Says Reuters, "Every time British businessman Robert Charlton cheated on his wife, he bought her some extravagant jewelry to try to make amends. After 26 years of marriage, long-suffering Elizabeth Charlton had more than 40 glittering pieces" of antique jewelry worth some 300,000 pounds, including a 54-diamond "riviere necklace" that fetched a lot when the couple's daughter auctioned off the guilt stash.

According to the TImes of London, Charlton was the owner of an underwear packing business and two nightclubs, and apparently his philandering was "an open secret" to family and friends - indeed, it's his daughter who explained the collection's provenance to the auction house. But did he talk openly about it? Were the gifts apologies, or more like notifications of the affairs? Did everyone know? Did she wear them? Did the caliber of gift vary with the philandering? And was his largesse motivated by guilt, or a sense of decorum? Did it start as one and become some kind of deal with the devil? Lots of people cheated, not everyone ended up with the Crown Jewels.

In any event, this seems like the final humiliation. In case you're wondering, the Daily Mail trumpeted, "Cuckolded-wife-amassed-300-000-guilty-conscience-jewellery!" But what's so odd about the story is not the "cuckolding" (if that even makes sense) but the open pragmatism of the relationship - and the extent to which destigmatized divorce has altered the dynamic. It's interesting too to think of the fact that the extravagant jewels - a traditional symbol of patriarchal buying-and-selling, the traditional badge of both gold-digger and wronged wife, didn't find any takers amongst the couples's descendants: apparently they unanimously decided to sell. Cash may not be forever, but for good and ill, "forever" isn't really a requirement any more.

£6,000 A Fling: Philanderer Robert Charlton's 'Guilt Diamonds' Sold At Auction [TimesUK]
Diamonds: A Girl's Best Compensation For Infidelity [Reuters]

£300,000 Guilt Trip: The 43 Jewels Of Wife Who Received One Each Time Her Husband Strayed [Daily Mail]

The answer, of course, is "no"... or is it? Judging by the color of the former Secretary of State's face after Ferguson posed the question, we're not so sure. Clip at left.

Corteille was allegedly inspired by a trip to Namibia and Kenya, but doesn't specify which, if any, people inspired her jewelry: Masai? Herero? Additionally, there are 40,000 Chinese living in Namibia. Did they inspire these "primitive" faux-masks? What's worse, on Corteille's website, while her other collections of jewelry are associated with illustrations of well-dressed white women, Corteille uses an illustration of a topless black woman with an Afro to introduce her "African" collection.


Note: In the past, Corteille designed a ring which looked like it was filled with cocaine. But what is truly irritating? Elle has pushed culturally insensitive jewelry before. The September 2008 issue featured "African" diamond necklaces made by DeBeers, a company famous for white supremacy, exploitation of black African workers and guilty of price-fixing. (Aside: They invented the phrase "a diamond is forever" to keep customers from reselling the rocks.) In any case, there are no prices mentioned for Lydia Corteille's pieces, but we found one necklace ringing up at $27,942. What's so "primitive" about that?

Elle [Official Site]
Lydia Corteille [Official Site]
Earlier: The Jewels In September's Elle Come At An Extremely High Price
Related: The Cocaine Ring by Lydia Courteille: The Closest Thing to Wearing Real Crack [Design Crack]

Says the head of Manhattan jewelry-buying firm CIRCA, “When Madoff hit, then we started to get the calls,” and now the firm is busy collecting heirlooms from around the country to sell to international collectors. Says the company's Palm Beach director, “Everybody down here has David Webb jewelry...and there’s all the inherited jewelry: things from the twenties that are from the great-grandmother. And then the grandmother’s things are from the forties and fifties, and now Mom is selling her things that are from the seventies.” She adds, “Most of them never thought about having to come up with money to pay regular expenses. I look upon it positively and say, ‘Be glad you had these things, and be glad you had great taste, so now you can sell it in order to continue.’" [New Yorker]

She wasn't as loopy as past performances on her previous TV home QVC, but she definitely had her slurred-speech moments.

"All kinds of white, middle class heterosexual people give each other jewelry at Christmas to say that they love each other," Sarah explains. Diamonds are forever, she points out, "Just like roaches!" Clip above.

Target Women: Jewlery [Current]