Prince Felix Felixovich Yusupov was the son of Princess Zinaida Nikolaevna Yusupova (1861-1939), sole heir to one of the greatest private jewellery collections in the Russian Empire. Zinaida inherited the entire Yusupov fortune on her father's death and was a significant patron of the major Paris houses before the Revolution. She spent her years of exile in Rome and Paris. Felix is known historically for his role in the killing of Grigori Rasputin in December 1916. His marriage to Princess Irina Alexandrovna, a niece of Tsar Nicholas II, had placed the Yusupovs in close proximity to the Romanov family itself.
After the Revolution of 1917, Felix and Irina fled Russia, making their way to Paris. Felix's own memoirs describe the effort to remove portable valuables from the Yusupov palaces before leaving: jewels were sewn into clothing, hidden in paintings, carried out in whatever form the circumstances allowed. What emerged into exile was a fraction of the collection that had existed, but still represented some of the most significant privately held Russian jewels to reach the Western market.
The Polar Star Diamond
Among the pieces Felix brought into exile was the Polar Star diamond, a cushion-shaped stone of considerable size that had a long history within the Russian aristocracy. After the Revolution, Felix sold it to Pierre Cartier in New York. Jacques Cartier subsequently acquired or handled the stone in London, where it was set with a surround of coloured diamonds and sold to the Deterding family. The Polar Star's journey from the Yusupov collection through Cartier to its new owners is one of the more fully documented examples of how Russian aristocratic jewels entered the Western market via the firm in this period.
La Pellegrina
Felix also held La Pellegrina, a historic natural pear-shaped pearl with origins in the Gulf of Panama. The pearl had been in the Yusupov family since Princess Tatiana Yusupova acquired it in 1826, and it passed eventually to Felix. He retained it through the exile years until 1953, when he sold it to a Geneva jeweller. It later came to auction at Christie's Geneva in 1989.
La Pellegrina should not be confused with La Peregrina, a different pearl of similar name and comparable provenance from the Gulf of Panama that passed through the Spanish and French royal courts before reaching Elizabeth Taylor via a Sotheby's sale in 1969. The two pearls have separate histories, though both are among the most celebrated named natural pearls in the Western record.
Paris and the Antiques Trade
Felix and Irina settled in Paris, where they established the Irfé fashion house in the early 1920s, drawing on Irina's name and connections to attract aristocratic clients. The venture ran for several years before closing. Felix also maintained an antiques business that drew on the portable assets the family had brought from Russia, generating income through the sale of pieces from the Yusupov collection and associated objects.
The transactions Felix conducted with Cartier were part of a broader pattern of Russian exiles selling through the Paris and London markets in the 1920s and 1930s. Cartier's position in both cities made the firm a natural counterpart in these negotiations, both buying pieces outright and handling remounting for new clients.
Princess Irina
Irina Alexandrovna was herself a figure of considerable social prominence in the emigration, and her position as a Romanov niece gave the Yusupovs a connection to the imperial family that few other exiles could claim. She and Felix remained in Paris for the rest of their lives. Irina survived Felix by several years, dying in 1970.
Sources
- Francesca Cartier Brickell, The Cartiers (Ballantine Books, 2019), ch. 6 ("Moicartier New York: Mid-1920s") and ch. 7 ("Precious London: Late 1920s")
- Hans Nadelhoffer, Cartier: Jewelers Extraordinary (Thames and Hudson, 1984; revised 2007), pp. 113, 124 et al.
- "The Cartiers and the Romanovs" webinar (Francesca Cartier Brickell and Prince Dimitri Romanoff Ilinsky): Felix Yusupov selling the Polar Star diamond to Pierre Cartier; the La Pellegrina pearl
- Wikipedia: Felix Yusupov
