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The Sunday Ring: Princess Margaret’s Ruby and Diamond Ring

10.09.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Princess Margaret’s Ruby and Diamond Ring (Photo: FABRICE COFFRINI/AFP/Getty Images)

When the jewel collection of the late Princess Margaret of the United Kingdom went up for auction at Christie’s ten years ago, many of the pieces for sale had been received as gifts from others. Today’s ring, though, was one that Margaret designed herself.

The auction’s lot notes describe the ring as follows: “three oval rubies between baguette-cut diamond shoulders and brilliant-cut diamond edge detail.” Each of the three rubies had been given to Margaret by her mother, Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother. But the design of the ring was all Margaret herself; the notes explain that she “personally designed” the jewel.

Buyers were clearly impressed by Margaret’s creation: the ring sold for more than $550,000. How would you rate Margaret’s eye for jewelry design?

Royal Wedding Jewels: Albania’s Pretender Weds in Tirana

10.08.2016 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Leka and Elia of Albania wed in Tirana (Photo: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images)

Albania hasn’t had a monarch since World War II, but today at the Royal Palace in Tirana, the country witnessed the closest thing they’ve got to a royal wedding. Prince Leka, grandson of King Zog and Queen Geraldine, married Elia Zaharia, an Albanian actress. Elia wore an unusual tiara with a complicated family and national history for the occasion.

Photo: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

Here’s a closer look at the diamond and sapphire tiara that Elia wore with her wedding gown. Looks unusual, hm? Can you make out the rather interesting diamond element in the middle?

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

It’s the Ram of Skanderbeg, a national symbol of Albania that is patterned after the unusual helmet above. The helmet originally belonged to Gjergj Kastrioti Skanderbeg, a famous fifteenth-century Albanian military hero, who sometimes styled himself “Lord of Albania.” Today, the actual helmet (pictured above) is housed in a Viennese museum.

Queen Geraldine’s tiara (Image: Sotheby’s)

The Ram is also a part of Albania’s royal crest. Albania was only a kingdom for a very short time in the twentieth century, but clearly the royal family wanted to reach back into Albania’s history to echo symbols of power and legitimacy. It feels a little strange to see grand royal jewelry set with such goat-like motifs, but it’s all connected to that need to be seen as a part of the country’s grand legacy. Above, you see an image of another family tiara that featured the Ram. This one was worn by the groom’s grandmother, Queen Geraldine. Numerous other Albanian princesses wore ram tiaras, but most of their jewels, including Geraldine’s tiara, were sold at auction in the 1950s.

Photo: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

But the family has kept a suite of sapphire and diamond jewels. The tiara was worn by the groom’s late mother, Susan, and today, it became a bridal diadem. The tiara also had a coordinating suite of sapphire and diamond jewels, but I believe those have also been sold. Elia wore the tiara with simple stud earrings — which, of course, because what other jewelry can really compete with a diamond ram’s head???

Photo: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

Here’s a look at Elia’s wedding ring…

Photo: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

And a better look at her wedding gown.

Photo: STRINGER/AFP/Getty Images

Although this was the wedding of a royal pretender, lots of royals, both reigning and non, gathered for the occasion. The photo above requires some back-of-the-head identification skills, but you can spot Queen Sofia of Spain with her sister, Princess Irene of Greece and Denmark; Georg Friedrich of Prussia; Margarita and Radu of Romania; Alexander and Katharine of Serbia; Maria Vladimirovna of Russia; and Duarte Pio and Isabel of Braganza, among others. Prince and Princess Michael of Kent were also in attendance, as were representatives from the reigning families of Liechtenstein and Luxembourg.

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.