Re: Princess Helena's ears of wheat tiara Archived Message
Posted by Kongetro on September 16, 2016, 6:09 am, in reply to "Re: Princess Helena's ears of wheat tiara "
Yes, true, it would be interesting to find out when the smaller version of this tiara was first worn. And while on the same subject. Do we know more about the provenance of this tiara? I guess it must have been brought into the Danish royal family through Princess Helena - either as a gift to her or as an inheritance. Revolving around the design of the piece - and this is why I also mentioned about the design ( whether it was a popular one, or if we could say that this most likely is unique to this piece) in a previous message - I was wondering if it could be connected to the tiara worn by Princess Louise of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (later Duchess Louise of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld) in this painting: (from Wikipedia) It is just a thought and I do not want to cause any further confusion by claiming that this is a match. But the design, with the circle element in the middle, looks similar to the design of the tiara worn by Princess Helena. If it happened to be the same the question would then be how on earth did it end up with Princess Helena. I do not really see a clear connection myself I must admit. Duchess Louise was the mother of two sons, one became Duke of Saxe-Coburg & Gotha (no children to succeed him) and Queen Victoria's husband Prince Albert. Again, I apologise in advance if I have made things just even more confusing and as I said above I am not claiming that this is indeed a match. Only that the design is cunningly similar. On a side note I have also found another occasion where Princess Helena wore the tiara: the wedding of Prince Gustav Adolf and Princess Sibylla. Sadly in the photo below she is almost totally obstructed by Crown Princess Louise of Sweden. But it is indeed Helena there. And oddly enough it seems to be the smaller version (although it is not so easy to see)... --Previous Message-- : --Previous Message-- : : Do we then know when was the last time the : bigger version of this tiara was seen? : : I think at Princess Benedikte's wedding in : 1968. But the question is also: When did we : first time see the small version? : : Could the phrase 'broken : up' mean that only some of the ears of wheat : were removed and the tiara still existed : although in a smaller version which was past : down to Princess Feodora? : : According to Count Christian of Rosenborg : (related in "Juvelerne i det danske : kongehus" by Bjarne Steen Jensen) it : was broken up ten years after the death of : Princess Helena. The four biggest ears of : wheat were inherited by her children : Feodora, Caroline-Mathilde, Gorm and Oluf - : and the two smallest by her granddaughters : Alix and Thyra (daughters of : Alexandrine-Louise). The centre stone was : sold to a jeweller. : : If Princess Feodora bought the centre stone : and either bought or borrowed some of the : pieces inherited by her siblings, it would : have enabled her to make the smaller version : of the tiara. But this theory doesn't make : sense if there are pictures of her wearing : the smaller tiara earlier than 1968 - or if : she indeed wore it at Ingolf's wedding, same : time as Dorrit wore the big version. :
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