Saturday Sparkler: The Spencer Honeysuckle Tiara
This week, lots of news organizations have published stories about the closing of the Diana: A Celebration exhibition, which has appeared in venues all over the world for the past several years. Now that the traveling exhibit is no longer traveling, the objects and items displayed are returning to their rightful owners. That includes two tiaras: the Spencer tiara worn by Diana on her wedding day in 1981, and the tiara that visitors encountered immediately on entering the Diana exhibit: the Spencer Honeysuckle Tiara.
The Honeysuckle is actually the older of the two major Spencer tiaras. It’s been in the family since the nineteenth century. Most seem to think that the first owner of the piece was Charlotte, the wife of John Poyntz Spencer, the 5th earl. If sources that say that Charlotte received it as a wedding gift are correct, that would mean that it has been in the Spencer collection since at least 1858.
The tiara has been remodeled several times over the decades, including shifting of the honeysuckle elements and the meander border that runs along the base of the piece. When Charlotte wore the piece, it was considerably lower, with the honeysuckles placed on the same level as the Greek key design. The original design is clear in John Chancellor’s portrait of Charlotte (pictured above; the original is now in the National Portrait Gallery). Here’s another illustration of an early version of the tiara that also shows the elements on a single level.
The tiara seems to be a bit taller on Cynthia Spencer, the wife of the 7th earl and grandmother of Princess Diana, who wore the Honeysuckle tiara to the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953. Today, the tiara is considerably larger, with the honeysuckles placed completely atop the meander base. While Diana got lots of use out of the Spencer tiara, she was never actually photographed in her family’s other diadem. There’s a convincing photoshop job online featuring Diana “wearing” the tiara, but it’s a fake.
Now that the exhibit has come to an end, both the Spencer and the Honeysuckle are returning to their owner. If you only read articles like this one from the Telegraph, you might think that William and Harry will be making room in their safes for these sparklers. But the savvy readers of this blog will know that the owner of the Spencer tiaras is, appropriately, Earl Spencer (pictured above at the exhibition). Diana never owned either of them — not this tiara or the one she borrowed for years while she was Princess of Wales — and so her sons couldn’t have inherited them.
William and Harry will surely receive lots of their late mother’s possessions, but neither of the Spencer tiaras will be among them. Instead, the current Countess Spencer is the person much more likely to eventually be seen wearing the family’s diadems. I’d like to see the Honeysuckle in particular worn again; I saw the Diana exhibition a few years ago, and you would not believe how much it sparkles under the light. Maybe at the next coronation we’ll have a repeat of ’53 and see the Honeysuckle on Karen Spencer’s noble head?
Secrets of Britain’s Royal Jewels
Writing this blog involves a lot of research and reading. Many of the tidbits I learn along the way make it into various blog posts, while some anecdotes are tucked away for later use. Today, I’m sharing some of my favorite “secrets” of jewels owned by British royals. Feel free to add your own favorite stories in the comments below!
When she was Princess of Wales, Queen Alexandra was one of the most fashionable ladies in all of British society, and everything she wore was quickly emulated and copied. She unwittingly started a trend for wearing choker necklaces; she actually wore the chokers to cover a scar on her neck.
Most of the oldest pieces in the current Windsor collection are from the middle of the nineteenth century — and for good reason. In 1858, Queen Victoria lost a legal battle against her cousin, the King of Hanover, over a number of older jewels that had belonged to Victoria’s grandmother, Queen Charlotte. The diamonds in question were removed from the British vaults and shipped over to Germany; some of them, including a tiny diamond nuptial crown (pictured above on Grand Duchess Alexandra of Mecklenburg-Schwerin), are still with the Hanoverians today.
Until Colonel Blood’s infamous attempt to steal the crown jewels in 1671, visitors to the Tower of London were actually allowed to slip their hands between the wooden bars of the display and touch the royal regalia.
Elizabeth I of England and Mary, Queen of Scots were both cousins and enemies. Elizabeth gained the upper hand over Mary in terms of both power and jewelry. Along with having Mary imprisoned and executed, Elizabeth also managed to secure Mary’s coveted black pearls for her own collection. Some sources say these are some of the pearls that Elizabeth wears in the famous “Armada Portrait.”
On her wedding day in 1947, Queen Elizabeth II paid tribute to her grandmother, Queen Mary, by wearing her diamond fringe tiara. But before she could leave for Westminster Abbey, the tiara frame snapped and had to be hastily repaired. If you look closely at Elizabeth’s wedding pictures, you can see that the tiara is uneven!
The famed Black Prince’s Ruby, reportedly worn by Henry V at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 and set in the Imperial State Crown today, isn’t actually a ruby at all — it’s a spinel. It’s also one of the royal gems that managed to survive Cromwell; a jeweler bought it after the execution of Charles I and sold it back to his son, Charles II, when the monarchy was restored.
The Duchess of Cambridge wore one of the Queen Mum’s tiaras on her wedding day in 2011, but her wedding jewelry also included a sly reference to her own less-than-royal background. Her diamond earrings included small acorns — designed to echo the acorns on the coat of arms that her father was granted shortly before her royal wedding.
Around ten versions of the Imperial State Crown have been made and worn since the monarchy’s restoration in 1661. The current version dates to 1937, though it was altered and adjusted for Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. The crown is also apparently the piece of the crown jewels which most often needs to be maintained and repaired by the crown jeweler.
One of the Prince of Wales’s hobbies is reportedly purchasing jewelry for his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, that was once owned by her great-grandmother, Alice Keppel. Alice was one of the mistresses of Charles’s great-great-grandfather, Edward VII.
A number of pieces of British royal jewelry are resting at the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea. In 1911, Princess Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife was sailing with her family to Egypt. Their ship wrecked off the coast of Morocco, and although the family managed to escape, a case of Louise’s jewels washed overboard, never to be seen again.
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