Monaco – Page 52

Princess Grace’s Festoon Necklace

07.19.2017 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images

Although she was one of the most glamorous princesses of her generation, Princess Grace of Monaco’s jewel collection was actually rather sparse. But some of the pieces she did have made a big impact, including this diamond festoon necklace.

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Made by Cartier, the three-stranded diamond necklace is designed as a festoon, with a triangular section gathering up the strands on either side and terminating in a single row of diamonds. Both round and baguette diamonds are used in the piece’s design, marrying traditional and modern aesthetics.

STF/AFP/Getty Images

During her lifetime, Grace paired the necklace with various other jewels, including the diamond and ruby Bains de Mer Tiara (more on that one here) and her all-diamond tiara. Above, she wears the necklace with the Bains de Mer for a dinner at the Elysee Palace in Paris in October 1959.

Carlos Alvarez/Getty Images

Today, the necklace is owned by the Palais Princier collection, and it’s frequently loaned out to various museum exhibitions. This is one of Grace’s jewels that I think would look fantastic on her daughter-in-law, Princess Charlene. I’d love to see Charlene wear the necklace at one of Monaco’s glittering social functions in the years to come.

See more of Princess Grace’s jewels here!

Royal Wedding Jewels in Hanover

07.08.2017 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

JULIAN STRATENSCHULTE/AFP/Getty Images

Against the wishes of his father, the younger Ernst August, Prince of Hanover married his fiancee, Ekaterina Malysheva, in Hanover on Saturday, and there were some major royal jewels on display.

JULIAN STRATENSCHULTE/AFP/Getty Images

The bride, a fashion designer with Russian roots, wore one of the Hanoverian family’s tiaras with her Sandra Mansour. The Hanoverian Floral Tiara has been in the family for years, but we don’t know much about its provenance.

RONNY HARTMANN/AFP/Getty Images

We also got a good look at Ekaterina’s gorgeous engagement ring, which is set with diamonds and a blue sapphire.

RONNY HARTMANN/AFP/Getty Images

Profile views of the bride showed the unusual height of the central part of the family’s floral diadem.

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The floral tiara was last worn in public in 2004, when Ernst August’s stepmother, Princess Caroline of Monaco, wore it for a pre-wedding gala for Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark in Copenhagen.

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The tiara was also previously worn by the groom’s mother, Chantal Hochuli. Today, she wore a colorful blue and gold brooch for her son’s wedding. She and the elder Ernst August (who is the pretender to the throne of Hanover) divorced in 1997, and he married Princess Caroline in 1999. The elder EA and Caroline have been separated for almost a decade, and she did not attend her stepson’s wedding. (Neither did the groom’s father; the two are in the middle of a complicated dispute. I’ll direct you to Marlene Koenig’s blog for more.)

RONNY HARTMANN/AFP/Getty Images

But although Caroline did not attend, the wedding very clearly had her family seal of approval. All of her children attended, along with their spouses. Above, Ernst August’s half-sister (and Caroline’s younger daughter), Alexandra, Princess of Hanover, served as a bridesmaid. She wore round pearl stud earrings and a beaded necklace.

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His elder stepbrother, Andrea Casiraghi, was in attendance with his wife, Tatiana. Their two children, Sasha and India, served as a page boy and a flower girl.

Photograph © Svenja from Confessions of a Castleholic. Do not reproduce.

Pierre Casiraghi, the groom’s younger stepbrother, also attended with his wife, Beatrice.

RONNY HARTMANN/AFP/Getty Images

Beatrice wore her pale pink drop earrings, plus a necklace with a floral pendant and a rather, er, unusual hat.

JULIAN STRATENSCHULTE/AFP/Getty Images

Charlotte Casiraghi, the groom’s stepsister, opted to leave her jewelry at home for the day.

RONNY HARTMANN/AFP/Getty Images

The groom’s younger brother, Christian, Prince of Hanover, attended the wedding with his fiancee, Alessandra de Osma. Her engagement ring glittered on her left hand.

Photograph © Svenja from Confessions of a Castleholic. Do not reproduce.

There were numerous other royal and noble guests at the wedding. George Friedrich and Sophie of Prussia, pretenders to the throne of Germany, were there.

Photograph © Svenja from Confessions of a Castleholic. Do not reproduce.

Sophie wore a pair of dramatic diamond and pearl earrings.

RONNY HARTMANN/AFP/Getty Images

Alexander of Schaumberg-Lippe attended with his partner, Mahkameh Navabi, who wore a glittering lariat-style necklace.

Photograph © Svenja from Confessions of a Castleholic. Do not reproduce.

From the Greek royal family, Crown Prince Pavlos attended with his wife, Marie-Chantal, and several of their children. Pavlos’s grandmother, Queen Friederike of the Hellenes, was born a princess of Hanover.

Marie-Chantal wore a long pearl necklace with an evil eye pendant, a pearl bracelet, and sparkling hoop earrings.

Andres and Lauren Santo Domingo, brother and sister-in-law of Tatiana Casiraghi, were there, too.

Lauren wore an interesting pair of pearly drop earrings.

Note: some of the photos from this post were generously provided to us by a longtime friend of the blog, Sydney, who writes for both Luxarazzi and Confessions of a Castleholic. Read her posts on the wedding over here!

Book Review: If These Jewels Could Talk (2015)

07.05.2017 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

If These Jewels Could Talk: The Legends Behind Celebrity Gems (Photo: The Court Jeweller)

While royals and heiresses dominated the world of jewel collecting in the nineteenth century, the twentieth century saw the rise of the celebrity collector. Film stars and actresses became some of the wealthiest and most glamorous women in the world, and they started collecting and wearing major jewelry both on and off screen. Beth Bernstein’s If These Jewels Could Talk: The Legends Behind Celebrity Gems (2015) celebrates the stunning jewels worn by some of these celebrity women.

Princess Grace’s real jewels presented beside Nicole Kidman’s film replicas (Photo: The Court Jeweller)

For royal jewel devotees, the book does include brief mentions of jewels owned by Queen Elizabeth II, Princess Diana, the Duchess of Cambridge, and the Duchess of Windsor. It also devotes significant time to the woman who lived at the intersection of real and Hollywood royalty: Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco. The text isn’t divided by collector, though; it’s thematically organized, with chapters focusing on specific gemstones, on jewels worn on screen, and on jewels with sentimental histories, for example.

Elizabeth Taylor, the Duchess of Windsor, and the Prince of Wales Feather Brooch (Photo: The Court Jeweller)

The text breezes from anecdote to anecdote, hopping from the star sapphire rings beloved by ’30s starlets to enormous modern celebrity engagement rings, from sentimental charm necklaces and bracelets to the watches of famous men. As you might expect, lots of pages feature the jewels owned by Elizabeth Taylor. Audrey Hepburn appears frequently; so do Merle Oberon, Marlene Dietrich, and Gina Lollobrigida. There’s also a fascinating section on the newer practice of loaning jewels to film productions.

View of the book’s back cover (Photo: The Court Jeweller)

The book includes some beautiful photographs, but the quality of the images is a bit uneven, and my copy had some faint ink transfer from page to page when images with lots of black ink were included. The dust jacket of my brand-new book was also marked up a bit and had significant creasing and wear at the edges. Overall, the quality of the book is not quite as good as some of the others I’ve recently reviewed here, but the book does include numerous lovely images of jewels, both photographed individually and worn by their owners.

The list price of the book is an astonishing $95, and I absolutely think that’s too much to ask for this book. But Amazon sells new copies right now for under $55, and used copies can be had for less than $30 — I think that’s much more reasonable for the quality and content of the book. If you’re a fan of celebrity gems, I think you’ll really enjoy this fun, casual overview of numerous pieces of jewelry. If you’re looking for a more scholarly jewelry book, I think you might select something else.

You can purchase If These Jewels Could Talk from Amazon.com (and other retailers)

Note: I purchased this book using revenue that I received from the Amazon affiliate links on this site. I put all money that I receive from these affiliate links back into materials for review on the blog, so if you want to read more reviews, consider purchasing items through the links on this site. Thanks, everybody!