The accomplished French stage actor, Lucien Germain Guitry (1860-1925), worked in St Petersburg during the 1880s. His son, Alexandre-Pierre Georges Guitry (1885-1957) was born there in 1885. Named after Tsar Alexander III and later nicknamed Sacha, he went on to become one of the leading French stage actor, flm director and screenwriter. His very prolifc career includes more than 36 flms and 120 plays.
Man of wit with a great sense of humour, Sacha Guitry had a passion for women and was married five times to rising French actresses who starred in many of his plays and flms, like Yvonne Printemps or Jacqueline Delubac. His love for jewels was also no secret and he was one of the great clients of many important French Jewellery houses, including Chaumet or Ostertag.
In 1949, Guitry married his ffth and last wife Lana Marconi, a Romanian-French actress. She is pictured here wearing the present diamond brooch in 1952, at the premire of her husbands play, N'écoutez pas, Mesdames !.