In 1900 appeared in Queen D.Amelia collection a collier de chien set in diamonds forming lozenges. If we look carefully we can see that the center diamonds are of a considerable size. This piece of jewellery was probably ordered by Queen D.Amelia to Leitão & Irmão, the portuguese crown jewelers. However the story of its origin is uncertain. It was usual at the time the jewelers to order jewels from other jeweler houses and then put in them their own marks. Analyzing the collier style some people believe that even though it was probably bought the Portuguese Crown Jewelers, it may be in fact a Cartier or even Boucheron piece. HM used this jewel a lot, always as a choker and may times combined with several rivières, pearl necklaces and sapphires.
When Queen D.Amélia died in 1951 this was one of the jewels that was left to her Godson, the present Duke of Braganza. Similarly to other jewels (D.Luis Diadem for example) it was not used by the Duchess D.Maria Francisca (as far as I know).
The present Duchess, D.Isabel, however, started to wear this magnificent piece of jewellery as a choker.
But the imagination of D.Isabel led her to innovate by adding a base in order to the choker to be used as a tiara. In my opinion this innovation was a very successful one.
So, even though it was originally designed to be used only as a choker nowadays it is also used as a tiara, hence the name I chose for the piece: Queen D.Amelia Diamond Choker/Tiara.
on February 16, 2014, 11:54 am
