An iconic platinum and diamond Tutti Frutti bracelet from Cartier has seen some of the top bids in Sotheby's auction of the Estee and Evelyn H Lauder jewellery collection.

The Cartier Tutti Frutti line is one of the most successful jewellery designs ever created

The sale took place in New York on December 9, with the Cartier piece making $2.1m - a 110% increase on estimate.

The first piece in the Tutti Frutti style was designed for Queen Alexandra by Pierre Cartier in 1901, with the dazzling colours designed to match Indian dresses given to the queen by Mary Curzon, wife of the viceroy of India.

The Cartier jewels soon found favour among Indian aristocracy, and many ancient family jewels were reworked into the fashionable European style. The line has since become the company's best known, and pieces are highly sought after.

Sotheby's previously sold jewels from the Estee and Evelyn Lauder collection with record results in 2012, marking the highest total the auction house had seen for a jewellery auction at $68m.

Both sales raised funds for charity, with profits from Evelyn Lauder's collection benefiting the Breast Cancer Research Foundation, and Estee Lauder's jewels sold on behalf of the Alzheimer's Drug Discovery Foundation.

Top lot of the sale was a platinum topped gold and diamond necklace that was formerly owned by Helen Hay Whitney, American poet, socialite and member of New York's prominent Whitney family. Bearing a huge amount of diamonds, it sold for $3.1m.

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