Lady Diana Beauclerk (1734-1808) was born Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of the 3rd Duke of Malborough. As a noblewoman, she served as Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte. Her first husband, Viscount Bolingbroke, was notoriously unfaithful and she herself became pregnant whilst in an adulterous affair. A scandalous divorce resulted in 1768. She next married Topham Beauclerk, her lover and later endured further public scrutiny as her son from her first marriage had an incestuous relationship with one of her Beauclerk daughters.

Topham Beauclerk mingled with an artistic and literary crowd such as Joshua Reynolds and Samuel Johnson. She not only was a warm and witty hostess to those luminaries but she was a gifted artist in her own right. She was one of Wedgewood's most popular designers and a talented book illustrator. Her artistic endeavours were not publicly acknowledged in her time for she eventually had to depend on her art to make a living, another scandalous mark against her.

Her portraits show a woman who either eschewed jewelry or wore very little with the exception of this portrait ca. 1760 by an unknown artist. Here she wears a simple but elegant pearl necklace with matching earrings.

References
Wikipedia : Diana Beauclerk
Carola Hicks (2001). Improper Pursuits: The Scandalous Life of an Earlier Lady Diana Spencer. Pan Books