Diamond pendent earrings

Set with old brilliant-cut diamonds, principal diamonds approx 2.80cts total, remaining diamonds approx. 0.65ct total, length 1.4cm

Sold by instruction of the family of Dame Fanny Waterman.

Lots 91 - 99 were acquired by the jeweller, Myer Waterman, and given to his daughter, Fanny, a renowned concert pianist and teacher. Myer Waterman was a Russian émigré who arrived in Britain at the turn of the 20th Century. Initially living in London, he served as an apprentice to a Hatton Garden jeweller before opening his own shop in Leeds and expanding his business. Born in 1920, Fanny Waterman was playing an upright piano by the age of four and by seventeen, she won a scholarship to the Royal College of Music, where she accumulated a succession of awards. She went on to perform at the Proms where Sir Henry Wood praised her brilliance as a pianist. In 1944, she married Geoffrey de Keyser and after the birth of their first son in 1950, Fanny began to focus on teaching. She established the Leeds International Pianoforte Competition in 1961, which launched many stellar careers, serving as Artistic Director, Chairwoman and to this day, President Emeritus. In 2005, Fanny Waterman received her DBE and the Freedom of the City of Leeds a year later. Dame Fanny celebrated her 100th birthday in March this year.

This small collection of jewellery inherited by the Waterman and De Keyser families is a testament to Dame Fanny's gifted and hardworking father and to her elegant style as a performer.