Jewellery of the Royals

Conclusion on Queen Alexandra and her Jewels..

2009-05-05T05:28:00.004+01:00

Greetings,

For the month of May the series of Queen Alexandra continues. Over a century ago, a story dealing with royalty, intrigue, and theft and it all surrounds a state visit to Ireland in July of 1907, by King Edward and Queen Alexandra.

The jewelry that was stolen was the Irish ‘crown jewels’, which was the insignia of the Illustrious Order of St Patrick, instituted in 1783 as the Irish equivalent of the Order of the Garter. They were created to be presented to the National Order of Chivalry of Ireland, the Order of Saint Patrick, for use by the Viceroy or visiting Sovereigns.
In 1830, the Crown Jewellers, Rundell & Bridge, created the regalia from jewels that had belonged to Queen Charlotte, the consort of George III. These diamonds, rubies, and other stones possibly included the rose diamond given to Charlotte by the Sultan of Turkey. The Honours of St. Patrick consisted of two principal pieces–the star and the badge. The eight-pointed star consisted mostly of Brazilian diamonds. In the centre, a shamrock of emeralds shone from the heart of a ruby cross which lay upon a background of blue enamel. Encircling this central motif was the motto of the order, Quis Separabit? (who can separate us?) and the date MDCCLXXIII (1783) all in rose diamonds. The badge was of similar splendour, with its trefoil of emeralds on a ruby cross surrounded by a blue enamel band bearing the motto and date in rose diamonds, which was itself enclosed in an outer circle of large Brazilian diamonds, the whole being surrounded by a harp and loop framed in diamonds. These creations joined some more traditional Irish regalia–two silver maces and the Irish Sword of State–which were carried before the Viceroy on State occasions.

In 1903, the Irish Crown Jewels were moved to Dublin Castle. It is a well known fact that British monarchs did not often visit Ireland. The first monarch to avail herself of the jewels was Victoria, who came with Prince Albert in 1849 and 1861. Nearly 40 years passed before the next royal visit again by Victoria in 1900. In 1903, Edward and Alexandra made a formal visit to Ireland, during which the jewels were used, and they returned again informally in April 1904. On 6 July 1907, the Irish 'crown jewels' were discovered to have been stolen from Dublin Castle along with jewellery owned by Vicars' mother - by persons unknown.

The jewels themselves were estimated to be worth about £40,000 in 1907, but of course their symbolic value was much greater. The King had intended to invest Lord Castletown as a Knight of the Order, but angered by the theft he cancelled the ceremony.

Now the mystery surrounding this whole story is the way it was reported and the Vice-Regal Commission had often suspected it was an inside job. Also, they suspected there was an official cover-up regarding the real culprit and the fate of the jewels. State jewels had been stolen before, only to be recovered, so for some time there was hope, even expectation, that the Irish Crown Jewels would reappear and the thieves be identified. But this never happened, at least not formally. The unsolved mystery coloured the King’s personal attitude to Ireland for the brief remainder of his reign. Finally, he abandoned the investigation, disgusted, it is said, with the inept detective system of Dublin.

Rumours have abounded over the fate of the jewels that they may still be hidden in Ireland, or somewhere in England, or alternatively are in the possession of a wealthy collector. Susan Hood, author of Royal Roots - Republican Inheritance which focuses on the Irish Office of Arms, said the jewels may have been broken up. "At the time with all the publicity they would have been hard to sell intact, but we'll never know for sure," she said.

Athough this article does not particularly address any stolen jewels of Alexandra I thought that it was such an interesting article. I found a link for the Irish National Archives which further discusses this fascinating subject.

http://www.nationalarchives.ie/topics/crown_jewels/

Now this concludes my series on Alexandra. Next month I will do several blogs on Queen Victoria and her jewelry.

Regards,

Chris

Jewelry of Queen Alexandra of Britain the former Princess of Wales

2009-05-05T03:40:00.008+01:00

Greetings,

I hope you enjoyed my first article on Queen Alexandra, a fascinating woman who dazzled the world with her wit, beauty, charm and the ability to look the other way. She continues to inspire women to this day. Although, I will be continuing the series about Alex and her stolen jewels, I thought I would take a slight detour and talk just a bit about a some events that happened in Alexandra’s life.

The first is during the summer of 1901, which was during the mourning for Queen Victoria. The new Queen wanted to make her mark and she commission Pierre Cartier to create several new pieces of jewelry for the new Queen. When Alexandra first came to England she had no real jewelry to call her own. Some of the personal gifts that her husband, the Prince of Wales received during his tour of India was eventually given to Alex. She also, took several old pieces of jewelry that was originally made for men and had them broken up and re-commissioned in new pieces for her to wear. One of her favorite pieces was a necklace made up of 71 pearls, 12 cabochon rubies, and 94 cabochon emeralds. This was the start of a very successful relationship for the House of Cartier.

London was all about the various events that were important on the social calender. On the right is a pictue of Alex at Howes for the yahting season. She felt the right clothes and jewels were essential in her role as Queen.

Another other important event on the royal social calendar is Christmas. I found an article on the Internet circa 19 Dec 1903 which talks about how she exclusively does her Christmas shopping from Buckingham Palace. The Queen is not like normal women where she takes a Hansom cab or a coach to look at all of the beautiful window displays and visiting the various shops with all of their tempting treats. No because of her royalty she must do her shopping from the relative privacy and comfort of Buckingham Palace. Shopkeepers send to the Palace a selection of their most expensive items and the Queen chooses what items she wants. The Queen does not allow trades people to take advantage of her. For example, if a tradesman had an item in his shop window for one price and wanted to sell it to her for an inflated price it would definitely not be safe for that tradesman to try. At Christmas time, the Queen does buy a lot of jewelry like pendants, bangles, pins and brooches. Some of the items she buys are very costly. This year, she will buy buttons ornamented with diamonds. And all of the rage is Tourmaline which appears in several pieces she has purchased. These days she has remarked that she takes her pleasure in selecting gifts for her grandchildren.

To take a step back in time is always such a thrill for me and I hope for you dear readers as well. In my next and I swear final post will be about Alex and those stolen jewels. Hope you enjoyed this little article..

Till next time,

Chris

Presenting: Chris!

2009-04-22T19:04:00.002+01:00

Dear readers,

Probably you all noticed her first article here, but I still would like to give her an 'official' welcome: Chris!

Christina is a wonderful woman and I have been in contact with her since long about our favourite royal: the late princess Diana. Also interested in the other British royals, history and jewellery, she is the perfect expert for all things British! I hope you will enjoy her posts and articles as much as I do!

Jewelry of Queen Alexandra of Britain the former Princess of Wales

2009-04-06T15:56:00.007+01:00

Greetings,

I am a contributer to this blog and would like to start of by thanking Sophie for allowing me to write about a subject that is near and dear to my heart that is jewelry and royalty. Now I am a fan, of antique jewelry because of the craftsmanship and the time it took to fashion an item and to also know that there was a history attached to each and every item makes it even more endearing to the owner itself.

One person, I would like to write about who has been wrote about very often was a very remarkable woman in her own right was Queen Alexandra, of Britain, the former Princess of Wales. Alexandra was born in Copenhagen during 1844. She was raised in frugal, but comfortable middle class suroudings. Alix as she was called was apart of the Danish royal family who were not well off hence the practice of frugality. The family lived in fairly moderate circumstanes. But the family made do with what they could and learned to be very crafty with making their money stretch far. This was done by re-trimming old dresses or learn to re-sew new ones.

Now we fast forward, to Alix marrying into the British Royal Family. Queen Victoria wanted her heir to marry German Royalty but alas at that time there really was no one quite suitable. After much to do, in 1863 Bertie and Alexandria were married. The British were very happy to know that this marriage was not another link to Germany Royalty. Although there was lots of celebrating lets not forget Prince Albert had died two years previously and mourning was still the order of the day. This was a marriage to someone who could never be faithful and did not know the meaning of the word. Alix had to deal with knowing her husband was a male whore. Because of her stiff upper lip attitude this endeared her even more to the British.

Alix as Princess of Wales had already became a trend setter with jewelry fashion. She knew what worked for her and stuck to it. In 1901, when Edward VII, age 56 years took the British throne was the official beginning of the Edwardian Period. The Edwardian style of jewelry had its beginnings in the Late-Victorian era. The Edwardian Period was a time when elegance and fashion became society's predominant values. Fashion, although inspired from the French courts of the eighteenth century, took on an almost ethereal lightness. Layers of delicate lace and feathers were incorporated onto garments rendered in the palest pastels or white on white. Diamonds were an essential ingredient in Edwardian Jewelry which represents some of the finest examples of diamond and platinum jewelry in existence. Edwardian jewelry was made to look as light and delicate as possible, reflecting the femininity of the Edwardian lady. This was the first time jewelry was made to be worn at night, lit by electricity, not candles! Alix loved her pearls and this was from a visit to India she took many back and incorporated them into what was known as her trademark. One of these well known examples was she often and she wore a a double-row of pearls or a long necklace usually made of pearls and ended in a tassel.

This photo depics an example of the jewelry that Alix wore. She loved brooches and this one was part of a set which was given to Princess Alexandra by the Prince of Wales as a wedding present in 1863 and which she wore on her wedding day. The brooch is set with three pearls and has three detachable pendant pearls suspended from single large diamonds.
Another example is this necklace again given to Princess Alexandra by the Prince of Wales as a wedding gift in 1863. She wore it on her wedding day. The necklace has eight circular clusters of diamonds with a large pearl in the centre of each connected by festoons of diamonds.

As you can see by the pictures she was indeed a very stylish lady who set the standard for fashion in her day. Although Edward VII died in 1910, the "Edwardian" style continued until the outbreak of the war. World War I put an abrupt end to the light hearted Edwardian spirit.

I will continue this series about Alexandra. The next post will be about her stolen jewels..

Till then,

Chris

Back again

2009-02-27T16:55:00.002+01:00

Jewellery of the Royals is back again. After a long time of no updates, I am ready again to make this one active. If you want to help as an co-editor of this blog, please contact me. It would be neat to create a whole team of editors on this subject!

Máxima's personal jewellery - part two : black and white pearl sets

2007-03-10T16:25:00.000+01:00

Máxima has two pearl sets, that both consists of earrings and necklace. She wears pieces of both sets often and seem to be a favourite. The earrings can be extended with an extra pearl and worn in three different ways as shown below. The sets are likely a gift, perhaps from her husband. (pictures: Maxie)

Máxima's personal jewellery - part one : orange coloured jewellery

2007-03-10T16:06:00.000+01:00

Since her engagement and wedding Máxima has build up a nice collection of orange coloured jewellery. It is my belief that these pieces are gifts from her husband Prince Willem-Alexander and that the collection started with her engagement ring which was designed by the Prince and contains an orange coloured stone. Likely she recieved more pieces after the birth of her daughters Catherina-Amalia and Alexia:

Earrings and brooch, first worn at the baptism of her eldest daughter Amalia (2004):

The same earrings, worn together with an necklace in 2005:

Pictures of 2006, with the visit of the royals of Luxemburg, statevisit to Argentina and her solo working visit to Brasil and Argentina (credit: Maxie) where she wears the earrings again:

The Brooches again

2007-03-10T15:56:00.000+01:00

Máxima took the brooches from Oslo to the statevisit in Turkey, Om March the 2nd (the last day of the visit) she wore the brooches again. The shape is good visible at this picture (Polfoto) :

Our other posts on these brooches:

http://jewellery-of-the-royals.blogspot.com/2007/02/maximas-brooches.html
http://jewellery-of-the-royals.blogspot.com/2007/02/oslo-festivities-princess-mxima-in-oslo.html

Maxima's brooches

2007-02-25T15:12:00.000+01:00

This is the best picture I could found of this event, on October 11 2006 in Basel at a conference of the Financial Stability Institute:

The brooches she wears here are very identical to the brooches she wore on her dress at the gala ball in Oslo (see previous post).

Oslo festivities: Princess Máxima in Oslo

2007-02-25T14:26:00.000+01:00

At the activities for the birthday of King Harald Princess Máxima of the Netherlands showed once more some pieces of the Dutch royal jewellery:

At the gala ball, February 24:

The Princess wears the Anna Paulowna Pearl Spike tiara. She wears the tiara for the third time, but the first time with the pearls on it.

The big pearl earrings are worn for the second time (the first time she worn them was in 2004 for the visit of the Swiss President).

The two little brooches at the left side and right side of her dress are also worn the second time. Provenance is not yet found out, but no doubt that they are family pieces.

The stomacher she wears is the Diamond Leaf brooch, also worn for the third time (first time at the banquet for the celebration 400 years Dutch-Australian relationships, second time at the 2006 Prinsjesdag)

The bracelet she wears at her left wrist is the Diamond and Pearl bracelet, that is often worn by Queen Beatrix. The large pearl can also be set in an necklace. This piece is also worn for the third time. Máxima worn the bracelet to banquet for the festivities of the Dutch-Australian relationships and the oval pearl in a necklace in 2003 with the visit of the Mexican president.

The bracelet at her right wrist seems to be a piece of the Bracelet of the Colonies, which is broken up according to Vorsten magazine jewellery expert Els Smit. It was broken up in two pieces: a bracelet that Máxima has worn to her pre-wedding ball and to the statevisit to Belgium in 2006.

More information:

All Things Royal: de nieuwe pareltiara - for pictures of Máxima wearing the oval pearl in a necklace and Máxima wearing the large pearl earrings. (Dutch)

All Things Royal: de Anna Paulowna-tiara - for pictures of Máxima wearing the Anna Paulowna tiara at previous events (Dutch)

Orange-Nassau jewels: Diamond Leaf brooch - for pictures of the Dutch royals wearing this brooch

Orange-Nassau jewels: Diamond Pearl Bracelet - for pictures of the Dutch royals wearing the bracelet

Orange-Nassau jewels: Bracelet of the Colonies - for pictures of the Dutch royals wearing this bracelet

Princess Mary pearl fantasy necklace

2007-02-24T20:31:00.000+01:00

Crownprincess Mary of Denmark has recycled a piece of personal jewellery last month, it's a necklace in a modern (fantasy-like) style with black pearls.

It was first worn on the 70th birthday of her father-in-law, the 11th of June 2004 (Polfoto) , along with her wedding tiara:

And on January 19, 2007 she wore it again:

Welcome to Jewellery of the Royals!

2007-02-24T18:02:00.000+01:00

Welcome to this blog about jewellery from the European royal families! Expect pictures, information and other things about royal jewellery.

This blog is set up as an collaborative project: a little team with expertise on the various houses will provide you regularly with information on this subject.

Sophie

founder and expert on the Dutch royal jewellery and the jewellery of the late princess Diana.