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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Jewel History: Austria Brings Suit for Crown Jewels (1921)

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Emperor Karl and Empress Zita of Austria [1]
“Austria Brings Suit for Crown Jewels”
(originally appeared in the New York Times, 20 Feb 1921)

A sensational lawsuit will start shortly against the former Emperor Charles in which the Austrian government seeks to recover $20,000,000 worth of Austrian crown jewels brought to Switzerland by Charles and Count Berchtold [2]. The trial will probably take place in Lausanne.

Charles declares his property is not in Austria but in Italy and that several of the jewels were taken by Austrian troops during the invasion of Northern Italy after Caporetto [3].

Swiss jewelers refuse to buy any crown jewels, fearing future restitution. It is stated that Charles and Zita are specially anxious to sell a diamond necklace worth nearly $1,000,000 worn by the late Empress Elizabeth of Austria [4], who was murdered in Geneva.

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Cropped version of photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
2. Count Leopold Berchtold was the Imperial Foreign Minister of Austria-Hungary at the outbreak of World War I.
3. The Battle of Caporetto, on the Austro-Italian front, was fought in present-day Slovenia in October and November of 1917.
4. Empress Elisabeth, better known to us as Sisi, was most famous for the diamond star ornaments she wore in her hair. See my article on the diamond stars here.

The Imperial Order of the Crown of India

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Badge of the Imperial Order of the Crown of India [1]
If you look at portraits of British royal women from the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, you’ll often see them wearing an unfamiliar badge amid the royal family orders pinned to their left shoulders. These badges, which were worn suspended from light blue ribbons, belonged to an order of chivalry that was once widely bestowed but has since become all but extinct: the Imperial Order of the Crown of India.
Queen Victoria, ca. 1882 [2]
The order was begun to celebrate the elevation of Queen Victoria to her newest title, Empress of India, in 1876. From the start, this was an order of chivalry that was awarded exclusively to women — no men were ever admitted to its ranks (although four served as its sovereign). The badge of the order, which was set with diamonds, turquoises, and pearls, included three intertwined initials: VRI, which stood for Victoria Regina Imperatrix (in English, that’s Victoria Queen-Empress). You can see the initials in the illustration of the badge above; you can also see Queen Victoria wearing the insignia of the order (partially obscured under another ribbon on her left shoulder) in the portrait at left.
When Queen Victoria instituted the order on January 1, 1878, the rules of the order were established in the London Gazette [3]. The role of the sovereign of the order was assigned to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom (Victoria and her heirs, both male and female). She also ensured that the monarch could both invest and remove members of the order as he or she saw fit. Women who could be invested as companions of the order needed to belong to one of three categories. British princesses (who had reached the age of eighteen) were eligible. So were the wives and female relatives of Indian princes (and Indian princesses in their own right, too). The third group recognized the wives and female relatives of high-ranking British colonial officials — specifically, the spouses and relatives of the Viceroy (or the Governor-General), the Governor of Madras, the Governor of Bombay, and the Secretary of State of India. 
Thirty-six women were listed as companions of the order when it was originally established. The list of companions was also published in the London Gazette, and it included women who fit into all three of the designated categories. Ten British princesses were among the original members of the order, including all five of her daughters (plus Princess Louise’s mother-in-law, the Duchess of Argyll), two of her daughters-in-law (the Princess of Wales and the Duchess of Edinburgh), and her Cambridge aunt and cousins (including the Duchess of Teck, mother of the future Queen Mary).
Nawab Shahjihan Begum
of Bhopal, ca. 1872 [4]

Eight royal Indian women were also among the original membership of the order. Maharani Bamba, something of a real-life Cinderella, was the wife of the last Maharaja of Lahore. Nawab Shahjihan Begum was the ruler of Bhopal in her own right; her elderly grandmother, Nawab Kudsia Begum, was also made a companion. Maharani Vani Vilasa Sannidhana Kempananja Ammani Avaru was the wife of one Maharaja of Mysore and the mother (and regent) of another. Maharini Jamnabai Sahib Gaekwad, the widow of the Maharaja of Baroda, was also the adopted mother of a subsequent Baroda ruler. Sahebzadi Dialwar unisa Begum Saheba was the grandmother of the Nizam of Hyderabad. Vijaya Mohenu Mukta Boyi was the daughter of the last Raja of Tanjore, and some recognized her as her father’s successor. Maharani Swarnamoyee of Cossimbazar was renowned for her charity work.

Seventeen additional women, all related to the past and present colonial officials in India, were also recognized as original companions of the order. The Dowager Countess of Elgin, Lady Mayo, Lady Susan Bourke, Lady Jane Baring, Lady Lytton, Lady Lawrence, and Lady Strachey were all wives, widows, or daughters of Viceroys and Governors-General of India. Lady Mary Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, Lady Hobart, Lady Napier, and Lady Denison were all wives or daughters of Governors of Madras. Lady Frere and Lady Temple were wives of Governors of Bombay. Viscountess Halifax’s husband was in charge of the British East India Company. Lady Salisbury, Lady Ripon, and Lady Northcote were wives of Secretaries of State and (Under-Secretaries of State) of India.

Over the next seventy years, many more British princesses, Indian royals, and relatives of colonial officials were added to the order’s ranks. In 1947, when British colonial control of India ended, the order was essentially suspended; as you can imagine, there’s been no need to add new companions to an imperial order of chivalry based in a country that has since gained its independence.

Today, there is exactly one living person who was invested as a member of the order during its tenure: Queen Elizabeth II, who was made a companion on June 12, 1947. Her sister, Princess Margaret, was made a companion of the order on the same day, even though she was only sixteen. (You can see Margaret wearing the insignia of the order in this portrait; it is placed on her left shoulder, above her family orders.) Both of the princesses were appointed to the order during the celebrations of the official birthday of their father, King George VI [5]. India gained independence from Britain two months later, on August 15, 1947.

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Cropped version of an image available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
2. Photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
3. The relevant pages from the London Gazette are available here.
4. Cropped version of photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
5. See the London Gazette announcement here.

Jewel History: Criticise Royal Gems (1910)

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Empress Augusta Viktoria of Germany [1]
“Criticise Royal Gems”
(originally appeared in the Washington Post on 6 Feb 1910)

The socialist journals of Germany have seized upon the descriptions of the jewels worn by the empress at the court festivities just ended to criticise the extravagance revealed by the “mother of the nation.”

Empress Augusta Viktoria [2]

It is said that at important court balls and banquets the empress wore jewels valued at $1,750,000. They included a huge diamond tiara, a necklace of pearls and diamonds, several diamond bracelets, many diamond rings, and a diamond chain around her waist. Even the train of her majesty’s dress was decked with wonderful precious stones, and a few superfluous jewels were affixed to the imperial fan.

During the court function two pages watched incessantly to make sure none of the gems were lost. Most of the jewelry is the property of the Prussian crown, and descends from empress to empress. The empress’s own jewelry is worth less than that of many middle-class ladies. At the conclusion of each court festivity the crown jewels are replaced in fireproof safes and guarded day and night by military sentinels. No one but the ladies in waiting is allowed to remove the jewels from the empress. Four court ladies attend to this work and sign a statement witnessing the safe return of the valuables to the safes. The greatest formalities are always observed.

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS

1. Detail of Philip de László’s Portrait of Auguste Viktoria, Deutsche Kaiserin (1908); source here. The original painting hangs in the dining room at Huis Doorn, the Dutch manor house where the kaiser and kaiserin lived in exile after World War I. The house is now a museum.
2. Photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.