Posted by Arthur on October 18, 2015, 12:50 pm, in reply to "The Tunisian suite"
I am still puzzled about this parure, and I do not know if the green stones are emeralds or other more "minor" stones.
In his book about the Belgian royal jewels (Bijoux des reines et princesses de Belgique, published in 2004), Christophe Vachaudez remains very cautious: "This parure [the Tunisian set] is made of bulky ear pendants and of a necklace, whose Moorish-style setting includes diamonds, rubies and green stones polished as cabochon. They might possibly be emeralds, but some people suggest tourmalines, tanzanites or simply agates".
On this picture (dated May 1971, during a State visit to India), Queen Fabiola mixed her Spanish wedding-gift tiara (in the emerald version) with the Tunisian Demi-parure. The difference between the shades of green of the tiara and of the neclace is striking, which makes me think that the green stones of the Tunisian set are not emeralds - but I admit I am not 100% sure.