The grand tiara Archived Message
Posted by Baxter on September 25, 2014, 6:19 pm, in reply to "Re: The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire"
Brock's pic was from the fancy dress party celebrating the 80th birthdays of the duke and duchess. The duchess wore the Worth gown worn by her predecessor, the hostess of the famous Devonshire House ball in 1897. I think that is the only time I've seen Her Grace wearing the larger tiara. In her inimitable style she wrote about wearing it in the Telegraph in 2002: What are tiaras for? They are the finishing flourish to your best evening dress, the female accompaniment to the man’s white tie and decorations, and the pinnacle of the jeweller’s art. Before the last war, tiaras were worn by married women at all the grand balls in London. Even at a big dance in the 1960s it was not uncommon for men to wear tail-coats and the women their jewels. I remember going to such an entertainment on my own wearing, with unwonted confidence, the “big” tiara (the Devonshires have two). It must have looked rather off, because my home-made dress of cotton broderie anglaise was definitely not up to it. At the end of the evening I went out to look for a taxi. It never occurred to me that it might not be a good idea to stand alone in the street long after midnight with a load of diamonds round my neck and nineteen hundred more glittering above my head. But then, even though Helen, Duchess of Northumberland, once had her tiara snatched off her head as she was leaving their house in Easton Square, we did not think of being mugged (the word did not exist). My mother-in-law, Mary Devonshire, who was Mistress of the Robes to the Queen from 1953 till 1967, used to fetch the jewels from the bank stowed in a Marks & Spencer carrier bag. My grandmother-in-law, Evelyn, Duchess of Devonshire, was Mistress of the Robes to Queen Mary for 43 years from 1910. Together she and Queen Mary weathered long hours of tiara-ed evenings. After one particularly lengthy engagement, Granny was heard to say: “The Queen has been complaining about the weight of her tiara… the Queen doesn’t know what a heavy tiara is.”
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Message Thread: | This response ↓
- The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire - Baxter September 24, 2014, 2:31 pm
- The 'uniform' - Baxter September 24, 2014, 2:33 pm
- The 'smaller' tiara - Baxter September 24, 2014, 2:49 pm
- Re: The 'smaller' tiara - Ashdean September 24, 2014, 3:11 pm
- Re: The 'smaller' tiara - Ianusk September 24, 2014, 3:14 pm
- Re: The 'smaller' tiara - Nellie September 24, 2014, 6:36 pm
- Re: The 'smaller' tiara... in a bigger setting - Martina September 25, 2014, 2:43 am
- Coronation - mauriz September 26, 2014, 1:47 am
- Re: The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire - GillW September 24, 2014, 4:15 pm
- Re: The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire - Cristina September 25, 2014, 3:45 am
- Re: The Dowager Duchess of Devonshire - Torkel September 25, 2014, 3:29 pm
- Modern jewels - Baxter September 26, 2014, 11:03 am
- Cambridge wedding - Baxter September 26, 2014, 11:07 am
- Resemblance with granddaughter Stella Tennant - Honor September 29, 2014, 2:32 pm
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