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Bulgari's Famous Clients Part I - The Iconic Elizabeth Taylor

Bulgari's Famous Clients Part I

The Iconic Elizabeth Taylor

By Ping Tsai

Bulgari’s designs have always attracted a celebrity clientele – which is not surprising considering the high glamour embodiment of most of their jewelry and wristwatches.  We often see impeccably styled and groomed A-list actresses at movie premiers or awards shows draped in beautiful strapless gowns that graze their paths and irrevocably mark their presence as they waltz down the red carpet.  Completing the look is usually a colorful piece of expensive gemstone studded jewelry either around the neck, wrists or dangling from the ears.  If the item contains colorful stones or modular precious metalwork in any way, more likely than not, it’s Bulgari.  If a woman wants to stand out, and celebrities often do, it can easily be achieved with wearing Bulgari jewels. 

Perhaps Bulgari’s most famous celebrity customer was none other than Elizabeth Taylor herself.  The Hollywood icon was quoted in the New York Times, Sunday Style section, September 29^th, 2002 as saying that when her lover Richard Burton took her to the Bulgari boutique on Via Condotti in Rome, “I used to get so excited that I would jump on top of him and practically make love to him in Bulgari.”  No wonder Burton showered Taylor with numerous Bulgari gifts during their time together. 

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton

The passionate and torrid love affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton began in 1962 during the filming of Cleopatra on the set of Cinecittà in Rome.  It provided a lively backdrop as well as fueled Taylor’s other insatiable desire – her love of Bulgari jewelry.  At the time, Taylor was married to Eddie Fisher who was well aware of the powerful effect of jewelry on his wife and had become accustomed to purchasing Bulgari jewels for her.  Burton however, wasn’t as seasoned in the practice and saw it as a new experience.  He once said, “I introduced Liz to beer, she introduced me to Bulgari”.  He also commented on her Italian language skills saying, “The only word Elizabeth knows in Italian is Bulgari.”  Throughout their love affair, Burton was generous with buying jewels for her and she reveled in the excitement of choosing them together with him.

Elizabeth Taylor in Cleopatra

Making the film Cleopatra for Taylor came with the added bonus of being able to frequent the Bulgari boutique in Rome.  She describes in her book, Elizabeth Taylor My Love Affair with Jewelry, “Undeniably, one of the biggest advantages to working on Cleopatra in Rome was Bulgari’s nice little shop.  I used to visit Gianni Bulgari in the afternoons and we swapped stories.”  Taylor became such a loyal customer that often Bulgari would send her pieces of jewelry while on the movie set.  On one occasion a sales person at the time remembers taking a selection of jewels to the set in Cinecittà for the two Cleopatra stars to peruse.  Burton picked out an exquisite emerald and diamond ring for Taylor.  Ironically enough, a few days later Richard Burton’s wife, Sybil Taylor called Bulgari.  Somehow she had gotten hold of the ring.  She had called to have it resized because it was too big.

Elizabeth Taylor received a number of exquisite pieces of Bulgari jewelry from Richard Burton during their time together.  A magnificent emerald and diamond brooch that he gave her as an engagement gift is one of her favorites.  For the wedding present he complemented it with a matching emerald and diamond necklace which could be used to hang the brooch to wear as a pendant.  Burton went ahead and completed the set with long emerald drop earrings, two emerald rings and a bracelet.  The beautiful ensemble of emerald jewelry was so impressive that members of the press dubbed it the “Grand Duchess Vladimir’s Suite” because it looked like something that a Russian aristocrat would wear.  It was appropriately named though since some of the stones did in fact come from an important Russian collection.  Taylor was so fond of her emerald and diamond brooch that she wore it while filming The VIPs in 1963.  The drama was about a “husband and wife who triumph over financial catastrophe thanks to their love.”  Conveniently, Burton also starred in the film opposite Taylor.  Taylor has also worn the pieces at other key moments in her life: when she met Queen Elizabeth, when she won the Oscar for Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? , and when Helmut Newton photographed her in her swimming pool in 1989.   

"Grand Duchess Vladimir's Suite"

Burton did buy a lot of emerald jewelry for Elizabeth Taylor but he purchased other types of jewelry from Bulgari too.  In 1972 for Taylor’s fortieth birthday, Burton gave her “an elegant sautoir set with sapphires and diamonds suspending a magnificent sugar-loaf Burmese sapphire of approximately 50 carats.”  He also gave her the Krupp diamond (not Bulgari), a 33.19 carat white diamond that once belonged to Vera Krupp, of the family that made munitions for Germany in World War II.  Taylor wore the precious diamond everyday.  ''I always thought it was kind of poetic that a nice Jewish girl like me gets to wear it,'' she said. (Taylor converted to Judaism to marry Eddie Fisher.)  In her last known interview, which came out in Harper’s Bazaar, Taylor said, “The Krupp is an extraordinary stone. It has such life and brilliance when light shines through it. Size does matter, but so does the size of the emotion behind it.”

Her collection also included a gold Serpenti bracelet watch that coils up the arm with a diamond head and tail and emerald eyes;  iconic ‘coin’ necklaces from the 1980′s and a set of white and yellow diamond earrings, ring and brooch.  In her classic style, Elizabeth Taylor was seen wearing the brooch in her turban with Aristotle Onassis at the Lido in Paris in 1964.

Towards the end of Elizabeth Taylor’s marriage to Eddie Fisher, he gave her a magnificent trio Bulgari jewels with colorless and fancy yellow diamonds for her thirtieth birthday.  Fisher had presented the gifts to Taylor in final hopes of salvaging their marriage.  Among the pieces were an en tremblant flower brooch, a pair of pendant earrings and a ring.  After the couple separated a few months later, Fisher had the bill for the three pieces of jewelry sent to Taylor.  She comments about the incident in her book saying, “Did I end up paying the bill? – mmm, probably.” 

Last December, Bulgari included a number of pieces from Elizabeth Taylor’s personal Bulgari collection in their commemorative exhibition, “Bulgari: 125 Years of Italian Magnificence” at the Grand Palais in Paris.  It was the first big jewelry exhibit that the 110-year-old hall had ever hosted and featured 600 pieces, 16 of which are from Taylor’s collection.  Grand Duchess Vladimir’s Suite was among the pieces that were showcased.  Also on view was the diamond and sapphire sautoir with a giant Burmese sapphire pendant that Burton gave her for her 40th birthday. “Not only were they significant gifts to Ms. Taylor,” says Amanda Triossi, director of the Bulgari historical archives and the show’s curator, “they are significant Bulgari designs.”

The entire exhibition consisted of eight galleries that spanned the time from Bulgari’s early years up to the postwar era.  Taylor’s gallery, one of the eight, was likely considered the most interesting.  In addition to the items from her personal jewelry box, the show displays several pieces she wore in films, including a pair of diamond and natural-pearl-drop earrings from Ash Wednesday and an emerald, sapphire, and diamond floral bracelet from Boom! Also on display is a diamond and emerald ring Burton gave to Taylor that she later auctioned to raise money for AIDS research. 

Elizabeth Taylor passed away on March 23^rd of this year.  For Taylor, her magnificent Bulgari pieces were more than just ultra-expensive accessories.  (Her collection is reportedly valued at $150 million.)  They provided her with links to memories of her past.  “Each one tells me a story,” She once said.  Having endured a lifetime of illness, death, divorce, heartbreak, and drug and alcohol abuse, she was always able to rely on her jewels to keep her company.  They remained as reassurances to her in a constantly uncertain world of disappointments.    

In the same Harper’s Bazaar interview, she said, “I never planned to acquire a lot of jewels or a lot of husbands. For me, life happened, just as it does for anyone else. I have been supremely lucky in my life in that I have known great love, and of course I am the temporary custodian of some incredible and beautiful things.”       

All photos and information taken from the internet and BVLGARI by Amanda Triossi and Daniela Mascetti

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