According to reports on her life and personal letters, the jewelry Wallace Simpson collected over her lifetime didn't bring her happiness. However, they were sold at auction yesterday for record figures.


Despite missing several small stones, a Cartier-designed onyx and diamond panther bracelet was auctioned for £4,521,250 ($7,415,776.24)—the highest price paid for a bracelet at auction. Made in Paris in 1952, it also became the most expensive Cartier item to be sold at any auction.
One of the other big successes of the night—a ruby, sapphire, emerald, citrine and diamond Cartier flamingo clip reached £1,721,250. ($2,823,202.62)

Sotheby's described it as having an "articulated body designed to encircle the wrist and to assume a stalking attitude, pave-set with brilliant and single-cut diamonds and calibre-cut onyx, the eyes each set with a marquise-shaped emerald".
Many of the pieces bear personal inscriptions, including a heart-shaped emerald, ruby and diamond Cartier brooch with the initials W.E. (Wallis, Edward), which was commissioned by the duke to mark their 20th wedding anniversary in 1957.

When you strip away the wealth, each person is simply striving to live a happy life, doing the best they can with their circumstances. At least the couple stayed together for the rest of their lives. No matter what the reason, that showed commitment.