The Duchess of Atholl’s Peridot Tiara Sold in New York

August is the month for celebrating the grassy-green peridot, and today, we’ve got a closer look at a recently-auctioned tiara set with the gemstone–and its fascinating Scottish aristocratic history.

In June, Doyle Auctions in New York offered for sale a fascinating convertible necklace/tiara set with diamonds and peridots. The jewel, made around 1890, was described as a belle époque piece, set with five cut-cornered rectangular-cut peridots (about 115.25 total carats), one oval and four cut-cornered rectangular peridots (about 10.45 total carats), old-mine cut diamonds (about 10.85 total carats), and small old-mine and rose-cut diamonds. The lot also included the fittings to mount the necklace as a tiara, as well as a fitted box bearing the name of the firm that likely made the piece: Collingwood.

The lot notes also hinted at the piece’s fascinating Scottish noble history, noting that it was once in the collection of the Dukes of Atholl. More specifically, I can clarify that it was part of the collection of the 8th Duke of Atholl, John Stewart-Murray (1871-1942) and his duchess, Katharine “Kitty” Ramsay (1874-1960). John, the eldest surviving son of the 7th Duke, was known as the Marquess of Tullibardine until his father’s death in 1917. He was an officer in the Royal Horse Guards, serving with Lord Kitchener in Africa.

Kitchener was among the guests when John married Kitty Ramsay, the daughter of Sir James Ramsay, a notable British historian. Kitty was also a gifted writer and musician, as was her sister, the renowned classics scholar Agnata Butler. John and Kitty’s wedding was a glittering affair, held at St. Margaret’s, Westminster in the summer of 1899. The new Marquess of Tullibardine received a number of sparkling wedding presents, including a large number of jewels. Among them was, according to the Pall Mall Gazette, “a diamond and peridot tiara” from the bridegroom. The piece is almost certainly the same one offered by Doyle in the recent auction.

Kitty Stewart-Murray was a deeply interesting historical figure. While her husband continued his military career, she forged a career of her own in politics. She was elected as the MP for the Kinross and West Perthshire constituency in 1923, becoming the first Scottish woman to hold a seat in Westminster. A year later, she was tapped to serve as the Parliamentary Secretary to the Board of Education, becoming one of the first women to serve in a British Conservative government.

As both Marchioness of Tullibardine and, later, as Duchess of Atholl, Kitty also had plenty of opportunities to wear the glittering wedding presents she had received in 1899, including her peridot tiara. In 1903, she served as president of the Royal Caledonian Ball in London. The Oban Times described her attire for the evening: “The Marchioness of Tullibardine was in white satin with gold sequin embroidery. She wore the Atholl tartan sash across her shoulders, and her jewels were a diamond and peridot tiara and a diamond necklace.”

John and Kitty had no children, so when John died in 1942, the Atholl dukedom was inherited by his brother, James. From there, the dukedom has passed a bit haphazardly through the family tree. James never married, and on his death in 1957, a distant cousin, Iain Murray became 10th Duke of Atholl. Three years later, when Kitty died, the tiara apparently remained with the Atholl family holdings. The 10th Duke sold a collection of the family’s possessions at an auction at Christie’s in London in 1985, including the tiara.

Interestingly, the 10th Duke of Atholl also never married. When he died in 1996, another cousin was next in line for the dukedom. John Murray, a South African land surveyor, became the 11th Duke. But, though he had been generally aware that he was in line to inherit one of Scotland’s oldest dukedoms, the new 11th Duke was not prepared to overhaul his entire life, noting, “I respect and honour Scotland as the land of my origins, but I would never want to live there. I am a South African, not a Scotsman.” There wasn’t much to handle, regardless: the 10th Duke had already placed the family’s ancestral home, Blair Castle, in a charitable trust. The 11th Duke made annual visits to Scotland to participate in a set of ceremonial duties until his death in 2012. The current Duke of Atholl is his son, Bruce, who also resides in South Africa.

But back to the tiara at hand. Above, the diamond and peridot jewel is shown worn as a tiara in an image published by Doyle, demonstrating that it was really made to be nestled into one of the towering hairstyles popular at the turn of the twentieth century. When the 10th Duke of Atholl sold Kitty’s diamond and peridot tiara in 1985, it passed into private hands. The specific identity of the owner in the decades that followed has not been made public, but when Doyle sold the tiara in June, it was attributed to “a Private Palm Beach Collection.”

Ten other jewelry lots from the same collection were also included in the sale, including a suite of antique amethysts that had also been purchased from the Atholl auction in 1985. The demi-parure, consisting of a necklace, a bracelet, a ring, a pendant, and a pair of earrings, as well as two additional amethyst and gold clusters, is dated to 1850. That suggests that the suite was part of the collection of Anne Home-Drummond, the wife of the 6th Duke of Atholl (and mother of the 7th Duke, and grandmother of the 8th).

Anne was Duchess of Atholl from 1846 until her husband’s death in 1864, and Dowager Duchess until her own passing in 1897. She served as both Mistress of the Robes and Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Victoria, and she was one of the monarch’s closest friends. When the hammer fell at the Doyle auction in June, the Atholl amethysts, expected to fetch between $3,000-$5,000 USD, sold for $14,080.

And what about the Atholl peridots? The jewel’s auction estimate was set by Doyle at a modest $6,000-$8,000. But when the bidding had ended, the tiara sold for ten times that estimated amount, fetching an impressive $60,800, including the buyer’s premium.