Re: The Duchess of York's necklace worn in 1923 Archived Message
Posted by Arthur  on October 1, 2014, 7:35 am, in reply to "The duchess of york's necklace worn in 1923"
Hello Franck,
the picture was taken in October 1923 in Belgrade at the christening of Crown Prince Peter (later King Peter II) of Yugoslavia. King George V of the United-Kingdom was one of the baby's godfathers, and the Duke and Duchess of York represented him at the christening.
By the way, it was one of the rather few times when the Duchess of York/Queen Elizabeth/Queen Mother was photographed wearing a foreign order.
Here are a few more pictures from this event:
Here are the two pearl sautoirs presented as wedding gifts to the Duchess of York in 1923. The one on the left was presented by "the citizens of London", the one on the right by the Countess of Strathmore, mother of the Duchess (credits for these pictures go to Nelly, if I well remember). Both sautoirs are typical of the Art Deco style, very fashionable at that time.
 
Both jewels were rarely worn - their very typical Art Deco style went rapidly out of fashion from the 1930s on, which could explain why they were so rarely seen. Actually, I have never seen pictures of the Duchess of York/Queen Elizabeth/Queen Mother wearing the Strathmore sautoir. She wore the Citizens of London sautoir several times, but all the pictures are from the very early years of her marriage (1923-1924):
 
It is strange that so many of the jewels received by the Queen Mother as wedding gifts were so rarely, or even never, seen (these two sautoirs, the sapphire necklace...). We now know, thanks to Hugh Roberts' book The Queen's Diamonds, that the pearl and diamond necklace with Greek meander motifs presented to the Duchess of York as a wedding gift by her husband was very soon dismantled and its stones re-used into the newly-created 'Papyrus Tiara'. I wonder what happened with all the other unseen jewels, including the two pearl sautoirs: were they also dismantled? or are they collecting dust in a royal safe?  After all, another wedding gift (Queen Alexandra's amethyst and pearl necklace) was never seen between 1923 and... 2012, when Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall wore it for a film première in London. So, we can hope this will happen for the pearl sautoirs too... Though very 1920s in style, they would look great on Catherine Duchess of Cambridge, IMO...
Now, let us back to Franck's topic: is the pearl necklace worn by the Duchess of York in Belgrade in 1923 one of the two pearl sautoirs received as wedding gifts?
It is of course hard to evaluate from the (unfortunately blurry) pictures of the christening, but I tend to agree with Franck and think it is the Citizens of London's pearl and diamond sautoir. What actually convinces me is the first picture I have posted above (the group picture of the cristening with the Yugoslav, Romanian and York couples): on this picture, we can identify the pear-shaped pearl of the sautoir, just under the sash of the Yugoslav order worn by the Duchess of York; the length of the necklace is also comparable with the other pictures posted above.
What may "trick" us on the picture posted by Franck is that the Duchess of York also wore a long rope of pearls, which goes down almost to the waist. Because of the walking movement, this pearl rope has flipped over the Citizens of London's sautoir - which could give the visual misleading impression of a single, longer and bigger necklace.
I hope this sounds convincing.
--Previous Message--
:
: Dear all,
:
: Please find below the photo of the Duchess
: of York wearing a mysterious necklace.
:
: I now do think that it is the pearl and
: diamond sautoir from the City of London or
: the pearl and diamond sautoir from the
: Countess of Strathmore.
:
: What do you think ?
:
: [img] [/img]
:
: Best regards,
:
: Franck
:
|
|
