Cheating husband’s jewellery gifts fetch €328k at auction

A COLLECTION of diamonds and jewellery worth £280,000 (€328,000) given to a long-suffering wife by her philandering husband in compensation for his affairs has been sold at auction.

While businessman Robert Charlton played away, his wife Elizabeth amassed a dazzling collection of necklaces, earrings, bracelets and rings he bought for her to ease his conscience.

Passed on to the couple’s only daughter, 43 lots from Ms Charlton’s jewellery box have been sold to several bidders for £280,000.

The most expensive item was a necklace made up of 54 diamonds, thought to have been bought from Carrington and Co of Regent Street, which was auctioned for £60,000.

A large pendant in the shape of a diamond and a brooch each went for £53,000 and a chunky diamond solitaire ring sold for £23,000.

A pair of drop earrings went for £22,000 while a gold bangle with nine diamonds fetched £25,000, including the auctioneer’s cut.

Mr Charlton was chairman of a large building company and also ran a printing firm in Leicester.

A well-known freemason and honorary member of Kibworth Golf Club in Leicester, he later owned two nightclubs, the Mayfair and the Continental, in the city.

Clare Durham, of auctioneers Woolley and Wallis of Salisbury, Wiltshire, said according to the family the couple’s arrangement meant their marriage thrived from when they wed in 1948 until Mr Charlton died, aged 63, in 1974.

Mr Charlton had a daughter, Marie, from a previous relationship that Ms Charlton brought up as her own. Ms Charlton died in 2006, aged 90, and left the collection of jewellery to Marie.