< Historic Diamonds / Auctions
Doris Brynner’s Impeccable Taste Shines at Sotheby’s Paris Sale
“From Doris with Love: The Personal World of Doris Brynner” explores the life of one of the 20th century’s most stylish tastemakers through her most coveted possessions.
Published January 28, 2026
Written by: Roxanne Robinson
Having a blue-chip social network long before the age of social media, the internet, or even cable TV didn’t just require a well-heeled circle of friends. For the well-to-do Jet Set of the Sixties and Seventies, exuding impeccable taste, quick wit, exacting manners, and top-tier hosting skills placed one at the top of society, forming connections that ranged from European royalty to Hollywood elites. The late Doris Brynner, who died in February 2025 at age 93, fit the bill. When her jewelry and other possessions arrived for auction at Sotheby’s, it validated what her inner circle knew: Her taste was exacting and influential.
Meet the Expert
- Roxanne Robinson is an award-winning journalist with over 25 years of experience between New York and Paris.
- She covers the luxury and fashion industries, spending 18 years as WWD’s Accessories and Jewelry Director.
- She is the New York Contributing Editor for Fashion Network, and regularly contributes to the New York Times, the CFDA, Forbes, and more.
Doris Brynner: Queen of Style and 20th-Century Elegance
Her life was fairy-tale fabulous. As told to Paris-based journalist Dana Thomas by Brynner’s daughter, Victoria, her mother, Doris Kleiner, was born in Zagreb, then part of Yugoslavia. She arrived in Paris from Chile, where the family had relocated, ostensibly to model. She was educated in the ways of society by a Chilean industrialist and a Parisian gay bon vivant, and later worked for designer and social butterfly Pierre Cardin.
She became the proverbial queen of style, the “I” to the famed The King and I actor Yul Brynner, whom she met at a bash hosted by French industrialist Paul-Louis Weiller at Versailles. The couple married on the set of The Magnificent Seven. Her best friend, Audrey Hepburn, was Victoria’s godmother.
Following her marriage to Brynner, she worked for Valentino, introducing the stylish actress to the Roman couturier and making her one of “Val’s girls”. She counted society figures and royalty among her friends, including Elizabeth Taylor, Lee Radziwill, Karl Lagerfeld, Frank Sinatra, Betty Catroux, Annette and Oscar de la Renta, Alain Delon, the Agnelli’s, theNiarchos’s, the Rothschilds, and other fabled personalities. In 1997, Peter Marino brought her into the world of Dior Maison & Gift, per WWD, where she introduced Murano glassmakers, Japanese workshops, Limoges’ porcelain artisans, and Austrian engravers to the offerings. This followed Brynner’s successful, de rigueur society décor store, Le Verandah, which opened in 1970.
As family friend Princess Marie-Chantal explained to the Paris-based journalist Natasha Fraser when speaking to Sotheby’s, “Doris became the standard-bearer of refinement. She didn’t just style a space, she elevated it.”
Doris Brynner’s Jewels at Sotheby’s Paris
Thanks to Victoria and Sotheby’s Paris, her personal effects—an expression of the world she cultivated—were auctioned in Paris almost a year to the day of her passing. On offer were her collection of fine jewelry and couture clothing, personal correspondence, and, most notably, Dior Maison & Gift collectibles. The offerings reflected Brynner’s signature style code: a strong sense of clean lines and a master class in understated elegance.
Doris Brynner’s restrained style shied away from ostentatious expression, as evidenced by her jewelry, especially her diamond choices. Brynner amassed an impressive collection of Jean Schlumberger’s pieces during his reign at Tiffany & Co.
Schlumberger Diamond Starfish Brooch
Highlights of the sale included a Schlumberger diamond brooch, which sold for 95,250 euros (about $ 114,118), exceeding its high estimate by more than $40,000. The starfish design features pavé-set brilliant-cut diamonds and a similarly cut center stone, with 18K gold “seaweed” encircling the diamonds and bearing the Robert Duhem makers’ mark. The motif was a signature of Doris Brynner’s jewelry style.
Another, more subdued 18K gold starfish brooch, set with diamond accents and bearing Duhem’s signature but not attributed to a specific brand, for 10,795 euros or ($12,939). The piece was seen worn by the socialite in a 1964 photograph with Yul Brynner.
Schlumberger Diamond Ear Clips worn to the Premiere of Cleopatra
A pair of diamond clip earrings that Doris wore to the London premiere of Cleopatra in 1963, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, and that Yul attended with her, sold for 35,560 euros ($42,614), surpassing its estimate by more than $7,000. The leaf-inspired, brilliant-cut, and pear-shaped diamond, enveloped in a gold-braid cage, is signed by Schlumberger circa 1960.
According to Dr. Sylvain Cordier, Paul Mellon Curator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Yul Brynner admired Schlumberger’s work as both a friend and a client, purchasing pieces for his first wife, Virginia Gilmore, in the 1950s. The curator notes that Doris’s starfish brooch, purchased by Yul in 1967, resembles a 1956 design that Bunny Mellon owned and is now in the VMFA collection. The Etoiles earrings, purchased in 1962, recall Schlumberger’s work from 40s and 50s.
Cordier notes that while Schlumberger was working at Tiffany & Co. at the time, the pieces themselves were not necessarily acquired there. “The Brynners were based in Switzerland; their Schlumberger jewelry was mostly purchased at Schlumberger Paris, rather than at Tiffany & Co. in New York,” Cordier told Only Natural Diamonds via email.
Paul Gillot Diamond Bow Brooch From Elizabeth Taylor
Another storied and stunning piece offered at the auction was a diamond bow brooch bequeathed by Elizabeth Taylor. The Paul Gillot brooch, circa 1905, sold for 50,800 euros ($60,875), exceeding its estimateby $13,000. The openwork millegrain-set bow pin features European single-cut and marquise-set diamonds in 18K gold, with articulated pear-shaped diamond tassels. Taylor wore the brooch in a portrait by Firooz Zahedi that appeared in her 2002 coffee-table book, My Love Affair with Jewelry. The offering was an expression of Taylor’s gratitude to Brynner for her discreet refuge when the Hollywood superstar shielded her friend Michael Jackson from the press in 1993, amid unsavory allegations surrounding the King of Pop.
Bulgari Emerald, Sapphire and Diamond Brooch From Audrey Hepburn
One buzzy piece, given to Doris Brynner by Audrey Hepburn, was a circa 1960 Bulgari emerald, sapphire, and diamond brooch resembling a peacock. The Breakfast at Tiffany’s star gifted the jewel to Brynner, and it was valued at a high estimate of 60,000 euros ($71,899). Set with cabochon sapphires and emeralds, accented by brilliant-cut diamonds, centered by a cabochon emerald, and suspending a drop-shaped emerald, the brooch had the auction audience on the edge of its seat when it sold for 355,600 euros ($426,025), more than six times its estimate.
The celebration of Doris Brynner’s style through the Sotheby’s auction was deliberately timed to coincide with the Paris haute couture shows, which draw HNWI clients with an appetite for exclusive, custom-made fashion, extravagant high jewelry, and highly curated auctions. The sale also follows the death of her former employer, Valentino Garavani, on January 19—another reminder that the golden age of glamour, when diamonds at dinner were standard, is slipping away for good.
