The Court Jeweller

Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

This Week in Royal Jewels: January 10-16

by // Leave a Comment

January 10-16, 2014
Before we do a rundown of the sparkliest royal outings of the week, I thought I’d highlight my most bejeweled moment from last week. I was interviewed by author Deanna Raybourn for her blog. Deanna writes fabulous novels, including a set of Victorian-era mysteries that I absolutely love. We talked royal jewels, of course. Interested in my favorite royal pieces? Wonder what jewelry I wear on a regular basis? Pop over to Deanna’s blog for more! (And check out her books while you’re at it!)

Mediterranean Royals

It’s been a tough couple of weeks for the Spanish royal family, but Queen Sofia and Princess Letizia have managed to keep up appearances through the turmoil. Sofia wore a brooch to visit the “La Pasion del Prado” documentary exhibition in Madrid on January 8, and she selected a strand of multi-colored pearls for a film premiere the same day. At the palace, Letizia chose a simple pair of earrings for an audience on the 8th; she repeated the same earrings at another audience the following day. The two women also recycled some of the same jewels on January 14, when they attended the delivery of the decorations of the Civil Order Of Social Solidarity at the palace.

It was time for a more literal circus in Monaco, where Prince Albert, Princess Charlene, Princess Stephanie, and Pauline Ducruet opened the 38th annual Circus Festival on January 16. Charlene, as per usual, went without jewelry, but both Stephanie and Pauline wore bracelets. Charlotte Casiraghi made her first public appearance on Tuesday since the birth of her son, Raphael. She wore little jewelry herself, but as she was attending the Cartier exhibit at the Grand Palais in Paris (discussed at length on the blog on Wednesday), here’s hoping she was inspired by her surroundings. She’ll have a good reason to don some jewels soon — plans are underway for her big brother, Andrea Casiraghi, to wed Tatiana Santo Domingo again in a religious ceremony in Switzerland on February 1.

Scandinavian Royals

In Norway, Queen Sonja attended an event celebrating the Kiel Treaty of 1814 on Tuesday, one of the first events to mark the the bicentennial of the nation’s constitution. The plans for celebrating that milestone got a bit sparklier this week, when King Carl XVI Gustaf and Queen Silvia of Sweden announced that they will attend the celebrations after all. They’ll join the Norwegian royal family and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark at the event, which will be held on May 17.

Back in Stockholm, the king and queen held an audience of the county governors of Sweden on January 9, where Silvia wore a striking red necklace. Crown Princess Victoria demonstrated her dedication to her role on Wednesday, attending presenting an award wearing an elaborate necklace and a heavy brace on her ankle, which she sprained recently while skiing in the Alps. The Swedes also announced that their newest jewel-wearer, the daughter of Princess Madeleine, will be born in February in New York City.

It was a somber week in Denmark, where the funeral for Countess Anne-Dorte of Rosenborg was held on January 9th. Anne-Dorte was the widow of Count Christian of Rosenborg, who was a first cousin of Queen Margrethe II, Princess Benedikte, and Queen Anne-Marie of Greece. Margrethe and Prince Henrik represented the Danish royal family at the funeral, and Anne-Dorte’s sister-in-law, Princess Elisabeth, was also in attendance. After making an official visit to Myanmar, Crown Princess Mary was back to work in Denmark this week. She wore a pair of delicate, dangling earrings and an impressive diamond ring to inaugurate the new head office of Royal Copenhagen on Wednesday, showing off the style that earned her Hello! readers’ votes for Most Elegant Woman of 2013.

Benelux Royals

The new sovereign couple in Belgium, King Philippe and Queen Mathilde, attended a new year’s reception for European Union representatives on January 10. Mathilde accessorized an elegant gray dress with a pair of dangling diamond earrings and glittering bracelets on each wrist. Mathilde sparkled in another pair of beautiful earrings at a diplomatic reception on January 15.

New Year’s receptions were also on the docket in the Netherlands. On January 14, a reception was held at the palace in Amsterdam, and was attended by King Willem-Alexander, Queen Maxima (who wore an impressive suite of aquamarines, including a large brooch), Princess Beatrix, Princess Margriet, and Pieter van Vollenhoven. Beatrix also made several solo appearances, selecting pearls and sapphires for a jubilee concert on January 9, and wearing golden jewelry to an anniversary event for an equestrian organization on January 11. Maxima also made a bejeweled appearance on her own, wearing striking red earrings on January 9 in Haarlem. And the ladies of the family weren’t the only ones wearing bling: Willem-Alexander wore his military finery for an event in The Hague on January 9.

Happy news comes this week from one of the newest princesses in Luxembourg: Prince Felix and Princess Claire are expecting a baby this July. Here’s hoping that it’s yet another Nassau princess to delve into the family jewel vault!

British Royals

While the royals are still on vacation, the lists detailing the gifts they received while on official engagements in 2013 were released; you can read about the jewels they received in yesterday’s blog post. This week has also seen the identification of one of the sparkliest jewels in the Duchess of Cambridge‘s collection. Readers from the Duchess Kate blog noted that the diamond and ruby necklace worn by Kate to the 2011 Sun Military Awards resembled jewels made by Mouawad. Official confirmation came this week that the jewels were indeed made by the same company. We know now where the set came from, but we still haven’t been told who gave it to Kate — only that it was among her wedding presents.

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.

British Royal Gifts 2013

by // Leave a Comment

The British royal family attends Trooping the Colour, June 2013 [1]
Every January, the three major British royal palace offices — Buckingham Palace, Clarence House, and Kensington Palace — release lists of the gifts given to senior royals during official engagements. They range from the academic (a copy of a medical journal) to the weird (a garden gnome) to the edible (a chocolate Windsor Castle). But among the lists, you’ll also find a number of sparkling objects. Here’s a rundown of the jewels received by the Windsors in 2013.
Buckingham Palace
Gifts received by Queen Elizabeth II, the Duke of Edinburgh, the Duke of York, the Princess Royal, the Earl and Countess of Wessex, the Duke and Duchess of Gloucester, the Duke of Kent, and Princess Alexandra are catalogued and released by Buckingham Palace.
Gifts received by the Queen and Prince Philip included a number of pieces of jewelry:
— From the President of the United Arab Emirates, a five-strand pearl necklace

— From the President of the United Arab Emirates, a gold jeweled photograph frame set on a jeweled ostrich egg

— From the High Commissioner of Bangladesh, four enameled scarab beetles
— From the Lieutenant-Governor of Saskatchewan, a diamond and tourmaline brooch (see a photo here) [2]

— From the Newhaven Chamber of Commerce, a gold rose tie pin

Buckingham Palace has not released the full lists of gifts received by the royals. Early yesterday, the lists were published by the Telegraph, but they were later removed.
Clarence House
Gifts received by the Prince of Wales, the Duchess of Cornwall, and Prince Harry are all catalogued and released by the press office at Clarence House [3]. They only release information about gifts received during foreign trips.
Harry didn’t receive any jewels (sadly for him), but his father and stepmother received a number of pieces:
— From HH Maharaja Manujendra Shah and Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah, a silver and turquoise octagonal box
— From the President of Sri Lanka, a pair of cufflinks

— From the Kudumbashree Rural Project, a pair of earrings
— From a private individual, a faux pearl necklace
— From the pupils from The Mahis Secondary School for Girls, a craft bracelet
— From HH Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser, an obsidian and enamel box
— From HM King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, The Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, a parure
— From HM The Sultan of Oman, a necklace

— From a private individual, two pairs of cufflinks, two tie pins and three pin badges

— From a private individual, a pewter tie pin
— From a private individual, a pair of cufflinks
— From a private individual, two seed necklaces
— From a private individual, a lapel pin
— From a private individual, a briefcase containing a pen, a tie and jewelry

There’s been no other details about the big jewelry item on this list: the parure gifted to Camilla by King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Here’s hoping we learn more about this suite of jewelry soon!

Kensington Palace
While last year’s list of royal gifts was full of presents for the yet-to-be-born Prince George, William and Kate made no overseas visits this year, so they’re not included on any of the 2013 gifts lists. That should change next year, as the family is prepping for a visit to Australia in 2014.

It’s worth noting that all of the gifts listed above are not the private, personal possessions of the royals who receive them. They can’t sell them, but they can wear and display them — and in the case of jewels, thank goodness for that!

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Cropped version of photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
2. The brooch was made by Rachel Mielke for Hillberg & Berk on a commission from the lieutenant governor. The floral piece features Madagascar tourmaline petals, lined with diamonds, surrounding a freshwater pearl. The brooch is set in eighteen-carat gold. Read more about the piece here and here.
3. For a full list of gifts, visit the media page at the Prince of Wales’s website.

Cartier: Style and History

by // Leave a Comment

On display for the first time: a sapphire worn by Queen Marie of Romania at her coronation [1]
If you happen to find yourself in Paris between now and the middle of February, you simply must find time to visit a glittering collection of jewels that includes a number of important and familiar royal gems. The Grand Palais is currently hosting an exhibition on the work of Cartier, showcasing pieces from the nineteenth century alongside more contemporary creations.
Among the 600 jewels in the exhibition, Cartier: Le Style et L’Histoire features a number of highly recognizable royal pieces. One of the most impressive is the sapphire pictured above. In the early 1920s, King Ferdinand of Romania purchased it from Cartier for his wife, Queen Marie. She wore the sapphire, which weighs more than 478 carats, to her coronation in 1922. The family probably sold the sapphire around 1947, when Marie’s grandson, King Michael, was forced to abdicate. It has been auctioned several times in the decades since, and in 2003, Christie’s sold the gem for almost $1.5 million [2]. Joelle Diderich notes that this is the first time that the sapphire, which is often said to be one of the largest ever discovered, has ever been exhibited to the public [3].
The Williamson diamond brooch [4]

The pieces loaned to the exhibition by Queen Elizabeth II have been seen by the public on a much more regular basis. One is the phenomenal Williamson brooch (pictured at right), which features one of the most valuable pink diamonds in the world. The diamond, which weighs more than 23 carats, was given to the queen by John Williamson as a wedding present in 1947 [5]. Cartier designed the brooch to complement the stone five years later. Unfortunately, Suzy Menkes says that the exhibit does not display the piece to its greatest effect, because the “low lighting does not do this rose pink stone justice” [6]. The other piece loaned by Elizabeth to the exhibit is perhaps even more recognizable: it’s the Halo tiara that the Duke of York (later George VI) purchased for his wife from Cartier in 1936. We know it better today as the Duchess of Cambridge’s wedding tiara [7]. The curators of this exhibition knew to capitalize on that famous connection; Kim Willsher explains, “To ensure its significance did not go unremarked, there was a framed photograph of Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, wearing the Halo diadem – ‘something borrowed’ from the Queen – at her wedding to Prince William in 2011” [8].

Diamond tiara once owned by Queen Elisabeth of Belgium [9]

But Kate’s wedding tiara isn’t the only diadem in the exhibition that has connections to royalty. Doulton reports that “one of the first cases displays a revolving carousel of diamond tiaras that shower out sparkles of light and revolve just slowly enough to take in their delicate grace,” marveling that it makes the viewer feel like her or she is “standing pressed against the wall at a ball during the height of the Belle Époque” [10]. One of these sparklers is the diamond and platinum bandeau (pictured above) acquired from Cartier by Queen Elisabeth of the Belgians in 1912. The tiara was worn by Elisabeth at several major royal occasions, including the weddings of her son and grandson. It was eventually sold back to Cartier by Princess Lilian, Elisabeth’s daughter-in-law, in 1987 [11].

The Essex tiara [12]

And there are plenty of other tiaras with royal connections, too. The Essex tiara (pictured above), made for a countess and later worn by the wife of a prime minister (that’d be Lady Churchill) and a crown princess (Margarita of Romania), is on display [13]. So are two tiaras from the collection of Marie Bonaparte, including her olive wreath tiara [14].

The Windsor flamingo
brooch [16]

As you might expect, there are a number of objects included in the exhibition that were worn by Princess Grace of Monaco. The Grimaldis have loaned Grace’s engagement ring, an impressive diamond and platinum necklace, several animal brooches, and the three brooches that make up the Bains de Mer tiara [15]. And another pair of famous royal Cartier customers, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, are represented by several jewels. The duke’s grandfather, Edward VII, famously dubbed Cartier “the jeweler of kings,” and although David abandoned his throne, he continued to patronize the jeweler as if he were still a sovereign. Among the duchess’s jewels on display are her famous flamingo brooch (pictured at right) and one of her diamond panthers, this one perched on an enormous cabochon sapphire. Jewels from other American collectors like Gloria Swanson, Elizabeth Taylor, and Barbara Hutton sparkle throughout as well.

The Patiala bib necklace [17]

But it’s a jewel that belonged to a male customer, not a woman, that perhaps steals the entire show. Cartier has loaned a restored version of the famous Patiala necklace (pictured at left) to the exhibition. Ordered from Cartier in 1928 by Bhupinder Singh, the Maharaja of Patiala, this bib necklace originally featured the yellow De Beers diamond in its pendant element. That diamond alone weighed more than 234 carats; the restored version of the necklace features a replica stone in its place (along with other replacement stones throughout). Doulton marvels that the “jaw-dropping” necklace, which features diamonds “the size of conkers,” is able to be “seen from across the vast room” [18]. The necklace was discovered in pieces in 1998, identified as Cartier, and restored.

The exhibition is being held at the Grand Palais, located on the Avenue de Champs-Élysées, until February 16, though it is closed on Tuesdays. Much more is available at the exhibition’s website. But if you, like me, can’t make it to Paris to see these remarkable gems before the show closes in a few weeks, there’s another alternative available. An iPad app, which features gorgeous, high-definition photos of many of the famous royal gems in the exhibition, is available for $3.99. Its text is in English, and it’s quite a bit cheaper than a round-trip ticket to France!

A note: special thanks to reader Nancy, who was lucky enough to visit the exhibition, for sending me the gorgeous photographs in this post and giving me permission to use them on the blog. Thank you so much!

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Photograph taken by blog reader Nancy. Used with the kind permission of the photographer. Do not reproduce without the photographer’s consent.

2. See New York Magazine’s blog, The Cut, here.
3. See Women’s Wear Daily‘s review of the Cartier exhibition here.
4. Photograph taken by blog reader Nancy. Used with the kind permission of the photographer. Do not reproduce without the photographer’s consent.
5. In The Queen’s Diamonds, Hugh Roberts states, “Dr Williamson presented the diamond (uncut and weighing 54.5 metric carats) to Princess Elizabeth” (pg. 294). See also Field, pg. 102, and the Royal Collection website.
6. See the New York Times review of the Cartier exhibition here.
7. See more on the Halo tiara in this post at A Tiara a Day.
8. See the Guardian review of the Cartier exhibition here.
9. Photograph taken by blog reader Nancy. Used with the kind permission of the photographer. Do not reproduce without the photographer’s consent.
10. See the Telegraph review of the Cartier exhibition here.
11. See more on the Cartier bandeau in this post at A Tiara a Day.
12. Photograph taken by blog reader Nancy. Used with the kind permission of the photographer. Do not reproduce without the photographer’s consent.
13. See more on the Essex tiara in this post at A Tiara a Day.
14. See more on the olive wreath tiara in this post at A Tiara a Day.
15. See more on the Bains de Mer tiara in this post at A Tiara a Day.
16.  Photograph taken by blog reader Nancy. Used with the kind permission of the photographer. Do not reproduce without the photographer’s consent.
17.  Photograph taken by blog reader Nancy. Used with the kind permission of the photographer. Do not reproduce without the photographer’s consent.
18. See the Telegraph review of the Cartier exhibition here.