I seem to remember that King Alexander bought the set for his young bride, Maria, Princess of Roumania, daughther of Queen Maria. I don't think they were a gift from the Queen.
--Previous Message-- : Thank you, Kasper, for these pictures and for : the account of your visit to Ekaterinburg. : It must be a very moving place. : : The lady on the picture you have posted is : not the last Russian Empress, Alexandra : Feodorovna (1872-1918, née Alix of : Hesse-Darmstadt), but her eldest sister, : Grand-Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna : (1864-1918, née Elisabeth of : Hesse-Darmstadt, wife of Grand-Duke Sergei : Alexandrovich). And the stones are not : rubies, but emeralds. : : : : The emerald parure she is wearing was given : by Grand-Duchess Elisabeth to her niece, : Grand-Duchess Maria Pavlovna, when the : latter married Prince William of Sweden, : Duke of Sodermanland. Maria had the tiara : remodelled in a more geometric pattern. : : : : Grand-Duchess Maria later sold the parure, : after her divorce, to Queen Maria of : Romania, who presented it to her daughter : (also named Maria!) on the occasion of her : wedding to King Alexander I of Yugoslavia. : The necklace was remodelled into an Art Deco : sautoir. : : : : The parure remained for a few decades in the : Yugoslav collection, but was eventually sold : after the Yugoslav royal family had to go : into exile after WW2. The tiara is currently : in the collection of Van Cleef and Arpels : and is regularly worn for exhibitions (the : cabochon stones have been replaced, though, : by paste stones. The whereabouts of the : necklace are unknown, if I well remember. : : The large stomacher worn by Grand-Duchess : Elisabeth was sold, after she became a : widow, to Sultan Abdulhamid of Turkey. It : was later sold at auction, and its : whereabouts is unknown. : :
on April 6, 2015, 1:50 pm, in reply to "