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Jewel History: Princess’s Jewels Held (1902)

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Luise, Crown Princess of Saxony (source)
“Princess’s Jewels Held”
(originally appeared in the New York Times on 30 Dec 1902)

LONDON, Dec. 29 — Facts concerning the jewels of the Crown Princess of Saxony [1], the whereabouts of which were in doubt, are told by The Times’s correspondent in Brussels. Professor Giron, former tutor of the Princess’s children and now her companion in Geneva [2], sent them to that city for safekeeping.

The packet arrived at Brussels a few days ago, addressed to Giron’s brother, who is a resident of the city. The usual advice was sent by the customs officials to the brother. As the packet was insured for 800,000 francs, and its contents carried a heavy duty, the brother refused to accept it and pay the necessary amount.

King Friedrich August III of Saxony (source)

The authorities in the ordinary course of business should have returned the parcel to the sender. This has not been done. The inference is that the German government has been apprised of the presence of the jewels in the Custom House and has taken steps to confiscate them in the interest of the Crown Prince of Saxony [3].


NOTES
1. In 1902, the Crown Princess of Saxony was Archduchess Luise of Austria (1870-1947), wife of Crown Prince Friedrich August (who would later become Saxony’s last king). She was the daughter of Grand Duke Ferdinand IV of Tuscany and his second wife, Princess Alicia of Bourbon-Parma.
2. Why were the whereabouts of Luise’s jewels unknown? Because three weeks earlier, she had fled from Germany with her “companion,” André Giron, who was her children’s French tutor. Complicating matters further was the fact that she was pregnant with her seventh child, Princess Anna; rumors understandably circulated that Giron, not Friedrich August, was the baby’s father. Luise claimed in her memoirs that she chose to leave her husband because she was afraid that her father-in-law was about to have her committed to an asylum.
3. Friedrich August (1865-1932) and Luise were granted a civil divorce in February 1903. Four years later, Luise eloped with the Italian musician Enrico Toselli; although they had a son together, that marriage also eventually ended in divorce. Friedrich August never remarried. He abdicated in 1918 at the end of World War I.

Royal Christmas Jewels 2014

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Today, we’re postponing our usual weekly jewel roundup to look at the jewels worn by the Windsors at Sandringham this Christmas. Stay tuned next Friday for a super-sized edition of This Week in Royal Jewels!

Christmas morning means a special treat for British royal watchers, as the royal family attends morning services at King’s Lynn near the Sandringham Estate. HM wore a vibrant pink coat and hat to church, along with her usual daytime pearls. On her coat she pinned the Tudor Rose Brooch, a piece she’s been wearing with some regularity since 2012. Some think it might have been a Diamond Jubilee gift.

The Duchess of Cornwall, who is reportedly suffering from back problems, stayed back at the estate this year, so the second-ranking lady on the day was the Duchess of Cambridge. She chose a pair of earrings we’ve seen before: Catherine Zoraida’s Double Leaf Earrings, which retail for £140.

Unfortunately, the other images available of the royals either show them not wearing much jewelry, like Princess Eugenie above…

… or don’t give us a particularly close view, as with this image of Princess Anne. (Is that a brooch under that handbag strap? Hard to say.)

Autumn Phillips looks to have selected small gold earrings to accompany her Christmas outfit.

Princess Beatrice, however, appears to have gone jewel-free — not surprising, as she doesn’t usually pile on the jewels.

Unfortunately, that’s pretty much all that’s available for me to post here in terms of views of the royals. Others did attend — that’s Sophie Wessex you can see peeking over Peter Phillips’s shoulder. (Sophie went light on the jewelry, wearing small stud earrings. More, as usual, at Anna’s blog!) But we did get a look at another piece of royal jewelry on Christmas:

The Queen wore pearls for her annual Christmas message — one of her two-stranded pearl necklaces, pearl earrings, and the Duchess of Cambridge’s Pendant Brooch, a piece that originally belonged to Queen Mary’s grandmother. The brooch had symbolic ties to the message this year, which discussed the centenary of the beginning of World War I. You can see photographs of King George V and Queen Mary (who were on the throne in 1914) in the background, plus one of the tins from Princess Mary’s 1914 Christmas gift to soldiers.