The Court Jeweller – Page 1855

Jewelry 101: Parure

01.29.2014 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Sapphire parure of Queen Marie-Amélie of France, on display at the Louvre [1]

Jewelry 101: Parure

Another day, another new feature unveiled here at The Court Jeweller. This is the first post in a series that explores the terminology used to describe the royal jewels we’ve been happily gazing at here so far. Our first jewelry term is one that I’ve received many requests about: the parure.

Like lots of the words used to refer to various aspects of jewelry, the word parure is a French term. It’s a word that doesn’t really have an English equivalent; it refers to a matched set of pieces of jewelry that are intended to be worn together. The word comes from the French verb parer, which appropriately means “to adorn.”

Empress Joséphine [3]

Jewelers have been producing parures for centuries. The sets gained popularity in France with the ancien régime during the seventeenth century. These parures would have greatly resembled the sets that we see today; they included brooches, necklaces, rings, and earrings, but some of the later eighteenth-century parures also featured additional ornaments like shoulder brooches, shoe buckles, and even jeweled sword hilts [2]. But these early parures didn’t include one of the pieces we’re accustomed to seeing in more modern examples — there were no tiaras in the sets.

Tiaras began to be incorporated into parures at the French imperial court of Napoleon I. A number of the earliest examples of complete parures that have survived to the current day were once worn in France during this period. Attempting to emulate the splendor of the previous royal courts, Napoleon purchased parures for his first wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais (see photograph at left), and his second, Marie Louise of Austria. His favored jewelers included Marie-Étienne Nitot and Christophe-Frédéric Bapst, both of whom produced parures for the French court that are still worn by royal women today. A parure of cameos from the French imperial period, often attributed to Bapst, is worn by the Bernadotte women in Sweden; the tiara from the set has become an important bridal tiara for the royal family. Bapst is also frequently credited with the emerald parure that today belongs to the royal family of Norway.

Silvia of Sweden [4]

Jewel historians use several versions of the term parure to classify sets of jewels. A parure that consists of at least three pieces of matched jewelry is generally referred to as a full parure. These suites of jewels can consist of a number of pieces, but they often include a tiara, a necklace, a pair of earrings, bracelets, and at least one brooch. The sets also sometimes include additional pieces, like rings, hair combs, or even jeweled fans or watches.

Several royal collections include impressive full parures. The Leuchtenberg sapphire parure, owned today by the Swedish royal family, was constructed as a full parure by Nitot (see photograph at right). It originally consisted of a tiara, a necklace, a brooch, a pair of earrings, and a set of four hairpins. (The original earrings were separated from the rest of the parure at some point; later, two of the hairpins were converted into a replacement pair.) The Danish royal family possesses a ruby parure that also dates to the Napoleonic era. This particular parure was made for Napoleon’s fiancée, Désirée Clary (who later became queen of Sweden). Pieces of the set were worn by Désirée at Napoleon and Joséphine’s coronation; today, the ruby set is worn by Crown Princess Mary. (The tiara from this parure was not a part of Désirée’s original set; her parure included a set of hair ornaments that were later adapted into the tiara, which has been altered several times.)

Queen Elizabeth II [5]

A newer full parure can be found in the jewelry collection of Queen Elizabeth II. Her aquamarine parure consists of diamond and aquamarine jewels that were given to her in the middle of the twentieth century by the Brazilian government (see photograph at left). Although the pieces were gifted on separate occasions, they are designed to be worn together. The set includes a necklace, earrings, a bracelet, and a brooch. The queen decided to supplement her parure by commissioning a tiara from a separate jeweler (that would be Garrard); because it was constructed later and by a different jeweler, it is technically not part of the original parure, but it was designed to coordinate with the existing pieces.

Matched sets of jewelry that include fewer pieces are generally called demi-parures. Precisely how many pieces a set must have to be a demi rather than a full parure varies according to different sources. Some say a demi-parure only includes two matched pieces, but I’ve seen the term used more frequently when describing parures that lack a tiara. One of the most notable demi-parures currently in royal hands is the amethyst demi-parure owned by Elizabeth II. The amethysts originally belonged to Queen Victoria’s mother, the Duchess of Kent. The set consists of a necklace, three brooches, a set of hair combs, and a pair of earrings. As you can see, this set would fit into the latter categorization of “demi-parure” — it has plenty of matched pieces to qualify it for full parure status, but it doesn’t have a tiara, and so it is apparently downgraded. Another significant royal demi-parure can be found in Sweden: the family’s pink topaz set (again, this set includes several major pieces but lacks a tiara).

Margrethe II of Denmark [7]

There’s also a term for a parure that was cobbled together from similar pieces of jewelry: a married parure. One of the best examples of this can be found in Denmark. Queen Margrethe II often wears a “parure” that consists of a diamond and pearl tiara, necklace, brooch, and earrings (see photograph at right). But the pieces were not constructed by the same jeweler, and they weren’t made as a set; the tiara and brooch both belonged to Louise of the Netherlands, while the necklace and earrings were wedding gifts to her granddaughter, Louise of Sweden. But the jewels were left to the family’s property trust as a set, and they are frequently worn together [6]. The Swedes also have a married parure in their collection — it consists of a number of cut-steel pieces that once belonged to Queen Hortense of Holland.

It’s much more unusual to see major parures worn outside of royal circles today. The official state duties that royal women attend offer them a rare chance to wear these full sets of matched jewels. You’ll see full parures in various forms at state banquets, royal weddings, and other white-tie occasions. Which royal parure is your favorite set?

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS

1. Detail of photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.

2. See the Encyclopedia Britannica entry for more.

3. Detail of François Gérard’s Joséphine en Costume de Sacre, available via Wikimedia Commons; original here.
4. Detail of photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
5. Detail of photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
6. See Trond Norén Isaksen’s blog for more.
7. Photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.

Margaret of Connaught’s Laurel Wreath Necklace

01.28.2014 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Crown Princess Margareta [1]

As the month draws to a close, so does our foray into the jewel collection of Crown Princess Margareta of Sweden, granddaughter of Queen Victoria and ancestor of many of the current Scandinavian royals. Today, let’s wrap up with a look at one of her wedding gifts: her laurel wreath necklace, worn today as a tiara.

Crown Princess Margareta [3]

The necklace, which was made by Boucheron, was given to Margaret by her new husband’s grandmother, Queen Sofia of Sweden. The piece may have been a stock item in Boucheron’s collection rather than a specific commission by the queen, as another nearly identical necklace by Boucheron was auctioned at Christie’s in 2010 [2]. That necklace differs from Margaret’s in only one aspect: Margaret’s appears to have one additional diamond suspended from the center of the necklace, something that the auctioned necklace lacks. (This additional diamond drop is also visible when the piece is worn as a tiara.) Christie’s notes that the auctioned necklace was made in the late nineteenth century, which could certainly also be true for Margaret’s necklace — she received hers in 1905. The auctioned necklace is also listed as a “necklace-tiara,” which suggests that both pieces were intended to be convertible from the start.

But Margaret apparently never wore the piece as a tiara; she was only ever photographed wearing it as a necklace. The two photographs above show her wearing the necklace with full Swedish court dress, including her Irish lace veil and the diamond “forget-me-not” tiara she received from her parents as a wedding gift. The necklace was not worn in public as a tiara until more than half a century after Margaret’s death, when her daughter-in-law, Princess Lilian, began wearing the piece to official functions.

Lilian obtained the right to wear the laurel wreath after she began a relationship with Margaret’s third son, Prince Bertil. The laurel wreath necklace is one of the jewels that he inherited from his mother; another one of the pieces that he received was the scarab necklace that we recently discussed. Lilian and Bertil had something of a star-crossed love affair. They met and fell in love in England during the war, but Lilian was already married to someone else. Even though she and her husband amicably divorced, marriage to Bertil was still out of the question for more complicated reasons.

Marrying Lilian would have caused Bertil to lose his place in the Swedish succession; Bertil’s grandfather, the king, would not have approved their “unequal” marriage. It wasn’t uncommon for Swedish royal men to chose love over titles (two of Bertil’s brothers did, in fact) [4], but Bertil needed to keep his place in line so that he could serve as regent for his nephew, Carl Gustaf, should he have become king before his eighteenth birthday. (Because Carl Gustaf’s father had died in a plane crash, which led to him becoming the heir to the throne at the age of four, this was a real possibility.) So Bertil and Lilian waited to get married, choosing duty to the family over legal recognition of their relationship.

Crown Princess Victoria [6]

But although their relationship could not be legally sanctioned, Lilian was accepted as a member of the royal family. This tiara was actually one of the public symbols of that acceptance. She wore it in public for the first time in 1972 at the 90th birthday celebrations of Bertil’s father, King Gustaf VI Adolf [5]. Even today, it’s highly unusual for unmarried partners of royal men to wear tiaras to family occasions, and when it’s done, it generally signals that they are considered a part of the royal fold, marriage certificate or not. (See also: Bertil and Lilian’s great-nephew, Prince Gustav of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Berleburg, and his partner, Carina Axelsson .)

After Carl XVI Gustaf became king, he granted permission for his Uncle Bertil to marry Lilian and keep his royal titles. They wed in Drottningholm Palace in 1976, and Lilian officially became a Swedish princess. She attended many official functions with the royal family over the years, including the Nobel ceremonies, and she often wore her mother-in-law’s laurel wreath at those events. She became an important part of the royal family, even acting as a sort of surrogate grandmother for Crown Princess Victoria, Prince Carl Philip, and Princess Madeleine.

The laurel wreath tiara became Lilian’s personal property on the death of Prince Bertil in 1997. After suffering from Alzheimer’s disease, Lilian died in March 2013. She made sure that this heirloom tiara stayed with the Bernadottes, bequeathing it to her great-niece, Crown Princess Victoria [7]. Victoria wore the tiara for the first time in public at her sister’s wedding this summer (see the photograph at left) — a lovely gesture that provided a reminder of Lilian at an event she would certainly have loved to have attended [8].

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Digitally enhanced version of a photograph in the public domain; original image available here.
2. See this feature on Christie’s website for a photograph of the nearly identical necklace/tiara; the page also has information on the piece’s provenance.
3. Photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
4. Margaret’s second son, Prince Sigvard, lost his royal title when he married Erica Patzek in 1934; her fourth son, Prince Carl Johan, lost his title after marrying Kerstin Wijkmark in 1946. Only July 2, 1951, both Sigvard and Carl Johan were given the title of “Count of Wisborg” by Grand Duchess Charlotte of Luxembourg. Both men were therefore members of the unintroduced nobility of Sweden; see here for more.
5. See Sofia Svanholm’s obituary of Princess Lilian.
6. Photograph available via Wikimedia Commons; source here.
7. Details of the inheritance of Lilian’s jewels were made public last month. As expected, the laurel wreath tiara was listed as one of the possessions left to Crown Princess Victoria. But the will also notes that a “diadem of steel, white gold and diamonds” was also left to Victoria. Royal jewel lovers have been scratching their heads over this one, as it does not match a description of any tiaras we have seen in public before — the steel tiaras worn by the Bernadottes are already in the family jewel foundation. Could we perhaps have another mystery tiara waiting in the wings?
8. A version of this post originally appeared at A Tiara a Day in December 2013.

Jewel History: Jewels for Miss Roosevelt (1906)

01.27.2014 by The Court Jeweller // Leave a Comment

Alice Roosevelt Longworth, ca. 1903 [1]

“Jewels for Miss Roosevelt”

(originally appeared in the Washington Post on 26 Jan 1906)

The New York American says diamond cutters are working night and day on the bewildering array of jewels which the friends of Miss Alice Roosevelt are having set in special designs as wedding gifts [2].

Alice Roosevelt and
Nicholas Longworth [3]

At two big Tiffany establishments gems that equal any ever turned out, representing the highest art of the jeweler, and the most precious ever to be found, are being embedded in various handsome articles.

One of the most beautiful, it is said, is a pearl collar of ten strands, the largest ever made by Tiffany, and worth $31,000. A diamond tiara, containing 500 stones, is another, and there are also two diamond collars and two bow-knots of diamonds.

Those who will present these gifts to Miss Roosevelt ask that their names be kept secret. It is understood, however, that two diamond lockets will be given by Secretary of War Taft. Miss Carow, sister of Mrs. Roosevelt, and Mrs. Douglass Robinson, sister of the President, are having work done at Tiffany’s.

At Tiffany’s Forest Hill plant two of the largest presents which, in all probability, Miss Roosevelt will receive are being finished. One is a magnificent silver service, ordered by the Rough Riders’ Association, and a Krag-Jorgensen rifle, fashioned out of solid 22-carat gold, an exact full-sized working model, to be presented by officers of the United States army. The rifle has been patterned from one used by Company H, First New Jersey Regiment, and Miss Roosevelt’s monogram will be worked in diamonds on its stock.

The Roosevelt-Longworth engagement ring, said to have been made in Washington, according to the New York American, was made by Tiffany in New York. It is not a cluster ring, but one large 5-carat stone set in platinum.

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Detail of a hand-tinted photograph of Alice Roosevelt; image in the public domain; source here.
2. Alice Roosevelt, nicknamed “Princess Alice,” was the eldest child of President Theodore Roosevelt. She married Rep. Nicholas Longworth (R-Ohio) at the White House in 1906. The marriage lasted until Longworth’s death but was not especially successful.
3. Picture postcard celebrating the wedding of Alice Roosevelt and Nicholas Longworth; source here.