Re: The Duchess of York's sapphire "chain pendant" Archived Message
Posted by Arthur on October 2, 2014, 4:09 am, in reply to "Re: The Duchess of York's sapphire "chain pendant""
The footnote published by Roberts at the page about the Strathmore tiara (page 220) indicates that "interchangeable at will with the 5 flowers are 5 single sapphires" (quote from a Garrard ledger of 1938). So I guess it must be the entire rose-heads, and not only their central diamond. I strongly doubt one of these sapphires could be the brooch later given to Princess Diana, and transformed by the latter into the front clasp of her pearl choker. This sapphire is very large (quite huge, actually), and would have overwhelmed the small frame of the Strathmore tiara; the balance and delicacy of the design of the tiara would have been ruined by such a whopper sapphire (and even more by five!). Moreover, Roberts stresses (both in the text and the footnote) that the sapphires are "single-collet" sapphires - i.e. without any diamond surround, if I well understand (which is not the case of Diana's sapphire, surrounded by two rows of diamonds). Interesting also is that Roberts mentions that the five diamond roses of the tiara were "originally" interchangeable with sapphires. The word "originally" is certainly not innocent, and could imply that it is not the case anymore - either because the Queen Mother disposed at some time of the sapphires, or because she had them re-used for another jewel... --Previous Message-- : I too was looking at the Queen's Diamonds last : night, and was reading about the Strathmore : tiara - according to Roberts the roses are : interchangeable with sapphires - does this : mean the central diamond in the rose, or the : entire rose-head? If the latter, there would : be some significantly sized sapphires in the : collection. The large brooch the Queen : Mother gave to Diana - does anyone know its : exact providence - it's often seen as a copy : of the Albert sapphire brooch, but I wonder : if it was part of this tiara's alternative : appearance? :
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