Duchess of Kent wearing the amethysts (painting in the Royal Collection)Archived Message
Posted by Arthur on August 27, 2014, 4:35 pm, in reply to "Royal Collection"
I have looked in the Royal Collection’s website if I could find a picture or a portrait of a royal lady wearing the Duchess of Kent’s amethysts. I have found nothing, except this painting, by John Philip, representing the wedding of the then Princess Royal, Victoria (Queen Victoria’s eldest daughter) to Crown Prince Frederick of Prussia (later German Emperor Frederick III) in 1858. It looks as if the Duchess of Kent (standing behind Queen Victoria, with the ermine-trimmed coat) is wearing her amethyst necklace and earrings:
I have tried to zoom on the picture. I think it is possible to confirm that the stones are of purple colour (so, probably amethysts) and that there are at least three pendants hanging from it, which would match with the Kent amethyst demi-parure. The earrings seem to be a match too (though they are partially hidden behind the ostrich feathers, we can recognize the bottom part of the Kent amethyst earrings, with the pear-shaped amethyst being framed by diamonds only on its bottom section). But is rather difficult to confirm if the necklace includes the hexagonal amethysts or not. We can notice that the necklace looks shorter than when worn by Queen Elizabeth II. The brooch is not visible.
As for the brooch(es), I have checked the list of the jewels designated by Queen Victoria as “heirlooms of the Crown” (as published in Vincent Meylan’s book Bijoux de Reines, quoting Lord Twining’s book Crown Jewels of Europe): Meylan/Twining mentions that the Kent amethyst parure includes “a necklace, a brooch [and not three], a pair of earrings and two hair combs”. That could mean that two of the hexagonal amethyst brooches were already integrated in the necklace.
I do not know if this picture and information makes the mystery clearer or thicker, but I hope you will enjoy them anyway!
Arthur
--Previous Message-- : : : --Previous Message-- : Thank you Barbara. I have been searching the : net for such a portrait or photograph : without success. Unfortunately, neither the : Royal Collection or the National Portrait : Gallery have all their images online. : Hopefully, someone will find such an image. : : : You're right Beth1, sometimes only the : description is available. But I noticed, : that particularly the RCs website changes a : lot in the number of items/pics/descriptions : available online... So maybe we have to wait : a while, keeping the topic in mind and then : re-search. I hope that from end of year on, : my time won't be so restricted anymore... :