The Coleridge Collar is a gold necklace whose provenance is disputed. It is said to be either a 16th-century chain of office, given by King Henry VIII to his adviser Sir Edward Montagu, on the latter's appointment as Lord Chief Justice of the Common Pleas in 1546; or a 17th-century copy.
A former owner, William Coleridge, 5th Baron Coleridge, was advised by Sotheby's that the collar was a 22-carat copy, and so sold it privately, in 2006, for ã35,000.
However, on 6 November 2008 the purchaser resold it, as a 20-carat original, for more than ã300,000, via Sotheby's rival Christie's.
In 2012, Lord Coleridge sued Sotheby's, at the High Court, London, for the difference. Lord Coleridge lost the case and had to pay some 90% of the costs, about ã1 million.