A trio of pendants designed by Pablo Picasso and given to former Stepford Wife Carole Mallory will be sold by Skinner Auctioneers later this evening (March 18) in Boston.
 Picasso made just 10 of the unsigned pendants using the help of a dentist |
The pendants, each valued at $15,000-20,000, were given to Mallory by the artist's lover Francoise Gilot while Mallory was engaged to Claude Picasso, the son of Picasso and Gilot.
"He jilted me twice," said Mallory. "My dear treasures have been in my drawer since 1973. They belong in a museum, as they are that rare and wonderful."
Mallory is well known for her 10-year affair with writer Norman Mailer. When Mailer died in 2007, she sold seven boxes of her photographs and documents from the relationship to Harvard University.
 Carole Mallory was twice engaged to Claude Picasso but was jilted on both occasions |
Pablo Picasso designed hundreds of jewellery items during his life, yet these three are part of a tiny edition created with the help of a dentist.
"In all Pablo made about ten necklaces with the help of Doctor Chatagnier.....Two of the others bore portraits of Claude and Paloma on silver and one was a sun in silver...I thought they were all very nice except one, a rather heavy head of a satyr, in silver," writes Gilot in her book Life With Picasso.
One of the pendants shows a small portrait of Claude Picasso, while the second is a smiling sun design. All three are unsigned and were created using the lost wax process - a technique Chatagnier helped with.
Paloma Picasso, daughter of Pablo and Gilot, leads a successful career creating jewellery designs for Tiffany & Co.
Paul Fraser Collectibles has a fantastic autographed postcard from Picasso for sale.
