Jewellery-British Royal Family.

[DaisyDooley]

This thread is for pictures and question on the JEWELLERY Of the British Royal Family, Past and Current pieces. There may be posts about other Family’s Royal Jewels too.
It is only for discussing Jewels.
No discussions of current members of the RF, no de railing by talking about tax or ownership of certain pieces.
Just lovely pretty Jewels.

I agree Lunde , I like a bandeau tiara , but then my taste errs towards simplicity ( if tiaras and simplicity can be used in the same sentence 😂 ) I really liked the one M wore but I suspect that won't be seeing the light of day for a while. 😉

I'm a fan of pearls and HLMTQ I think did look good in her pearls. I have one string inherited from my granny which are real , but I am a bit of a softy for faux pearls which are more my budget.

Yes there is one more -Queen Mary’s Sunray Bandeau.. pictures posted of Princess Margaret wearing it. It hasn’t been seen for 60 years so l assume it’s back in the vault just wait8mg to be worn.
This has a large detachable sapphire brooch in the center.
Queen Mary also wore it with her carved emerald brooch. in the center
She LOVED adaptable pieces did our darling Mary.
The sunray tiara originally belonged to Tsarina Marie Fedrovna ( Mary’s aunt in law). All of the pieces of Romanov jewellry Mary bought seemed to be sapphires.

Interstingly when I was looking for a picture of the carved emerald brooch I came across this picture of Mary. She is wearing the carved emerald brooch on her right hand shoulder.
Now -
Hve a look at the stomacher she’s wearing.
At the bottom is the Cullinan Vl brooch with an emerald replacing the dangling Cullinan Vlll. And above it - is Cullinan V, the heart shaped brooch!!

@DaisyDooley Queen Mary did not subscribe to the advice of (I think it was Coco Chanel ) "look in the mirror before you leave the house and take one thing off" . Although from the sounds of it Queen Mary might have worn those around the house as well 😂

I think Queen Mary was above fashion and ploughed her own furrow -although while her husband was alive she wore clothes /accessories in the style he approved of.
When he died her skirt length shot up by a few inches!
His mother was Queen Alexandra though so he was used to seeing a woman wearing rather a lot of jewels at once.
Alexandra had had an operation- bravely - in the 1860s on her neck. We don’t know what it was for. She was self conscious of the scar (scars tended to be large then, and not nicely stitched) and started to wear high neck collars, lace and velvet ‘dog collars’ and then yards of Pearls and diamonds wrapped around her -admittedly lovely- neck.
Consequently we didn’t see her neck again really -she always had lots of chokers, rows of necklaces and strings of Pearls, and this became the fashion.
Women were then incredibly influenced by the Royal family.
Women used to wear their ‘best dress’ to get married in. White dresses only became popular after Queen Victoria married in off white silk.
Alexandra developed rheumatic fever while still young, this led her to walk with a limp for the rest of her life. Titled women, aristocratic well born women, women at court -they started to walk with a limp! A limp became fashionable! It seems utter madness now.
Personally I would copy the ropes of pearls around my neck but I’m less keen on the limp!
Here’s a picture of the lovely Alexandra with her fashion setting neck wear.

Hve a look at the stomacher she’s wearing.
At the bottom is the Cullinan Vl brooch with an emerald replacing the dangling Cullinan Vlll. And above it - is Cullinan V, the heart shaped brooch!!

And she's also wearing Cullinan VII above!

I never noticed it before but in that photo of Alexandra is there fabric on her neck underneath the pearls nearest her face ?

Yes - she often used lace/material/velvet around her neck -I expect a velvet band would be more comfortable than wearing the jewels directly on the skin -especially in the months/years after the operation.

Here is a picture of Alexandra taken in 1883 when she was Princess of Wales.
As you can see she is wearing a rather thick looking piece of material around her neck with a necklace (that was probably stitched) on it.
She has ‘stacked’ her necklaces.
She is also wearing the somewhat fabled -among royal jewel fanatics- Rundell Tiara. It was given to her as a wedding gift by her husband along with a pearl and diamond necklace, brooch and earrings set.
It has always struck me as odd that the necklace did not match the tiara which seems to have been a stand alone piece. It was hoped for many years that the tiara was hiding in the royal vault somewhere as is disappeared from public view after Alexandra died in 1925. It seems though that it was given to her daughter, -the unmarried Princess Victoria -during the division of Alexandra’s jewellry after her death - who privately disposed of it.

This is my favourite bandeau tiara.
It belonged to Princess Alice (Princess Andrew) of Greece & Denmark (originally born Princess Alice of Batternberg)-who was of course the mother of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh.
She gave it to her Daughter in law as a wedding gift. The Queen has never been publically seen in it and she gave it to her daughter -on lifetime loan I suspect.
Its simplicity and Greek lines are lovely.
It’s very much Suited to Princess Anne’s style. I loved that Zara chose to wear this tiara with its lovely family connection for her wedding.

Picture of Greek Meander tiara.

One thing I love with tiaras is that you can tell the hair colour of the last wearer, as the mounting bit gets rebound in cloth (looks like ribbon to me) that's more or less the same colour.

A necklace that I love is Alexandra's "Collier Resille" (literally a fishnet necklace). Such an unusual and delicate piece - I think Kate would look fantastic in it.

@SqueakyDinosaur its thin velvet ribbon that they use.
Yes, I love that necklace too.
In fairness there’s very little I don’t like,
If I could go anywhere in the world for 24 hrs I would without doubt go into the jewellery room/safe and try everything on. And I mean, everything.

I think I like the bandeau tiara that Meghan wore for her wedding better than the Leander, but they are both lovely. But the Vladimir's always been my favourite, I think.

On the Royal Style thread, there used to be a spreadsheet of who had bagsied which tiaras (not just royal ones). IIRC I had the Imperial Russian Nuptial Tiara and the Boucheron Wave.

A fabulous thread, thank you. Love a bit of bling.

Ahhhh @SqueakyDinosaur . The Vladimir.
I wondered when that would get a mention.

Let’s give a bit of history for those who don’t know.
Once upon a time a lovely German Princess called Marie married a son of the Tsar. In accordance with Russian tradition she took a Russian name and became the Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna. Her husband was called Vladimir -so sometimes she was called Grand Duchess Vladimir and that’s why we have the Vladimir tiara.
The Tiara was made by a Russian jeweller -Bolin - who made it quite ‘bendy’ (for want of a better word). It was set with removable pearls.
Marie Pavlovna had a fantastic jeweller collection -it rivalled and even exceeded that of the Tsarina.
Time ticked on and the Russian Revolution happened. Marie left all of her jewels hidden in a huge safe in her bedroom.
The family managed to get to a villa they owned in the south of Russia but were running out of money -so a plan was made between one of Marie’s sons and a British diplomat. They managed to (God knows how) get to the palace, get in, open the safe and remove the jewellry which amazingly was all still there. It was shoved boxless into two Gladstone bags and (again God knows how) made its way with the British diplomat out of Russia, through Finland (from memory) and to London where it was deposited in a bank.
Marie Pavlovna was the last member of the Imperial family to make it out of Russia. She escaped on a tug boat, made her way to Venice and then to Paris (which was the congregation point of the Russians fleeing for their lives). Sadly the house arrest in Russia, the journey and the devastation at what had happened took its toll and she died within a few months.
Her Daughter had to sell the vast majority of her jewellry and our own Mary bought the Vladimir tiara which had been quite badly damaged during its Gladstone bag escape. Mary sent it straight to Garrards who repaired it and then later adapted some of the fabled Cambridge Emeralds to be swapped with the pearls. Mary left the piece to her granddaughter Queen Elizabeth.

The Queen had to (at some point this century, i can’t remember the year) had to have Garrards completely remake the frame as it had become unstable due to gold decay and the damage inflicted on it in 1919. What a huge job that must have been for Garrards. It was made ‘solid’ so it’s set in position.

I have wondered this for years though - Queen Mary’s daughter in Law was Princess Marina of Greece. Princess Marinas maternal grandmother was none other than Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna. Marina could remember summers at her Grandmothers palace and one of their favourite things to do was -under the watchful eye of grandmama -to play with Granny’s jewellry which was (while GD Marie Pavlovna was in residence) in glass boxes in her dressing room. Granny apparently loved telling her grandaughters stories about when she had worn certain pieces while they strutted round the room dripping with jewels.
I wonder how Marina felt when she saw her mother in law wearing her granny’s tiara that her own mother had been forced to sell.

I’ve got many pictures of it. I’ll show you some on the following g posts.

Grand Duchess Marie Pavlovna wearing the tiara without the pearls as a ‘coronet’ at a costume ball utilising its bendy-ness. When it’s worn without any jewels it’s called wearing it ‘widowed’.

HM QEll wearing the tiara ‘widowed’ and with the emeralds.
Poignantly this was the last tiara worn by HM in public.
I rather like that this beautiful tiara was worn last. Now I’m just hoping we see it on Camilla soon. I would be terribly impressed if The Queen had some sapphires, Ruby’s or something amazing like fire opals to alternate with the emeralds and Pearls.

Really interesting hearing all these details.

Do you know who decided how the Cullinan rough diamond would be split? Was it the jeweller or did the royals ask for certain pieces?

I wondered would it have more value as one huge one as it would be rarest, or was it so big to be impractical? Seems such a waste to have lost such a lot in cutting and polishing!

The necklace of diamonds the queen is wearing in the first picture has a detachable large pear shaped diamond and Camilla wears it a lot, as did Queen Victoria- I don’t know the name of it but love it!

The Asschers would have decided on how the diamond was cut.
It was examined by Joseph M Asscher for over three months before it was cleaved.
They couldn’t scan it like we can now so they mapped it for visible inclusions, stress lines & fractures.
A diamond -the naturally occurring crystal -has an octagonal structure. It has 4 ‘planes’ -and a sucessful split requires it to be struck on one of these planes .
If this is done incorrectly the diamond will shatter.
So it’s not a case of saying ‘I want a single brilliant cut diamond from this stone ‘ it’s a case of saying ‘how can you cut this stone? How many pieces can you get from it? What shape will these pieces be able to be cut into to get the best weight out of each piece’
So every large rough diamond contains many internal cracks and imperfections.
A good cutter sees these as a ‘guide’ to help them work out the best way to cleave the piece rather than Imperfections. So instead of thinking “I can get a 700ct diamond out of this beauty” they think more “l can get a 530ct and a 250ct and a 70th (these are just example figures).
It’s getting the most out of the stone by using the imperfections as a guide.

Joseph cut a groove in the stone along an ‘imperfection’ -then he inserted a steel blade which he had had specially made , which snapped as itwas struck. Luckily he was the best diamond cutter in the world so he has back ups. He knew what he was doing. He inserted a fresh blade and this time it split exactly how he had hoped.

It was INCREDIBLY difficult though. The stone wasn’t transparent to see every internal flaw. They couldn’t X Ray it, or scan it, or cut with lasers.
Everything was done by eye, with hands and using experience. His judgement with this stone is staggering considering what he had to work with -which was loupes and microscopes.
Asscher had none of the tools and aids available today.
His sucess with the Cullinan is regarded as the benchmark, the most impressive cut ever considering what he had to work with. He was a genius in his field -possibly the best diamond cutter there has ever been to date. His skill will never be surpassed.
Remember -the Cullinan is still the largest gem quality diamond ever found which makes Joseph’s achievement all the more impressive.
Here are images of
a)the stone in its original rough
b) the stone in its rough cut form
c)the stones cut and polished

Hope that helps you understand the process a little.

Ahhh -you are getting it muddled up a little.
The necklace the Late Queen is wearing there is a collet necklace.
Theres quite a few of them in the royal vault and a lot of them are very similar -so we don’t quite hve names for each one or know their provenance.

The necklace I think you re thinking of is the coronation necklace.
Queen Victoria got this necklace in 1858. She left it -and the matching earrings - as ‘heirlooms of the crown’(see earlier post for explanation of this).
Alexandra wore the necklace on her coronation day but attached the pendant (the Lahore diamond) to another necklace. She also chose to wear her wedding earrings at her own coronation.
However, Mary, Elizabeth, Elizabeth ll and Camilla have all worn the necklace with the pendant on their coronation day. It’s sometimes worn for the state opening of parliament too.
The Queens all wore the earrings too -apart from Camilla who has not got her ears pierced. Many of the jewels are considered to voluble and not suitable for ‘clip ons’ so she wore a pair of her own earrings.

Pictures below.
Please also note ladies Cullinan V brooch used at the front of Camilla crown which was originally Queen Mary’s.

Thank you I’m really enjoying this thread. 🤩🤩🤩

Yes! Thank you, that is indeed the piece I was thinking of! I can see now that these diamonds are much larger, which is probably why I like it 🤣

I really love this tiara, thanks OP

Really enjoying the details in this thread.