Looking for a decorative bib that looks like shining armor and was worn by the “Notorious RBG” herself before going into court battles?
The Potomack Company announced last week that one of the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s famous collars will be featured in their Sept. 20-21 auction.
The Pegasus necklace by Silver & Dot was “one of RBG’s favorite collars evoking power and strength with the imagery of battle armor in its layered metal pointed feathers,” according to the D.C.-based auction house.
Ginsburg was gifted the collar by a Los Angeles lawyer and longtime fan who told Town & Country the necklace reminds her “of something a warrior princess like Wonder Woman would wear as armor into battle. It projects strength, confidence, and fearlessness.”
Ginsburg wore the collar for the Supreme Court’s official portrait in 2018, when Brett Kavanaugh joined the court. It was Ginsburg’s last formal group portrait before her death in 2020.
The Supreme Court justice was known for her collection of collars. A Time magazine commemorative piece featuring many of Ginsburg’s collars, including The Pegasus, reported that she encoded “meaning in her dress” with them.
Ginsburg wore a specific collar when she was in the majority and another for dissents, which were donated to the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History by her children, Jane and James Ginsburg, last year.
One of the justice’s collars was also available for purchase for the first time last year, along with 75 other items of Ginsburg’s that were sold to benefit charity. The gold judicial collar made of glass beads had the highest purchase price, selling for $176,775.
Ginsburg told The Washington Post in 2009 that she has “many, many collars” because she and Sandra Day O’Connor, the first two women appointed to the Supreme Court, thought their robes needed something to represent women’s fashion.
“You know, the standard robe is made for a man because it has a place for the shirt to show, and the tie,” Ginsburg said.
Ginsburg was an outspoken advocate of gender equality, famously saying that there will be enough women on the court “when there are nine.”
The Potomack Company will be donating a percentage of the collar’s commission to the Ruth Bader Ginsburg Endowed Fund for Research in Civil Rights and Gender Equality of the American Bar Foundation. Ginsburg served many years as an officer and board member for the research institute.
