The film The King's Speech is set to receive a brace of Oscars. But it is not just the acting that makes this film so successful. It is the small details like the Duchess of Windsor's Van Cleef & Arpels jewels that makes this film so visually rich. Eve Best as the Duchess of Windsor, portrays the woman for whom Edward left his throne. Though a secondary storyline in the film The King's Speech, no detail is overlooked. The Duchess, who was a great lover or jewellery, was keen on Van Cleef & Arpels and commissioned the Zip necklace and various 'mystery' set pieces.Her extravagant and bold style made her collection an auction house favourite and in December 2010, various pieces from her collection were sold at Sotheby's and the famous Cartier panther bracelet broke records. In the film her jewellery is all historically correct - except for one niggling detail I noticed: the original Zip necklace she ordered from Van Cleef & Arpels was made of yellow gold, not white gold. But that Zip still looks great dangling down the back off the Duchess. Bold, extravagant and original, its says a lot about the personality of the Duchess.
