Saturday Sparkler

The Savoy Tourmaline Tiara

10.08.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

The Savoy Tourmaline Tiara (Photo: VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images)

When a royal family heads into exile, often their jewels are quickly sold — but not always. The former royal family of Italy has retained some significant pieces, not the least of which is the tiara from the pink tourmaline parure.

The stones in this piece are often misidentified as pink topazes rather than tourmalines, but Stefano Papi and Gabriella of Savoy (daughter of Italy’s last king) cleared up the confusion in their book collaboration, Jewels of the House of Savoy. But the gem-studded history of the suite is even more complicated, because the pieces of the parure were originally set with garnets instead.

Photo: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

Unusually for a major royal tiara, this piece has stayed in Italy throughout its history. It originally belonged to Queen Maria Theresa of Sardinia, a member of the Tuscan branch of the Habsburg family, who died in 1855. Her son Ferdinand, the Duke of Genoa, inherited the tiara, but he died only a month after his mother. His wife, Princess Elisabeth of Saxony, continued to wear the tiara, eventually bequeathing it to her daughter, Margherita of Savoy.

Margherita married King Umberto I of Italy, and it has remained with their descendants to this day. Prince Vittorio Emanuele, one of the current pretenders to the Italian throne, now owns the piece, and his wife, the water-skiing Princess Marina, dons it occasionally. In 2004, she wore the tiara (tilted back like a headband) at the pre-wedding gala for Crown Prince Frederik and Crown Princess Mary of Denmark.

Photo: Franco Origlia/Getty Images

The tourmaline tiara had its most significant public outing in recent years at the wedding of Vittorio Emanuele and Marina’s son, Emanuele Filiberto, to French actress Clotilde Courau. She wore the tiara with earrings from the coordinating parure.

Photo: FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images

Clotilde also wore the earrings at the Monegasque princely wedding in 2011. This outing demonstrated the parure’s versatility, as different shaped drops can be interchanged for different looks.

The Mellerio Ruby Parure Tiara

09.24.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

The Mellerio Ruby Parure Tiara (Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images)

The Dutch tiara collection is so large that it includes not one but two major ruby tiaras. Today we’re going to look at the bigger of the two: the grand ruby tiara made for the family by Mellerio.

Photo: Andreas Rentz/Getty Images

Mellerio dits Meller is a major French jewelry firm with a seriously glittering history. They’ve been making pieces for centuries, and this tiara is only one of several Mellerio tiaras in royal collections today. The Dutch ruby tiara was made by the company for Queen Emma around 1888 as a part of a larger ruby parure. The pieces were a gift from Emma’s husband, King Willem III. (The parure even includes a ruby-encrusted fan. How Victorian!)

Photo: Keystone/Hulton Archive/Getty Images

All four of the Dutch queens since Emma have worn the tiara and at least parts of the rest of the parure; the piece has also been worn by many Dutch princesses. Queen Juliana reportedly loved this parure, so much so that she even chose the brooch to wear on the day she was inaugurated as queen. Above, Juliana wears the tiara and the accompanying pieces of the parure in 1976.

Photo: Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images

The piece has a very classic tiara shape, with rows of diamonds suspended between the larger elements; that shape fits well with both Princess Beatrix’s retro bouffant and Queen Máxima’s sleeker hairstyles. Above, Beatrix wears the tiara at the wedding of Crown Princess Victoria of Sweden in 2010.

Photo: JONATHAN NACKSTRAND/AFP/Getty Images

Máxima even chose the tiara for her first official portrait as queen. She’s reached for it more than once for glittering occasions over the past several years; her appearance in the tiara at the wedding of Prince Carl Philip of Sweden in 2015 (pictured above) was hailed as an especially major bejeweled triumph. And since it’s a part of the family’s jewel foundation, it will sit atop various Dutch royal hairstyles for years to come.

Note: This is an updated version of an earlier post, with new text and images.

The Dutch Laurel Wreath Tiara

08.13.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

The Dutch Laurel Wreath Tiara (Photo: Jacopo Raule/Getty Images)

In ancient Greece, victorious athletes (and poets — hence “poet laureate”!) were crowned with wreaths of laurel leaves. Laurel wreaths have been Western cultural symbols of victory for centuries since, so it shouldn’t be surprising that the wealthy and powerful have often commissioned their own diamond versions of laurel wreaths. The style is still so associated with ancient Greece that, in French, these tiaras are often called bandeaux à la grecque. Today, we’re looking at the diamond laurel wreath tiara that belongs to the Dutch royal family.

The laurel wreath tiara is one of the oldest pieces in the Dutch collection, but there are two competing theories about its arrival in the family’s vaults. One posits that the tiara originally belonged to Princess Louise of Orange-Nassau, the sister of King Willem I of the Netherlands. Princess Louise died in the early nineteenth century, which would be just about right for the presumed creation date of the tiara. (Laurel wreaths were especially in vogue during the Empire period in France, an aesthetic that looked back to ancient Greece and Rome.)

Princess Christina wears the tiara (Photo: Michel Porro/Getty Images)

The other theory suggests that the tiara was made in the early nineteenth century but purchased by the Dutch royals much later. According to this narrative of the tiara’s history, it was acquired in the 1950s by Queen Juliana and Prince Bernhard and given to Princess Beatrix to celebrate her eighteenth birthday. Whether it was newly purchased or dug out of the depths of the family’s collection, Beatrix did indeed receive the tiara as a birthday gift, and she wore it regularly as a young princess. She also shared the tiara with two of her sisters, Princess Margriet and Princess Christina. Above, Christina wears the tiara to the dinner held the night before Beatrix’s abdication.

Princess Carolina wears the tiara (Photo: CLAUDIO GIOVANNINI/AFP/GettyImages)

In recent years, however, the focus has been on the Dutch brides who have worn the tiara. Laurentien Brinkhorst wore the diadem at her wedding to Beatrix’s son, Prince Constantijn, in 2001. And Princess Irene’s daughter, Princess Maria Carolina of Bourbon-Parma, wore it at her 2012 wedding to Albert Brenninkmeijer.

Note: This is an updated version of an earlier post, with new text and images.