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Jewel History: Wedding Gifts Fill Big Hall at Palace (1922)

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Viscount Lascelles and Princess Mary on their wedding day in 1922 [1]
“Wedding Gifts Fill Big Hall at Palace”
(originally appeared in the Washington Post, 25 Feb 1922)
The spacious picture gallery in Buckingham Palace, which is as large as the grand ballroom of any New York hotel, today presented a dazzling spectacle to a small party of invited guests who viewed a portion of the magnificent wedding presents that have been sent to Princess Mary and Viscount Lascelles, who are to be married next week. 
The prewedding exhibition of the gifts had been planned to take place at St. James’s Palace, where they were received, until the death of Lady Feodora Gleichen there Wednesday morning, which necessitated the change.
Cases Blaze with Gems
Only the smaller and more portable presents have been transferred to Buckingham Palace, but they turned the great gallery into a hall of glittering splendor. A half hour was the time limit for the visitors and this afforded them time for only a casual inspection of the wonderful display. In glass cases blazed diamonds, sapphires, and emeralds, adn there were pearls, gold and silver articles, and priceless antiques, each distinctive in design and of studied elegance.
There was the three-fold gift of King George — a tiara of diamonds and sapphires and a necklace and bracelet studded with similar stones. The monarch’s gift to his daughter occupied the central position of honor in the hall.
Lord Lascelles and Princess Mary [2]
Brooch Queen’s Gift
Then there was to be seen a brooch given by Queen Mary — one great sapphire encircled by diamonds [3]. With these and the other gems on display the princess could go through an entire court season without having to wear twice any bit of jewelry.
Another case held the gift of Viscount Lascelles to his bride-to-be — a corsage of sapphires and diamonds, from which one massive stone shone forth from the field of lesser brilliants. A cluster of diamonds is suspended from the corsage. It contains two large pearls. There also was a riviere, or necklace, of diamonds, and a diamond pendant containing two large pearl drops. This gorgeous display of jewels will be worn by Princess Mary at the wedding.
Nearby was Princess Mary’s gift to Viscount Lascelles. This consisted of a pair of antique souffle dishes and a platinum and gold watch chain set with pearls.
Wales Gives Bracelet
The Prince of Wales’s gift to his sister is a diamond and sapphire bracelet. Dowager Queen Alexandra has given the princess a marvelous corsage of pearls, with emerald drops, and a beautiful necklace containing six rows of stones.
Princess Mary’s aunts, the Princess Royal, Princess Victoria, and the Queen of Norway, combined in their present, sending the princess a long diamond lace brooch. The Duke of York and Princes Henry and George have given their sister a sapphire and diamond ring, unique in style and setting. From the bridegroom’s parents has come a large diamond brooch.
A large ring came from Queen Victoria of Spain. Queen Amelia has given the bride-elect a gold bracelet containing one huge ruby and one pearl, with a circle of diamonds as a clasp.
Princess Mary [4]
Clock from Duke of Connaught
The great-aunts of the princess and the Duke of Connaught have presented her with an ebony and gold antique clock. Another clock, perhaps the most remarkable of the lot, has been sent by Prince and Princess Christopher of Greece. It is a carriage clock with a gold sunray face, with two silver and diamond stars moving around to indicate the hours and minutes.
Conspicuous among the other presents were a miscellany of rich ropes of pearls, jeweled fans, and huge silver vessels from the members of the British cabinet and others from the diplomatic corps; a handsome negligee [5] with a center of emeralds and a coronet of precious stones from the navy; a silver dressing table set from the army; a mink coat and muff from the twelve city companies; a diamond bracelet “from the men and women of the stage”; a negligee of rubies, pearls, turquoises, and diamonds shaped after the fashion of an eastern temple bell from Viceroy Reading of India and the Countess Reading; a splendid sable coat from twenty-eight friends; two silver cake dishes from Mrs. Whitelaw Reid, widow of the former ambassador to the Court of St. James; and an infinite variety of other gifts, consisting of furniture and wearing apparel.
NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Cropped version of a picture postcard available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
2. Image available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
3. Some have speculated that this was one of the Albert brooches — one of five copies of Queen Victoria’s sapphire and diamond brooch given to each of Albert and Victoria’s daughters. To my knowledge, there’s never been confirmation that this was indeed one of those brooches. See Suzy Menkes for more on the copies of the Albert brooch.
4. Image available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
5. A necklace is generally referred to as a “negligee” when it includes tassels or pendant drops of irregular length; the Delhi Durbar necklace is a good example. These were especially popular during the reign of Mary’s grandfather, Edward VII.

Review: Jewels of the Romanovs (1997)

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Jewels of the Romanovs: Treasures of the Russian Imperial Court (1997) [1]
The Sochi Winter Olympics came to a close yesterday evening with a ceremony honoring the best in Russian culture, so I thought it was only appropriate that my jewel book review for February should focus on one of the volumes I own that focuses on Russian royal jewels. The Jewels of the Romanovs: Treasures of the Russian Imperial Court, published in 1997 to accompany a museum exhibition, is a slender book, but it highlights some unusual jeweled objects that are often overlooked in our discussions of royal jewelry.
When I say that the book is slender, I mean it: it’s paperback, and it only includes 72 pages of content. That said, the content is good — clear, sharp color photographs and heavy, glossy pages. The book also features a thin piece of waxy plastic as an overlay on the front and back covers, making it slightly more durable than it otherwise might be. You’ll only be able to find secondhand copies of the text at this point, as it’s over a decade old, but copies can be found readily and inexpensively.
It’s easy to confuse this book with another tome on Russian jewels that shares an extremely similar title: Stefano Papi’s Jewels of the Romanovs: Family & Court. Be warned: that second part of the title after the colon is significant! Papi’s book, now in its second edition, is a much more thorough and lengthy examination of the Romanov jewel collections. In contrast, this smaller exhibition catalogue includes only pieces of jewelry held in the State Diamond Fund of the Russian Federation. 
Many of these jewels, along with jeweled religious objects from the Orthodox tradition and sumptuous items of clothing, were exhibited in America for the first time during the 1997 exhibition, which was held at the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. The exhibit, which marked the 125th anniversary of a state visit by Grand Duke Alexei Alexandrovich to the United States in 1872, was made possible by the cooperation of American and Russian cultural organizations. Although it was not without its controversy, it provided Americans with a rare chance to view these Romanov jewels up close. For those of us not lucky enough to have attended in person, the exhibition catalogue gives us a chance to share in a small part of the experience.
Alexei Alexandrovich with George Armstrong Custer in Topeka, Kansas [2]
The book, edited by Nicholas B.A. Nicholson, begins with a helpful history of the relationship between America and Russia; the last page of the book also includes a timeline that helps to put the various Romanov tsars and tsarinas in their proper chronological context. In between, there are three major sections. The first presents a collection of jeweled ecclesiastical objects, including elaborate icons, pendants, crosses, and a truly impressive bejeweled kokoshnik headdress made for a Marian statue. These religious objects are not owned by the State Diamond Fund; they belong to the Yaroslavl State Architectural and Historical Museum-Preserve. The last section of the book features photographs of clothing worn by the Romanovs, including two truly impressive court dresses worn by Alexandra Feodorovna, the last Russian tsarina.
But for our purposes, it’s the middle section that is the most interesting — it features the Romanov jewels. There are a number of intriguing pieces here, both original items and a few that have been reproduced as exact copies of jewels sold and lost after the revolution (the famous “Russian Field” tiara is an example of the latter category). My favorites include an extremely early example of a bandeau tiara, part of a diamond floral demi-parure made ca. 1760, and a stickpin from the collection of Maria Feodorovna that features a blue diamond that may have come from the same stone as the Hope Diamond. The pieces here are varied, and they’re interspersed with portraits of the Romanovs in all their bejeweled splendor.
So, is this one a must-have for Romanov lovers? I’m not sure. I like having it in my collection, and the photographs are wonderful; it’s also relatively easy to find very inexpensive copies of the text, so it’s not going to break the bank financially. However, the Alexander Palace website includes an online version of the exhibition that features much of the same content (though not all) as the exhibition catalogue. If you visit that website, and you want to see larger, more detailed images of the objects presented there, I think that you’d enjoy owning this particular book.
NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Book cover image available here.
2. Photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.