The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

This Week in Royal Jewels: February 28-March 6

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February 28-March 6, 2014
10. At the launch of the Christ Church Cathedral Music Trust at St. James’s Palace, Queen Elizabeth II wore her Pearl Triangle Brooch, which features a yellow diamond alongside two rather large pearls.
9. She may normally eschew major jewelry, but the Princess of Asturias selected some delightfully sparkly hoop earrings and a coordinating bracelet for a tribute to Enrique V. Iglesias — the economist, not the singer! — in Madrid.
8. Crown Princess Victoria chose a suitably dramatic pair of earrings for a visit to the Opera Garnier in Paris on Thursday.
7. It has been long said that the Cartier Pearl Drop Tiara owned by the Monegasque princely family was given to Princess Charlotte (the grandmother of the current sovereign prince) by her new husband, Prince Pierre, as a wedding gift in 1920. Cartier recently confirmed, however, that the piece was actually made in 1949, nearly thirty years later.
6. The Swedish royal family has officially launched a YouTube channel; with the announcement, they also released a new formal portrait of King Carl XVI Gustaf and Crown Princess Victoria, who is wearing the large Napoleonic Cut Steel Tiara.
5. Queen Elizabeth II chose one of her most frequently worn brooches, the Pearl Trefoil, for a visit to Reed’s School in Cobham on Thursday.
4. This week, members of the extended former royal family of Greece (including the Spanish royal branch of the family and Crown Prince Alexander of Serbia) have gathered in Athens to honor the memory of the late King Paul of the Hellenes, who died fifty years ago yesterday. At the premiere of a documentary about him, Queen Anne-Marie showed off a bit of national pride by wearing a small brooch featuring what appears to be the Greek flag.
3. The always-elegant Princess Marie-Chantal wore a statement necklace to the film premiere. (She’s also been posting some snaps of the family attending the events in Athens on her Instagram account.)
2. For the same event, Queen Sofia of Spain (the elder daughter of King Paul) sparkled in a number of multi-stranded necklaces.
1. At the mass at Tatoi on Thursday commemorating the fiftieth anniversary of King Paul’s death, Queen Sofia donned a sentimental piece of heirloom jewelry: a pearl necklace worn with a diamond and ruby pendant, which she inherited from her late mother, Queen Friederike of the Hellenes. She also wore a second necklace with a charm that appears to feature a portrait of her late father.

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Banner image: detail of The Marriage of George, Duke of York to Princess Mary of Teck (1894) by Laurits Tuxen. Image in the public domain; source here.

Royal Aquamarines

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Queen Elizabeth II wears her Brazilian aquamarine parure [1]
It’s March, which means it’s time to celebrate another birthstone gem: the aquamarine! [2] This semi-precious stone, which flirts with both green and blue in its various hues, is a calming stone. It’s also supposed to offer protection to those who travel on the sea, which is appropriate given its maritime name. Aquamarines are extremely popular in the world of royal jewels — let’s look at some of the most interesting examples out there, shall we?
Countess of Wessex [3]
The Brazilian Aquamarine Parure
Few reigning monarchs have as many aquamarines in their royal vaults as Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, who has been collecting a tidy number of aquamarine pieces since her coronation in 1953. That year, the people of Brazil gifted her with an aquamarine necklace and earrings to celebrate the start of her reign. Some of the largest, best-quality aquamarines in the world are found in Brazil, and they’ve continued to supplement the Queen’s collection over the years. In 1958, they added a bracelet and a brooch, and in 1971, they gave her an aquamarine hair ornament. Elizabeth liked the set so much that she had a tiara commissioned to match, which she has had reset over the years; you can see its current incarnation above. She’s also got a smaller aquamarine tiara in a floral design, now worn by her daughter-in-law, the Countess of Wessex (see the photograph at left). And that’s only part of Elizabeth’s aquamarine collection. Notably, among other pieces,  she also frequently sports a pair of Cartier aquamarine clips, given to her by her parents as an eighteenth birthday present.
The Dutch Aquamarine Parure
The Brits aren’t the only ones with a substantial collection of aquamarines. The Dutch royal vaults contain a married parure of aquamarine jewels, given over the course of a decade to Queen Juliana. It includes an art deco tiara, a necklace, a rectangular brooch, and a pair of earrings. Juliana’s husband, Prince Bernhard, also gave her a rather enormous diamond and aquamarine pendant; today, that piece is often worn suspended from a diamond brooch by the current Dutch consort, Queen Maxima [4].
Alexandra Feodorovna’s Aquamarines
The last tsarina of Russia, Alexandra Feodorovna, was fond of aquamarines. Her husband, Tsar Nicholas II, presented her with a large Siberian aquamarine and diamond brooch as an engagement present in 1894. The piece was made by Fabergé, and today it’s in the vaults at Wartski’s in London. Alix also owned an aquamarine tiara that’s right up there on my list of personal favorites: a diamond and aquamarine kokoshnik that featured a stunning geometric design. The fate of that tiara is unknown; you’ll see modern copies of it floating around the internet (hint: if the image of the tiara is in color, not black and white, it’s a copy of the original tiara, not the real thing) [5], but the real tiara, like so many Romanov jewels, has apparently vanished.
Ena of Spain [6]
Queen Ena’s Aquamarine Tiara
After she married King Alfonso XIII of Spain, Ena of Battenberg put in a tiara request: she wanted a tiara featuring drop pearls. Ansorena made a delicate diamond and pearl tiara for her (you can see the original pearl version of the tiara in the photograph on the right). Later, Ena’s daughter, Beatriz, decided to have the piece altered by Bulgari, swapping out the pearls for a set of Brazilian aquamarines. The entire tiara was reworked, transitioning from an Edwardian piece to a sparkler made of interlocking circles, much like the British Vladimir tiara. Today, the aquamarine tiara, which also has a coordinating necklace, stomacher, bracelet, ring, and earrings, belongs to Ena’s granddaughters, Sandra and Olimpia. However, the piece has also recently been worn by another royal: Princess Sibilla, Olimpia’s daughter, who is the wife of Prince Guillaume of Luxembourg. Despite efforts by the current Spanish king to acquire the aquamarines [7], they remain with Ena’s Italian/Luxembourgish descendants.
These, of course, are only a selection of the aquamarine pieces in royal hands today — which aquamarine jewels top your must-have list?
NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Cropped and retouched version of a photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
2. Trivia: March also has a second birthstone, the bloodstone, which is also meant to have healing powers. I assume all of you March babies out there are extremely healthy and evenly tempered.
3. Cropped version of a photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
4. As always, much more about these Dutch jewels can be found at John’s website.
5. Ursula has a page dedicated to the aquamarines, but again, the color images of the tiara, necklace, and earrings are of reproduction pieces.
6. Cropped version of a photograph in the public domain; source here.
7. See the Luxarazzi blog entry on the aquamarines for details on the attempted acquisition.

Victoria Melita’s Meander Kokoshnik

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Victoria Melita of Edinburgh (as a Russian grand duchess) wearing her kokosnik, ca. 1913 [1]
We’ve flipped the calendar over to March, which means it’s time for a new Magpie of the Month here at the Court Jeweller! This month, I’ll be featuring jewels worn by Princess Victoria Melita of Edinburgh, the granddaughter of Queen Victoria was a Grand Duchess of Hesse and a Grand Duchess of Russia during her lifetime. Let’s kick off the month by looking at one of her Russian tiaras, a piece that resides today with the former royal family of Romania.

Victoria Melita — who got her unusual middle name because she was born in Malta — was the third child of Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh (and later also Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha; he was a son of Prince Albert and Queen Victoria) and Grand Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia. The princess, who was called “Ducky” by her family, was married twice. Her first marriage to Prince Ernst of Hesse (her first cousin, and the brother of Tsarina Alexandra Feodorovna) was a disaster, and she had to wait until their mutual grandmother, Queen Victoria, died before she could divorce him. Tainted by the scandal, Ducky was a bit of an outcast in royal circles, but she ended up making another royal marriage, this time to a Romanov. Her 1905 wedding to yet another first cousin, Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich — the son of Maria Pavlovna the Elder, owner of the famous Vladimir Tiara — caused further outrage, but the pair were in love. Unfortunately, their marriage wasn’t exactly an unqualified success either, but so goes the story of so many royal marriages from a century ago.


Today’s piece of jewelry, her meander tiara, is from the time of her second marriage. Befitting a Russian grand duchess, this tiara started off as a kokoshnik. (We talked yesterday about the definition of kokoshnik — head over that way if you need a refresher!)  Look closely at the photo of Victoria Melita above; you can see the thinner bands of diamonds that mark the top of the kokoshnik shape. Those bands are set atop the fabric backing that is attached to the diamond meander, or “Greek key,” design. You can even see a bit of the ribbon used to secure the kokoshnik; it’s tied in a bow at the nape of Ducky’s neck. She’s wearing Russian court dress in the photograph, which is why you can also see a veil attached to the back of her headpiece.
Appropriately, the tiara is said to have been a present to Ducky from her Russian second husband, Grand Duke Kirill. But, sadly, we all know what happened to Russian royals in the early twentieth century, so it should come as no surprise that when Kirill and Ducky fled Russia after the revolution, she sold the tiara. Ducky didn’t have to look far for a buyer. Her sister, Queen Marie of Romania stepped in to acquire the tiara. Marie was something of a sure bet for her Romanov relatives looking to unload jewels in exchange for cash; she’d lost most of her jewelry during the war, and she was looking to buy replacement pieces just as the Romanovs were in need of funds. 
Even so, Marie didn’t buy this piece for herself. Her son, Carol, was preparing to marry Princess Helen of Greece and Denmark, and a new Romanian crown princess needed a suitably grand tiara. The motif of the tiara was also especially well-suited for a bride from the Greek royal family; in ancient Greece, the meander was one of the most important cultural symbols, representing infinity. The Greek key tiara was altered, turned into a flexible bandeau, and given to the Greek princess, who wore it at her wedding in 1921. Helen frequently wore the bandeau low across her forehead, as so many ’20s princesses did with their tiaras. She also wore it suspended from bands that criss-crossed the top of her head.

Carol and Helen’s marriage was, sadly, just as disastrous as Ernst and Ducky’s had been a generation earlier. But their son, Michael, did end up reigning as Romanian king before finally being compelled to abdicate in 1947. Even though he lost his throne, his family was able to retain this tiara. His wife, Princess Anne of Bourbon-Parma, wore the tiara to their wedding in 1948. Their daughter, Princess Maria, also wore the tiara at her wedding in 1995. Today, the piece is worn most frequently by Michael and Anne’s eldest daughter, Margarita. She often represents her father at European royal events, giving her plenty of opportunities to show off the family’s only remaining heirloom tiara.

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Cropped version of photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.