour was a close collaborator of Karl Lagerfeld, while her half-sister Mathilde Favier also built a distinguished career in fashion, eventually becoming Director of Public Relations at Dior.
At Dior, de Castellane found a natural counterpart in Christian Dior's own world of gardens, roses, and decorative fantasy. She has described her collections as a continuing correspondence with him, but his influences pass through a very different imagination. Disney characters, Japanese toys, pop culture, fake food, and the colours of childhood sweets have all formed part of de Castellane's visual world, allowing the traditional vocabulary of high jewellery to become playful and occasionally surreal.
She has spoken of working with classical themes with a deliberately childlike spirit, an approach particularly evident in Diorette. Inspired by a watercolour Christian Dior drew for a menu at his country home at Milly la Forêt, de Castellane imagined the daisies, poppies, roses, butterflies, and other small inhabitants of his garden as a miniature fantasy landscape. Gold, coloured stones, and vividly applied lacquer make the flowers appear almost sweeter and brighter than nature itself, as though Dior's garden had been filtered through the visual language of toys and confectionery.
The personal and professional worlds surrounding de Castellane have remained closely intertwined. Her half-sister Mathilde Favier became one of Dior's best-known public relations figures and a familiar presence within the house before her death, aged 57, in a car accident in August 2026 alongside her partner, film producer Nicolas Altmayer. In the tributes that followed, Dior remembers Favier for the warmth and energy she brought to the house, marking the loss of a figure whose career had run alongside her sister's within the same Parisian world of fashion and creativity.
More Information
Very minor enamel loss on one stem - very discreet otherwise no enamel loss observed
Amethyst: of deep purple hue, medium tone, good transparency, facets are smooth
Normal signs of wear, overall in good condition
Total gross weight approx. 31.9g
Hammer
€8,000
DIOR: AN AMETHYST, ENAMEL AND GEM-SET 'DIORETTE' COCKTAIL RING Designed by Victoire de Castellane The oval-shaped amethyst within a surround of polychrome enamel and gem-set insect and flower motifs, with a green enamel leaf motif extending along the hoop, mounted in 18K gold, signed Dior, numbered, with maker's mark, French assay mark, ring size J (EU50)
For similar examples, see:
Michele Heuze (Author), Victoire de Castellane (Preface), 'Dior Joaillerie', Rizzoli New York, 2022, page 90, 100-101.
Juliet Weir-de La Rochefoucauld, 'Women Jewellery Designers', ACC Art Books, 2017, page 190.
"Just because something is real doesn't mean it has to be boring." Few remarks better explain Victoire de Castellane's approach to jewellery. When she joined Dior in 1998 as Artistic Director of its newly created jewellery department, she brought with her an unusually free attitude to precious materials. After fourteen years at Chanel, working with Karl Lagerfeld and developing costume jewellery with an appetite for colour, scale and pop culture, she approached diamonds and coloured stones without the solemnity traditionally associated with high jewellery.
That instinct has always been innate in de Castellane. Born into the Castellane family in 1962, she grew up watching women use jewellery as an extension of dress and personality, particularly her paternal grandmother, Silvia Hennessy, Comtesse de Castilleja de Guzmán. At five, she transformed a charm bracelet from her mother into earrings, and at twelve, she had medals melted down to make a ring. Fashion itself was part of the family world around her. Her uncle Gilles Dufour was a close collaborator of Karl Lagerfeld, while her half-sister Mathilde Favier also built a distinguished career in fashion, eventually becoming Director of Public Relations at Dior.
At Dior, de Castellane found a natural counterpart in Christian Dior's own world of gardens, roses, and decorative fantasy. She has described her collections as a continuing correspondence with him, but his influences pass through a very different imagination. Disney characters, Japanese toys, pop culture, fake food, and the colours of childhood sweets have all formed part of de Castellane's visual world, allowing the traditional vocabulary of high jewellery to become playful and occasionally surreal.
She has spoken of working with classical themes with a deliberately childlike spirit, an approach particularly evident in Diorette. Inspired by a watercolour Christian Dior drew for a menu at his country home at Milly la Forêt, de Castellane imagined the daisies, poppies, roses, butterflies, and other small inhabitants of his garden as a miniature fantasy landscape. Gold, coloured stones, and vividly applied lacquer make the flowers appear almost sweeter and brighter than nature itself, as though Dior's garden had been filtered through the visual language of toys and confectionery.
The personal and professional worlds surrounding de Castellane have remained closely intertwined. Her half-sister Mathilde Favier became one of Dior's best-known public relations figures and a familiar presence within the house before her death, aged 57, in a car accident in August 2026 alongside her partner, film producer Nicolas Altmayer. In the tributes that followed, Dior remembers Favier for the warmth and energy she brought to the house, marking the loss of a figure whose career had run alongside her sister's within the same Parisian world of fashion and creativity.
More Information
Very minor enamel loss on one stem - very discreet otherwise no enamel loss observed
Amethyst: of deep purple hue, medium tone, good transparency, facets are smooth
Normal signs of wear, overall in good condition
Total gross weight approx. 31.9g
