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A photo of the late U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, taken in 2006.
Photo Timothy Greenfield-Sanders/Corbis via Getty Images
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The late Madeleine Albright’s brooches were so entwined with her identity that in 2009 she wrote a book: Read My Pins: Stories from a Diplomat’s Jewel Box.
Albright, a trailblazing diplomat who was the first female U.S. secretary of state, would at times wear specific pins to “reflect a diplomatic message, or they could be used to speak to the circumstances surrounding a particular meeting or event,” says Gretchen Hause, co-head of the books and manuscripts department at Freeman’s | Hindman.
The auction house, with headquarters in Chicago and Philadelphia, is bringing Albright’s private collection to market in a live sale on May 7 in New York and an online auction on May 8.
Items up for sale range from jewelry and scarves, emblematic of Albright’s personal style, to fine and decorative arts from her offices and home in the Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Prices range from between US$200 and US$400 for Swarovski opera glasses to between US $12,000 and US$18,000 for a white gold and diamond “Fireworks” choker necklace by Bulgari.
A rose gold, diamond, ruby, and sapphire patriotic leopard pendant/brooch from Madeleine Albright’s collection
Courtesy of Freeman’s | Hindman
The first known instance of Albright using a brooch to send a message was during an October 1994 visit with Iraqi officials. As part of a settlement after the first Persian Gulf War, Iraq had to accept inspectors from the United Nations and provide disclosure of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons, according to Albright’s book.
Read my Pins (a title that echoed George H.W. Bush’s famous “read my lips” admonishment that he wouldn’t raise taxes if elected), detailed how Hussein wouldn’t comply, which drew criticism from Albright. In response, the government-controlled Iraqi press wrote a derogatory poem and referred to Albright as a serpent, the book said.
As she prepared to meet the Iraqis in October 1994, the secretary of state found a pin she had bought in a favorite Washington, D.C., shop years earlier that was in the image of a serpent wrapped around a branch, “a tiny diamond hanging from its mouth,” and thought it appropriate to wear, according to the book. She didn’t give the gesture much thought, but when asked by a reporter afterward if it was in response to the poem, she smiled and said, “it was just my way of sending a message,” she wrote.
Unfortunately for Albright fans, the serpent pin is among artifacts—including other pins, papers, and her Medal of Freedom—that have been donated to the National Museum of American Diplomacy in the U.S. Department of State, according to Hause.
A Lenox porcelain Millennium Pattern presentation bowl from the Clinton Administration marked on the underside with “Appreciation for Your Service / William J Clinton / Hillary Rodham Clinton / 1993-2001.”
Courtesy of Freeman’s | Hindman
Other pins are included, however, such as a rose-gold leopard brooch studded with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires, offered with an estimated range between US$2,000 and US$3,000.
Albright was born in Prague, Czechoslovakia, fleeing to the U.S. with her family when she was 11 years old after a coup in 1948 put a communist regime in charge of the country. The U.S., her new home, became an important place for her personally and professionally, and she eventually rose to serve as U.N. ambassador and then secretary of state under President
Bill Clinton.
She died a year ago at age 84.
Included in the sale is a Lenox porcelain millennium pattern presentation bowl given to Albright by the Clintons. It’s marked on the underside, “With appreciation for your service / William J Clinton, Hillary Rodham Clinton / 1993-2001.” The bowl is estimated to sell for between US$2,000 and US$3,000.
Other items on the auction block include objects that were in “her beautiful, traditional Georgetown colonial townhome,” where Albright was known for entertaining, Hause says.
When she was U.N. ambassador, Albright often had to serve as host and found she had to keep buying flowers, “which ended up being quite expensive,” Hause says. So she began to buy things that would last, such as sugar bowls and salt-and-pepper shakers, Hause says. The sale includes a group of silver casters and salt cellars (with an estimate between US$500 and US$700) along with her collection of teapots.
Albright “was also an intellectual first and foremost,” Hause says, noting she was also a accomplished, beloved professor at Georgetown University in Washington, D.C. Her collection includes books relating to American and world politics and foreign policy. There’s also a collection of poems given to her by President Clinton “with an autographed note in his hand recommending his three favorite poems in the book for her to pay particular attention to,” Hause says. The book is estimated between US$1,000 and US$1,500.
Albright was also known for carrying a copy of the U.S. Constitution with her wherever she went, one of which will be offered in the sale for an estimated price between US$200 and US$300.
“You’ll really see an eclectic kind of international group of objects befitting the secretary of state,” Hause says.
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