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    Re: The brooches of Lilian Baels. I found 18 Archived Message

    Posted by Karlimagnus on March 8, 2015, 8:33 am, in reply to "Re: The brooches of Lilian Baels. I found 18"

    Well, brooches

    1-8 except for 2 and 17 have surely been sold at auctions. Those from the catalogue pages, reportely by Lilian herself. Sometimes the loss of jewels is attributed to Lilian but that's exagerated. She did sell things but it's not like the other members did much better. It's a shame that they don't have a foundation. I'll make a tiara resume soon aswell.

    The "mondern" VCA jewelry was reportely specifically bought for Lilian. Just as the 17, tiara brooch, was bought for her.

    I.m.o, the biggest mystery is number 2. It was seen on Queen Elisabeth and Astrid before her, but it's most largely associated with Lilian.

    I think we can also conclude that it was the brooch listed in the inventory of the theft at the palace of the Count of Flanders in the late 1800's.

    There was a drawing made of it by the countess of flanders. Just a little bit more "chewed" than in the pics. The carat weight was listed as well. It was kinda huge

    As soon as it popped up on queen Elisabeth there seemed to have been added a second row of diamonds around the square emerald. Not too small diamonds actually.

    It could've been from empress Charlotta of Mexico.

    It hasn't been seen for decades. Officially it never went to an auction. There is this rumour that the BRF still has the emerald sets ( the emerald tiara/necklace, the emerald cross and co set of Astrid, the countess of flanders brooch, those huge cabachon emerald earrings of Lilian...) but they're still locked away. It would surely surprise me, except if they were in Fabiola's hand because the BRF really is lacking in the jewel department. It's strange, they also have a small ruby pendant in the Royal Collection(or whatever it's called here) but nobody dares to use it apparently. Just as with the Kabilla set. But that was due to political issues.

    Although recently the Luxembourg Ducal family did state that most of Astrid emerald jewels where rest into a VCA tiara for Josephine... Question is, what is most of, does the Ducal family even know what the whole lot was... etc.. Surely the emerald cross has been re-used and the emerald earrings of Astrid are still in the LDF.

    The brooch is probably the most expensive piece of the last century in the BRF. It current whereabouts are unknown. I've heard rumours here and there that f.e. the earrings have a connection to her former fiancé. But I ain't buying it. Show me the receipts.

    Perhaps it will turn up in time on Mathilde...:D




    --Previous Message--
    : What an interesting collection of images.
    : Thank you Karlimagnus, I have enjoyed
    : looking at the photos, and appreciate your
    : research.
    :
    : Can you tell us anything about the origin of
    : some of the major pieces?
    :
    : Do you think that some of them may still be
    : owned by the Belgian Royal family but, for
    : personal reasons, are not worn today? Or
    : perhaps they were bequeathed to the
    : Princess, considered her private property
    : and have perhaps been sold?
    :
    : I have never fully understood what happened
    : to the significant collection owned by the
    : Kings and Queens of Belgium.
    :
    :


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