Posted by mauriz on February 18, 2016, 5:01 am, in reply to "Re: to Mauriz"
Dear Tamara,
you underestimate my ability to judge photographic evidence if you point me to the fact that one of the photos is taken from the other side - believe me, I took that into consideration.
In the photo of Countess Kerstin the two drops nevertheless seem to differ more in length than the drops in the crown princess's photo do. Sure, this might be an optical illusion, but as long as we have no other/better photo, it's not possible to tell. The respective position of the brooch/pendant in the two photos doesn't give a sufficient explanation why the length of the pendant drops should appear different. The low contrast in the picture of Countess Kerstin, which makes the diamond frames around the drop pendants nearly invisible, might add to the effect though.
The apparent size difference between the bows is even more noticable. In relation to the drops Crown Princess Margaret's bow looks much smaller than Countess Kerstin's.
Judging by the photo of CP Margaret there could be an additional tassel/fringe of three oblong elements between the two drop pendants which is not visible in the other picture. Do I believe it's there? Maybe, there's a hint of the uppermost element in Countess Kerstin's picture. But again, with just one photo it's difficult to tell.
I usually agree that it's highly unlikely that there are two similar but different pieces in the same family worn by ancestor and (wife of) decsendant. But as malluu pointed out, there were three bow brooches with pendants among the wedding gifts of CP Margaret.
In this higher resolution pic with better contrast the bow appears to be slightly larger and there's more than a hint of the pattern of - presumably - red enamel, very similar to the pendant bow in Countess Kerstin's picture. Compared to the pendants the bows still seem to differ in size, and the tassel between the two drops in CP Margaret's picture looks even more prominent.
I'm quite sure the bow pendant worn by Countess Kerstin is Cassel's wedding gift with red enamel frames. And back in 2014 I found it likely that CP Margaret was wearing Cassel's brooch as well. Still, in my opinion a comparision between the photos of Countess Kerstin posted by BennyofSweden (thank you very much!) and Crown Princess Margaret raises more questions than it answers.
What you do with your archives is solely your decision of course, but I'm a bit surprised you thought I'd need help with mine. In general I'm sometimes startled how arbitrary photographic evidence seems to be treated as either "suspicious" or "unquestionable", but I frankly admit my approach might be spoilt by a work-related academic scepsis.