French 'Russian' Fringe Tiara (continued)Archived Message
Posted by Arthur on October 13, 2014, 1:24 pm
In a recent thread about Empress Eugénie's Currant-Leaf Parure ( http://members2.boardhost.com/royal-jewels/msg/1412896253.html ), we had a side-discussion about the Fringe Tiara (usually called the 'Russian Tiara', because of its kokoshnik style) of the French Crown Jewels' collection.
In the post linked above, I quoted Bernard Morel's book about the French Crown Jewels (Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France, 1988), who mentioned that in May 1962, in parallel to the exhibition "Ten centuries of French jewellery" at the Louvre Museum in Paris, the French magazine Connaissance des Arts had released a picture of the Russian Tiara and information about its whereabouts (it was said to be in an American collection).
I finally managed to get a copy of this magazine, and here are the comments I can make and share with you.
First of all, the right edition is that of April 1962, and not of May 1962, as erroneously written by Morel.
Then, the magazine confirms that the Russian Tiara belonged in 1962 "to an American collector", and the caption of the picture of the tiara precises it was in a "private collection, New York".
The picture published in the magazine is more puzzling. Here is this picture:
To be honest, I think it is NOT the Russian tiara of the French Crown Jewels. If we compare this picture with the pictures of the French Crown Jewels at the time of the auction in 1887, we can see similarities, but also differences.
Here is the Russian Tiara, at the time of the auction in 1887:
Among the similarities (and beyond the general similarity of style, common to all fringe tiaras, of course), we can notice that the small intermediary spikes, between the larger spikes, are made of eight diamonds in both tiaras.
But we can also notice a few significative differences: - the Crown Jewels' tiara has a small line of diamonds at its base, which is not the case of the fringe tiara pictured in Connaissance des Arts - the proportion between the widest and the narrowest points of each spike of the tiara is bigger in the Crown Jewels' tiara as in the tiara in Connaissance des Arts, - and the shape of the curve of the "ogival" spikes is also different between both tiaras.
Therefore, I am convinced that the tiara pictured in Connaissance des Arts in April 1962 is not the Russia Tiara of the French Crown jewels... and the issue of its whereabouts after 1887 remains unsolved.
I think the tiara pictured in Connaissance des Arts is the fringe tiara of Grand-Duchess Maria Alexandrovna of Russia, Duchess of Edinburgh and Duchess of Saxe-Cobourg-and-Gotha (daughter of Tsar Alexander II and daughter-in-law of Queen Victoria). It was bequeathed by Maria Alexandrovna to her daughter, Maria, Queen of Romania, and later given by the Queen of Romania to her daughter Maria, Queen of Yugoslavia. The Queen of Yugoslavia (then widowed and in exile) sold the tiara at auction in 1960. Here are the pictures of the auction (previously posted on this board by a poster, whose name I have unfortunately not noted - maybe Ianusk?):
And here worn by the three Marias (mother, daughter and granddaughter):
on October 13, 2014, 1:24 pm
