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Sparkling Royal Jewels From Around the World

Jewel History: State Ball at Delhi (1903)

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Lady Curzon, Vicereine of India [1]
“State Ball at Delhi”
(originally appeared in The Washington Post, 7 Jan 1903)
Delhi, India, Jan. 6 — The state ball tonight in the palace of the grand mogul proved to be one of the most attractive features of the Durbar festivities. The European dance among the columns and pillars of the palace was a strange and wonderful sight. When a fanfare of silver trumpets at 10 o’clock announced the arrival of the viceroy, Lord Curzon of Kedleston, the scene was a brilliant one. Lady Curzon was gowned in gold brocade and wore a magnificent tiara [2] and necklace of diamonds, with four rubies that had belonged to the King of Theebaw [3].
Some 5,000 guests were present, among them the Duke of Connaught, Lord Kitchener, and all the other prominent personages in India, the Duchess of Marlborough, and numerous other Americans. Lord and Lady Curzon and the Duke and Duchess of Connaught on the royal dais received scores of native princes, whose costumes were dazzling creations.

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Detail of a colorized picture postcard of Lady Curzon wearing the famous Worth “peacock” dress at the 1903 Durbar festivities; source here.

2. For the ball, Lady Curzon wore her Boucheron tiara, made in 1898 for her state trousseau. Read more about the tiara at A Tiara a Day.
3. Thibaw Min was the last king of Burma, reigning from 1878 to 1885; he was forced to abdicate by the British after they invaded the country. Read more here.

Saturday Sparkler: The Prussian Meander Tiara

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Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin as Crown Princess of Prussia, wearing the Meander tiara [1]

Once rulers of an entire empire, the House of Hohenzollern had a suitably grand selection of tiaras at their disposal at the beginning of the twentieth century. This tiara, the kokoshnik-style meander, supplemented the already impressive collection. It was created in 1905 by Koch, a German jeweller who created numerous pieces for the Prussian royal family.

Crown Prince Wilhelm commissioned the tiara as a wedding gift for his bride, Duchess Cecilie of Mecklenburg-Schwerin (who was the sister of Queen Alexandrine of Denmark). Cecilie certainly deserved to get an impressive tiara out of the deal. Her husband was a notorious philanderer — there were even claims of an affair with Mata Hari, which was probably a bad idea all around if true.

Anyway, the the tiara is impressive indeed. The piece is shaped like a kokoshnik headdress, with a Greek key design running along its borders and delicate diamond latticework in the central sections. Large diamonds are studded across the piece, giving extra substance and sparkle to the light and airy web of smaller diamonds.

Some think that the Greeks originally used meander designs to symbolize unity, and so it makes sense that this wedding gift became something of a traditional wedding tiara for the Hohenzollerns. One of the most fascinating women in the family, Grand Duchess Kira Kirillovna of Russia, wore it when she married Wilhelm and Cecilie’s son, Prince Louis Ferdinand, in 1938. Almost thirty years later, her daughter, Princess Marie-Cécile, wore the tiara at her wedding to Duke Friedrich August of Oldenburg.

The tiara appeared once more on a Prussian bride in 2011, when Princess Sophie of Isenburg, the wife of Prince Georg Friedrich of Prussia, surprised many by donning it at her wedding reception. (You’ll remember that she wore her family’s tiara for the ceremony.) Georg Friedrich is the grandson of Louis Ferdinand and Kira — and he’s also the stepson and nephew of the aforementioned Duke Friedrich August of Oldenburg. Have a bit of fun with Google on that subject after you’ve finished marveling at this meander! [2]

NOTES, PHOTO CREDITS, AND LINKS
1. Detail of Portrait of Crown Princess Cecilie of Prussia (1908) by Caspar Ritter. Available on Wikimedia Commons; source here.
2 A version of this post originally appeared at A Tiara a Day in June 2013.