jewel history – Page 27

Jewel History: Few Present at Astor-Shaw Wedding (1906)

05.04.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

The bride: Nancy Astor wears the tiara set with the Sancy diamond, ca. 1917 (Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images)

“Astor-Shaw Wedding”

(originally appeared in the Washington Post, 4 May 1906)

London, May 3 — Mrs. Nannie Langhorne Shaw [1], of Virginia, and Waldorf Astor [2], eldest son of William Waldorf Astor [3], were quietly married at All Souls’ Church, Langham place, London, this afternoon by Rev. Francis Scott Webster, M.A., the vicar. Neither William Waldorf Astor nor Mr. Langhorne [4], respectively the fathers of the groom and bride, were present, both being too ill to attend the ceremony.

Only immediate relatives and intimate friends of the couple knew of the arrangements, so the congregation was small. It included Ambassador Reid and Mrs. Reid [5], the staff of the American embassy, Mrs. Reginald Brooks [6], Mrs. Charles Dana Gibson [7], and Mrs. T. Moncure Perkins [8], sisters of the bride, and the Duchess of Roxburghe [9]. Charles Dana Gibson led the bride to the altar, and the groom was supported by his brother, John Jacob Astor [10].

The groom: Waldorf Astor, later the 2nd Viscount Astor, ca. 1909 (Photo: George C. Beresford/Beresford/Getty Images)

After the ceremony, which was the simple one of the Church of England, Mr. and Mrs. Astor drove to the office of William Waldorf Astor, on the Victoria embankment, where Mr. Astor is lying ill, to receive his congratulations. Later, a reception was held at the residence of Captain Drummond [11], on Eaton place. Mr. and Mrs. Waldorf Astor will spend the honeymoon at Ford Manor, Surrey, lent to them by Mr. and Mrs. Spender Clay [12]. Later on they will go to the continent.

The newly married couple received many handsome presents, including the beautiful Cliveden estate [13], which Mr. Astor presented to his son, with all its contents, as a wedding gift. Mr. Astor also gave the bride a tiara, in which is set the famous Sancy diamond [14], weighing fifty-three and a half carats and valued at $75,000. The groom’s present to the bride was a necklace formed by three rows of superb pearls.

Nancy Astor, Viscountess Astor wears the tiara ca. 1936-37 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

The wedding originally was arranged for late in May, but as neither the father of the bride nor William Waldorf Astor was likely to be able to go about for some weeks, both, oddly enough, suffering from severe attacks of gout, they urged the young couple to fix an earlier date, and today was finally selected.

Only a few days ago the London papers formally announced that the wedding would take place May 19, and other dates had also been chosen, and then suddenly abandoned. The object of today’s quiet marriage was to prevent its possible interruption by certain of the clergy of London who object to the marriage of divorced persons in church, whether they are the aggrieved party or otherwise. One of these clergy had threatened to interrupt the Astor-Shaw ceremony with an objection.

NOTES

1. Nancy Witcher Langhorne (1879-1964) was born and raised in Virginia. Her unhappy and abusive first marriage, to Robert Gould Shaw II, ended in divorce in 1903; shortly afterward, she met Waldorf Astor, whom she married in March 1906. Both Waldorf and Nancy were involved in politics; after he succeeded to his father’s peerage, Nancy won his seat in parliament, becoming the first woman to take her seat in the House of Commons. History has not been kind to many of her political positions; she was both anti-Catholic and anti-Semitic, and she supported the appeasement policies of Neville Chamberlain ahead of World War II. Her popularity and public image suffered significantly, and her increasingly polarizing views estranged her from many in her family and social circle.

2. Waldorf Astor, 2nd Viscount Astor (1879-1952) was born in New York but emigrated to Britain with his family in the 1890s. He met the newly divorced Nancy Shaw on a passenger ship from America to the United Kingdom in 1905, and they married less than a year later. The couple had five children together. Astor was a politician, sitting in the House of Commons until he succeeded to his father’s title in 1919. He was also involved in newspaper publishing and racing.

3. William Waldorf Astor, 1st Viscount Astor (1848-1919), father of the groom, was the only child of the famous financier John Jacob Astor III. William studied law and later entered politics. With his wife, Mary Dahlgren Paul, and their five children, he emigrated to Britain in the 1890s and later became a British subject. One of his acquisitions in Britain was Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn. In recognition of his large charitable contributions, he was created Baron and then Viscount Astor.

4. Colonel Chiswell Dabney Langhorne (1843-1919), father of the bride, was a wealthy Southern plantation owner and slaveholder. He fought for the Confederate Army in the American Civil War. The family was impoverished after the end of the war, but Langhorne managed to recoup some of his fortune in the tobacco business. He and his wife, Nancy Witcher Keene, had eleven children; Nancy Astor was the eighth.

5. Whitelaw Reid (1837-1912) was the American ambassador to the Court of St. James from 1905 until his death in 1912. Before his diplomatic career, he was a newspaper editor and a vice presidential candidate. Both he and his wife, Elisabeth Mills Reid, were prominent in American social circles in London during the Edwardian period.

6. Phyllis Langhorne (1880-1937), sister of the bride, was married to Reginald Brooks at the time of this wedding. After their divorce, she married Robert Brand, 1st Baron Brand.

7. Irene Langhorne (1873-1956), sister of the bride, was the wife of Charles Dana Gibson, the famous illustrator and creator of the “Gibson Girl.” The Langhorne sisters were reportedly among the models for the Gibson Girl illustrations.

8. Elizabeth Dabney Langhorne (1867-1914), sister of the bride, was married to Virginia cotton broker Thomas Moncure Perkins. Their daughter, Nancy, was the owner of the influential design firm Sibyl Colefax & John Fowler.

9. May Goelet (1878-1937), an American heiress, joined the ranks of Britain’s aristocracy when she married the 8th Duke of Roxburghe in 1903.

10. John Jacob Astor V, 1st Baron Astor of Hever (1886-1971), brother of the groom, was a politician, businessman, military officer, Olympic gold medalist, and newspaper publisher. He inherited Hever Castle from his father in 1919. He was a longtime head and chairman of the Times. In 1959, he was created Baron Astor of Hever.

11. Major-General Laurence Drummond (1861-1946) was still a captain in 1906, but he was elevated to rank of major-general just before the outbreak of World War I.

12. Herbert Henry Spender-Clay (1875-1937) was a British politician; as the husband of Pauline Astor (1880-1972), he was also the brother-in-law of the groom. Henry and Pauline’s daughter, Rachel, later married David Bowes-Lyon, brother of the Queen Mother.

13. Cliveden, the Buckinghamshire home of the Astors, is a famous British estate. Once owned by the Dukes of Buckinhgam, the estate was also leased by Frederick, Prince of Wales (the father of King George III). The Astors used the estate to entertain many famous figures of their day, including Mahatma Gandhi, Winston Churchill, George Bernard Shaw, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Rudyard Kipling, Edith Wharton, and Charlie Chaplin. Ahead of World War II, the estate’s name became linked with the so-called “Cliveden Set,” a circle of influential conservative politicians and public figures associated with Nancy Astor. In the 1960s, the estate became notorious for its association with the Profumo Affair. Today, Cliveden is a five-star hotel.

14. The Sancy Diamond is a pale yellow diamond that weighs more than 55 carats. Probably originally found in India, the diamond has been, at various points, a part of the crown jewels of Portugal, England, and France. It takes its name from one of its many owners: Nicolas de Harlay, Seigneur de Sancy. The groom’s father, William Waldorf Astor, purchased the diamond in 1906 and had it set in a tiara, which was worn by Nancy Astor throughout her life. Nancy’s grandson, the 4th Viscount Astor, sold the diamond to the Louvre in 1978, and it is still on display in the museum today.

Jewel History: The Persian Jewels (1897)

04.25.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Golestan Palace in Tehran, now a UNESCO World Heritage Site (Photo: ATTA KENARE/AFP/Getty Images)

“The Persian Jewels”

(originally appeared in the New York Times on 25 Apr 1897)

From The New Illustrated Magazine — Who has not heard of the Persian jewels: their glory, their number, their priceless worth? When the doors were unlocked and I was taken into the Peacock Throne Room [1], I found myself surrounded by a mass of wealth unequaled in the world. Nowhere are such treasures. But nowhere, also, is there such an accumulation of rubbish. I will, however, dismiss the rubbish, and refer only to the treasures. Down each side of the room were chairs entirely covered with sheeted gold, and at intervals were tables of gold, nailed, I shuddered to note, with the commonest of black-headed tacks!

Illustration of the Sun Throne, ca. 1892 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

At the far end of the room was the wonder of the world: the Peacock Throne. Whether it is one of the seven thrones of the Great Mogul, and was brought from Delhi, I don’t know [2]. But it is certainly the most costly ornament that the eye of man can look upon. I inspected it most carefully. It is entirely of silver, a great camp-bed structure, but modeled in lovely designs. It is encrusted from end to end and top to bottom with diamonds. At the back is a star of brilliants that make you blink. The rug on which the Shah [3] sits is edged with precious stones, and the pillow on which he reclines is covered with pearls. I could keep on writing about the dazzling beauties of the throne of the King of Kings. But I could never get beyond declaring it to be a superb jewel. Some people have valued it at £5,000,000. Its real value is between £2,000,000 and £3,000,000 [4].

A jeweled chest filled with pearls, now on display with the crown jewels in Tehran (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

But though the Peacock Throne is the magnum opus of the Persian crown jewels, it by no means extinguishes the magnificence of the other treasures. Who can attempt, however, to recount the number of bejeweled arms, the royal crowns, the flashing aigrettes, the trays piled up with cut and uncut stones, and the bowls filled with pearls that you run through your fingers like a handful of rice?

Current setting of the Daria-i-Noor diamond (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

Everyone has heard of the Daria-i-Nur [5], or Sea of Light, sister diamond to the Koh-i-Nur [6], or Mountain of Light. Everyone has also heard of the Globe of the World [7], made by the late Shah, of 75 pounds of pure gold and 51,366 gems — the sea of emeralds, Persia of turquoises, India of amethysts, Africa of rubies, England and France of diamonds — and valued at £947,000.

NOTES

1. The reporter who wrote the piece was touring the Golestan Palace, the former royal complex in Tehran. The Palace still stands today, and in 2013, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

2. It wasn’t. The Peacock Throne was made in the 17th century for Shah Jahan, the Mughal emperor who is best known today for commissioning the Taj Mahal. Among the hundreds of gemstones embedded in the throne was the Koh-i-Noor diamond, which today is a part of Britain’s crown jewels. In 1739, the throne was stolen by Nader Shah, one of the most powerful emperors in Persian history, during his invasion of Delhi. Although it was captured by the Persians, it isn’t the throne that the Iranians call “the Peacock Throne.” Shah Jahan’s throne was cut into pieces after it was stolen. The Iranian Peacock Throne is more correctly called the “Sun Throne.” It was commissioned by Fath-Ali Shah Qajar of Persia in the 19th century. For various reasons, the Sun Throne was mistakenly referenced as the Peacock Throne, and the name stuck — so much so that many refer to the now-defunct Iranian monarchy metonymically as “the Peacock Throne.”

3. In 1897, the Qajar dynasty reigned in present-day Iran. The reigning shah was Mozaffar ad-Din Shah Qajar (1853-1907); he had been on the throne for less than a year. Six years later, he was made a knight of the Order of the Garter by King Edward VII.

4. It’s tough to translate a monetary value like this into present-day terms, but a commodity worth £5 million in 1897 would be valued at roughly £500 million today. Ditto the more conservative estimate given by the writer: £2-3 million would be something like £200-300 million today. But really — how do you even begin to value what is essentially a priceless, irreplaceable object?

5. The Daria-i-Noor diamond was probably also a part of the treasure of Shah Jahan, and was possibly one of the gems set in the original Peacock Throne. The diamond is pale pink and weighs approximately 182 carats. The French jeweler Jean-Baptiste Tavernier, who traveled in India in the 17th century, described a pale pink diamond from the throne, calling it the “Great Table Diamond.” Many believe that the Daria-i-Noor and the Noor-ol-Ain diamonds, both today owned by Iran, are two portions of that Great Table Diamond. Today, both diamonds are held in the Central Bank of Tehran with the rest of the Iranian crown jewels.

6. The Koh-i-Noor diamond was also set in Shah Jahan’s Peacock Throne and was also looted by Nader Shah of Persia in 1739. After his assassination, the gem fell into the hands of the Ahmad Shah Durrani, one of his generals, who became Emir of Afghanistan. In 1809, Shuja Shah Durrani, then the Afghani emir, pursued a treaty with the United Kingdom, seeking protection from the Russians. He was subsequently overthrown, but he escaped with the Koh-i-Noor to Lahore. As a return for harboring him, Maharajah Ranjit Singh demanded to be given the Koh-i-Noor. After Ranjit Singh’s death, the Brits basically took over, and through some controversial maneuvering, the diamond was presented by his son, Duleep Singh, to Queen Victoria. It’s been a part of the British crown jewels ever since — although, as we’ll see later today, its place in Britain is constantly under debate.

7. This gem-studded globe is still a part of the Iranian crown jewel collection, and it is housed with the rest of the treasures in the Central Bank in Tehran. The globe was commissioned by Naser al-Din Shah Qajar, who was assassinated in May 1896.

Jewel History: The Imperial Opal (1901)

04.11.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Opals mined in Australia, 2005 (Photo: TORSTEN BLACKWOOD/AFP/Getty Images)

“The Imperial Opal”

(originally appeared in The Inter Ocean, 26 Apr 1901)

From the London Chronicle — In connection with the royal jewels, an interesting story has reached the Daily Chronicle about a wonderful Queensland opal that would have been added to the crown regalia had Queen Victoria lived [1] to see the opening of the Commonwealth Parliament [2] by her grandson, the Duke of Cornwall and York [3], in May next.

The opal in question for a number of years past has been the property of a well-known gentleman [4] who was a leading lawyer during the earlier days in Brisbane, and subsequently in Sydney, where he became connected with squatting and mining ventures on a large scale. In 1899, at the time of the conference of the Premiers, the late Sir James R. Dickson [5] undertook to bring Queensland into the federation. The owner of the opal and Sir James Dickson had been old friends in Brisbane, and in discussing the situation, he said to the deceased statesman: “When the first Parliament of united Australia assembles from all the states, I shall present my opal to the Queen in the name of the commonwealth, as there is as yet no Australian gem of value in the regalia of the empire.”

Sir James Dickson, who was devotedly attached to the crown, and to the maintenance in the fullest respect of its prerogative in Australia, was greatly pleased with the idea, which also received the warm support of well-known gentlemen holding official positions in connection with colonial affairs. In fact, on being shown the gem from his old colony of Queensland, of which he was the first premier forty years ago, Sir Robert W.G. Herbert [6], who is an intimate friend of the owner, named it “the imperial opal.”

Queen Victoria wears jewels set with opals, including the Oriental Circlet

The stone was deposited with bankers in London some years ago, where it has lain since, until the owner, who is now in England on a visit, reclaimed it a few days ago, when it was courteously shown to a Daily Chronicle representative at the offices of the bank. The “imperial opal” has as yet been seen by very few people, as it was the owner’s wish that Queen Victoria herself should have the first inspection of it.

Though many people regard the possession of opals as unlucky — this has certainly not been the case with the owner of the “imperial opal” — it is well known that the late Queen Victoria had a predilection for these stones, a knowledge of which fact originally prompted the idea of making the proposed presentation. So far as can be ascertained, Queen Alexandra has no declared preference for opals [7], and as a consequence no action has yet been taken since the late Queen’s death [8].

It is only of comparative late date, as told by Sir Walter Scott, that opals came to be regarded as unlucky on the continent of Europe. Anne of Geierstein [9] had an opal heirloom which she greatly prized. She knew that dampness affected the brilliancy of her opal, which must have been of inferior quality. When she wore it at church she refused to take the holy water. Sinister rumors in consequence soon spread among the ignorant peasantry, which received apparent confirmation when her child was baptized. At the baptismal font the opal got wet, and Anne cried out, “I have lost my opal!” Two hours afterward she died of heart disease, probably accelerated by her perturbation about the opal, which thereafter came to be looked upon as an unlucky stone.

In the ancient days of Rome, however, the opal was considered lucky. Pliny relates how the rich Roman Senator Nonius had a “noble” opal, and prized it for the luck it brought him. It was coveted by Marc Antony, who wished to present it to Cleopatra, and he offered to purchase it from the Senator for a sum equivalent to £50,000 of present-day currency. Nonius, however, refused to sell, and to gain possession of the gem, Marc Antony had him proscribed and a sentence of banishment pronounced against him. Nonius, it is recorded, went into exile, taking his lucky opal with him as his only possession. What became of that opal is not known, but it is certainly not the one shown to the Daily Chronicle representative, as the opal of Nonius was described as being “of the size of a hazelnut,” while that intended for Queen Victoria is 250 carats in weight and two inches in length, and of corresponding thickness.

Opals, unless extraordinarily fine, have no recognized standard of value, although there is one in the possession of the Emperor of Austria [10] for which His Imperial Majesty is said to have refused the sum of £50,000. It is claimed, however, that the “Imperial Opal” of Australia is of greater value. Desultory mining for opals has gone on for many years past in several parts of the interior of Queensland, but the returns have not been large, and no other stone in any way approaching the “imperial opal” has yet been found in the state.

NOTES

1. Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom died on January 22, 1901.

2. The Parliament of the Commonwealth of Australia; it was opened in Melbourne on May 9, 1901, by the Duke of Cornwall and York, who later became King George V. In 1927, the parliament moved to the national capital of Canberra. Today, it meets in Canberra’s new Parliament House, which was opened on May 8, 1988, by George’s granddaughter, Queen Elizabeth II.

3. George V of the United Kingdom (1865-1936). He was created Duke of York in May 1892; he automatically also became the Duke of Cornwall when his father ascended to the throne in January 1901. On his father’s behalf, George and his wife, Mary of Teck, undertook a tour of the empire in 1901, traveling across the globe from Australia and New Zealand to Ceylon, South Africa, and parts of Canada. George was created Prince of Wales by his father on November 9, 1901.

4. The “well-known gentleman” was Maurice Lyons, a solicitor based in Sydney.

5. Sir James Robert Dickson (1832-1901) was the 13th premier of Queensland. Born in England, he emigrated to Australia in the 1850s. He died just twelve days before Queen Victoria.

6. Sir Robert George Wyndham Herbert (1831-1905) was the first premier of Queensland.

7. Queen Alexandra reportedly strongly disliked opals; some have suggested that she bought in to the common idea of the time that they were unlucky. Whatever the reason, she converted pieces of royal jewelry (like the Oriental Circlet) that included opals, having them reset with other stones.

8. Did Lyons ever give the opal to the royal family? I can only answer that question with a big “maybe.” Newspapers followed the story for a while, especially in Australia, but I’ve not discovered any article that definitively notes the opal’s fate. Research done at the Royal Jewels of the World Message Board unearthed photos of the Queen Mother wearing a similarly-described opal in Australia in the 1920s, but no definitive link between the two has been made.

9. The title character of Walter Scott’s 1821 novel, Anne Geierstein, or The Maiden of the Mist. Here’s more from Wikipedia.

10. Emperor Francis Joseph reportedly owned an opal called “the Hungarian Opal.” A 1901 Guide to the Treasury of the Imperial House of Austria describes it as being “in the shape of a large drop, mounted in three enamelled clasps and can be used as a pendant.”