A girl can always have more.
Elizabeth, 1948.
© 1978 John Engstead/mptvimages.com
Elizabeth was guided through life by one word, which dictated her love for sex, food and drink, and every luxury imaginable: more. On the one hand, her insatiable appetite came from her realization that life is fleeting, best to enjoy it now. On the other, she was predisposed to a life of extravagance: She grew up with an appreciation of fine art and the trappings that accompanied high-class British society and, later, Hollywood celebrity status.
Just as it had opened doors in England, her father’s art gallery gave the Taylors connections to Hollywood’s most socially elite and powerful. Elizabeth witnessed firsthand how a beautiful work of art could seduce powerful men and make them pay attention. She never forgot the lesson and used it in her personal arsenal of seduction tactics, causing men to shower her with gifts that she would later display to dizzying effect. One need only think of the 69.42-carat pear-shaped Cartier Taylor-Burton diamond—a gift from husband to wife, which she famously donned at the 1970 Academy Awards while wearing a one-of-a-kind, low-cut gown designed by Edith Head.
And then, of course, there were her daily extravagances of champagne, caviar, sable coats, yachts, million-dollar houses, and a laundry list of other impulse buys. Glamorous? Fun? Excessive? Yes, yes, and yes. But to Elizabeth, collecting beautiful things was not so much to own them but to luxuriate in them for the moment. In her view, a rare piece—her 33.19-carat Krupp diamond, for example—was a pleasure to behold and touch. To her mind, ownership, like the perfumed scent of a woman, was fleeting and intangible.
When told that Julia Roberts was paid $20 million per picture
I started it.
On her idea of a diet
We’re all dieting. That’s why we are ordering lima beans, corn on the cob, steak and kidney pie, and mashed potatoes.
On possessions
We [Richard Burton and Elizabeth] get a great giggle out of all our things. The yacht, the Rolls, a sable fur coat.
Some people believe it is vulgar to show their possessions, but we show ours. In Gstaad, it is fun to look at all the things we’ve collected over the years.
On simple luxuries
Fragrance is an incredibly intimate thing. It can evoke very specific thoughts or memories and is a little different for each person who wears it.…It’s the most accessible luxury.
On frugality
I sort of try to live on a budget.
DIAMONDS ARE A GIRL’S BEST FRIEND
Elizabeth developed a particular fondness for extravagant gifts early in life. After National Velvet wrapped, MGM gave her the horse that had starred in the movie. How could they not—she claimed to be the only one able to ride him. Her appetite for all things lavish increased as she grew up, and she began to expect tiny (by her definition, that is) tokens from directors and husbands alike. Her happiest marriages, to Todd and Burton, were also the ones in which she received the most lavish gifts.
Jewelry from Michael Todd
Mike Todd gave Elizabeth extravagant gifts more often than most husbands give flowers. It’s hard to imagine how big her collection would have been if his life hadn’t been cut short. Some of his memorable offerings:
An antique diamond tiara from 1880, which she wore to the Academy Awards in 1957, the year Todd’s film Around the World in Eighty Days won Best Picture.
Elizabeth wearing a tiara from Mike Todd and Bulgari earrings from Richard Burton, 1963.
© Paramount Pictures
A Cartier ruby-and-diamond set that included a necklace, earrings, and a bracelet valued at the time at $250,000, given to her when she was pregnant with their daughter Liza.
Elizabeth wearing a Cartier ruby-and-diamond set given to her by Mike Todd, 1958.
© Photofest
A 29.4-carat diamond engagement ring that Elizabeth called her “ice skating rink.” Todd joked about the size of the ring, saying that it “was 29 and 7/8 carats because 30 would have been vulgar.”
Jewelry from Richard Burton
Like Todd, Richard Burton used almost any opportunity to don his wife with some truly amazing jewelry. He gave Elizabeth more than thirty highly sought-after pieces, including:
A number of emerald-and-diamond pieces—a necklace, a pair of earrings, brooches, rings, and bracelets—from Bulgari, or as Elizabeth called it, “Bulgari’s nice little shop.” The couple often visited Bulgari while filming Cleopatra in Rome.
The Krupp diamond, perhaps her most famous piece, a staggering 33.19-carat gem purchased for $305,000 in 1968.
The Taj Mahal diamond, which dates from the seventeenth century, on a gold-and-ruby Cartier chain, given to her on her fortieth birthday.
The La Peregrina pearl, bought by Burton for $37,000 in 1969, and set into a necklace of Cartier diamonds and rubies that Elizabeth designed herself.
The Taylor-Burton diamond, a pear-shaped diamond cut by Harry Winston that weighed an impressive 69.42 carats. Lloyd’s of London insured the diamond, which Burton bought for $1,100,000, and stipulated that Elizabeth could only wear the piece in public thirty days a year and in the company of armed guards. In 1978, she sold the diamond to a New York jeweler for $3,000,000 to help fund her then-new husband John Warner’s senatorial campaign. She later regretted her decision, saying, “I’m still sick that I sold it.”
Elizabeth wearing the Taylor-Burton diamond necklace and the Krupp diamond ring, 1970.
On jewelry
I want to see some rings and things!
Elizabeth: It’s the little things that count.
Mike Todd: Little diamonds, little rubies, little emeralds.
Richard Burton: What are you doing, Lumpy?
Elizabeth: Playing with my jewels.
On the Krupp diamond given to her by Richard Burton
I never stop looking at it, admiring it, not getting over the fact that it’s really mine. It’s a different sunset every night. It pleasures me.
The Krupp is an extraordinary stone. It has such life and brilliance when light shines through it. Size does matter, but so does the size of the emotion behind it.
When it came up for auction in the late 1960s, I thought how perfect it would be if a nice Jewish girl like me were to own it.
On being grateful for gifts
I mean, how many young women get a set of rubies just for doing something wholesome like swimming laps? Or win a diamond ring at Ping-Pong with their husband? Well, I did, and for all of these memories and the people in my life, I feel blessed.
I know I’m lucky. I know when I wear a lovely Dior gown and jewels and a nice hairstyle that I’m bloody lucky.
On owning jewelry
We are all temporary custodians of beauty.
Life without earrings is empty!
I adore wearing gems, but not because they are mine. You can’t possess radiance, you can only admire it.
On diamonds
Big girls need big diamonds.
The price of food is going up…and diamonds, too.
You can’t cry on a diamond’s shoulder, and diamonds won’t keep you warm at night, but they’re sure fun when the sun shines!