We are all familiar with the story that the Duchess of Teck had a diamond stomacher from Garrards, in which she set some of the Cambridge emeralds, that the present Queen now wears as a brooch.
However, more significantly, and seemingly overlooked is the fact that this stomacher, which passed to Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone was more often worn with considerable Sapphire and Diamond Clusters.
To the Devonshire House Ball in 1897, the Duchess of Teck wore the diamond stomacher set with four (4) sapphire and diamond clusters, with one (1) sapphire and cluster drop, and one (1) large sapphire and diamond cluster brooch pinned directly above the stomacher.
Both these clusters and the stomacher passed to Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone.
She can be seen wearing the empty stomacher, without the clusters, which shows the stomacher more clearly, as having four (4) large apertures, with numerous pendant diamond drops suspended down the sides.
Images also show that all the sapphire and diamond clusters (six in all) passed to Princess Alice.
She can be seen here, wearing the three largest as brooches on her sash, the two smallest as pendants to her earrings, and the pendant as a pendant to her necklace.
Princess Alice wore the stomacher, with some of the sapphires (minus the largest cluster brooch, and the pendant) to the 1911 coronation. (To which she also wore the Duchess of Teck's ears of wheat tiara.)
It can also be seen in this picture that the Duchess of Teck wore one of the clusters from the stomacher as the centre-piece of a hair ornament (it appears to be pinned to the centre of her hoop necklace), and another cluster as a pendant to her pearl necklaces.
Nothing is known of the provenance of these jewels, the stomacher and the clusters, nor how they came into the possession of the Duchess of Teck. A likely source, could be that they were bequeathed to the Duchess of Teck from Princess Mary, Duchess of Gloucester - who left her so many of the jewels that we now associate with her and Queen Mary.
There is an inventory of the Duchess of Teck's jewels, which would shed more light on this matter, however this remains in the Royal Archives and only came to light recently with Roberts' publication.
Furthermore, the current whereabouts of these jewels are unclear.
on January 28, 2013, 10:08 am
