The Yusupov Black Pearl Necklace. The Yusupov black pearl necklace contains 30 pearls, weighing a total of 937.84 grains. But that's not what's interesting
about it. It has a killer story that includes incest, revolution, infidelity, and the Titanic. Let's dive in, shall we? Our story begins with Catherine the Great. She gave these pearls to her lover (and
likely secret husband) Prince Gregori Potemkin. He left them to Tatiana, one of
his six beautiful Englehardt nieces - not one of the three he had affairs with. Eww. As her second husband, Tatiana married Prince Nicholas Yusupov, so now it's time to... Meet the Yusupovs Tatiana's great-granddaughter Zinaida
inherited the black pearl necklace, along with the rest of the Yusupov wealth. And
it was a lot of wealth. According to a cousin, Serge Obolensky, the Yusupovs didn't even know how much property they owned. It would have taken them two months to make the rounds between the properties they did know about. Zinaida was drop-dead gorgeous and the richest heiress in Russia. Her family tried to set her up with Alexander of Battenberg, the Prince of
Bulgaria. At least two Romanov grand dukes and two Obolensky princes had the hots for her. But instead, Zinaida fell for any army officer, frustrating the hell out of her family. She and her officer, Count Felix Sumarokov-Elston, had
different interests. Zinaida was cultured, artistic, and intellectual. Felix
preferred the company of officers and talking about military matters. In this case, opposites definitely attracted. Zinaida and Felix had four sons, two of whom survived infancy. But one fell victim to the supposed Yusupov curse. The Yusupov curse was supposedly cast by a Muslim sorceress as retribution for an ancestor who converted from Islam to
orthodoxy. Family legend said that's why only one male heir per generation lived to age 26. So is it a real thing? Well, Zinaida's eldest son Nikolai fought a duel over a married woman. His opponent killed him with one shot to the heart. He was 25, almost 26. The surviving son, Felix, is best known as the guy who hatched the plot to murder Rasputin. He was also a transvestite with a fluid sexual orientation. His memoir, Lost Splendor, is
absolutely fascinating and you can read it online for free. In 1913, Felix proposed to Tsar Nicholas II's niece, Princess Irina Alexandrovna. Felix told Irina about his past and he says she took it like a champ. The family needed a
little convincing, but Felix and Irina were married in 1914. She wore a Cartier rock crystal and diamond tiara, a wedding present from Zinaida. And they lived
happily ever after, right? Erm, well, not really. The Most Expensive Game of
Hide-and-Seek, Like, Ever. Everything changed in March of 1917, when the Russian Revolution broke out. Felix hid the family's jewels in their
Moscow and Petersburg palaces, hoping things like fake walls and secret rooms
would keep them safe. He smuggled what he could back to their home in Crimea, including the black pearl necklace and these two Rembrandts. There, they waited for the royalist white army to defeat the Bolsheviks. It didn't happen. The family fled in 1919. The Yusupovs left with the Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna on a British dreadnought. They would never return or retrieve their 47,000 hidden treasures. Zinaida and Felix Sr. settled in Rome with Felix and Irina's baby daughter. Felix and Irina drifted between London and Paris, selling jewels to stay solvent. Soviet officials later discovered the fake wall under the staircase in the Yusupovs' Moscow home. They confiscated Irina's rock crystal Cartier tiara, along with 12 of her other tiaras. American Immigration versus a Dude Named Felix In 1921, Felix pawned his Rembrandts to the American collector Joe Widener. Before he paid Felix, Widener changed the terms of their agreement to keep Felix from selling the paintings for 10 years, even
if he redeemed them. Unable to sort it out from across the ocean, Felix and Irina sailed for America in November of 1923. They hoped to negotiate with
Widener and sell some jewels including the black pearl necklace. But U.S. Customs decided to mess with
Felix. At first, they denied him entry because of the Rasputin murder. Then they decided to keep the jewels until Felix paid customs duties. Felix scrambled, but
he eventually came up with $12,000 to get the black pearls back. To make matters worse, Felix had no luck
selling the black pearls on his own. Finally, he took them to Zinaida's friend,
Pierre Cartier, who agreed to sell them. Cartier gave Felix a $75,000 advance and sold them a few weeks later to Mathilde Townsend Gerry for $400,000. Meet Mathilde Mathilde, a wealthy American heiress, made the mother of all impulse buys. She was struggling to decide between a husband she didn't love... ...and a younger lover she couldn't bear to leave. That husband was Peter Goelet Gerry, a Rhode Island senator. He was
perfect on paper: from a super wealthy New York family and very much in love with her. But Peter was bland and boring and even his adoration eventually turned
her off. In contrast, Mathilde's younger lover was the most dynamic, exciting man
she'd ever met. What's a girl to do? A Good Man Is Hard to Find Before she married, married Mathilde had confessed to her friend Archie that she wasn't in love
with Peter, but that he was the most suitable guy she was likely to find. This devastated Archie, an aide to President Roosevelt who moved in the same elite
social circles as Mathilde. He'd hoped it was only a matter of time before the girl next door realized her one true love was the man who'd been near her the
entire time. Archie never got his shot with Mathilde for two reasons. First, Mathilde married Peter in a rushed wedding a few weeks later. She ordered
her dress at the last minute, as if she were leaving room for herself to chicken
out. And two, after the wedding, Archie was a passenger aboard the Titanic. He died in
the sinking and wasn't there to advise Mathilde on what to do later when
her marriage fell apart. Mathilde and her lover, an ambitious politician named
Sumner Welles, had a torrid affair that scandalized New York and Washington D.C. When Sumner's wife filed for divorce, society matrons called Mathilde a homewrecker. Sumner begged Mathilde to do the same, but she didn't want to hurt Peter. After all, he'd done nothing wrong - she just didn't love him. So she stalled and stalled...and indulged in a little retail therapy with a certain black pearl necklace. "I suppose I was crazy," she wrote to Sumner, explaining her purchase. "But I just get insane days." Author's note: On my insane days, I have a shot of whiskey and watch Netflix, but
then again, I don't have $400,000. Here's a picture of Mathilde I found in a
newspaper. This really looks like the black pearl necklace, but I can't be 100% sure. Ten months after buying the necklace,
Mathilde mustered up the courage to file for divorce from Peter. Gossip columns blamed the necklace, calling it unlucky, sinister, evil, you name it. They might have been on to something. In 1925, Mathilde married Sumner Welles. But because of their affair, Sumner lost his government job. He got fired by
President Calvin Coolidge, a friend of Mathilde's first husband. In 1929, Mathilde and Sumner built a 49-room house on 250 acres in Maryland. Later, Sumner's
friend Franklin Roosevelt would come over and drink mint juleps. There's no further mention of Mathilde wearing the pearls. Provenance Impossible This is where the necklace's trail starts to go cold. We know Mathilde sold the pearls, but...to whom? And when? One source says she sold them to an unnamed woman who died soon after. Subsequent owners were Eleanor Elkins Widener Hamilton Rice, who
survived the sinking of the Titanic, and Gertrude Boyce Thompson. On the other hand, several newspapers from the 1930s say Mathilde sold the pearls straight to
Gertrude Boyce Thompson. Either way, by 1932, it seems likely that
the pearls belonged to Gertrude. But I didn't find any photos of her in them or any mentions of her wearing them. Gertrude lived until 1950. That leaves 14
years between her death and the last mention I found of the pearls in a
newspaper in 1936. What happened to the necklace? Did Gertrude really own it? Did Mathilde or one of the other owners sell it back to Cartier? I wish I could tell
you. If you have any information, I'd love to hear from you! Check out the original post for lots more detail about the Yusupovs and Mathilde, including all
citations and source links. You can also join the mailing list at
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