Yet... Archived Message
Posted by Arthur  on July 11, 2015, 6:33 am, in reply to "Re: banner : far right Princess Beatrice of Galliera"
The question of whether the fringe tiara of Grand-Duchess Maria Alexandrovna, Duchess of Edinburgh and Duchess of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, was later owned by Queen Mary of Romania or by her sister Infanta Beatrice of Spain, Duchess of Galliera is not clear.
Indeed, I found again in my files this scan of the catalogue of the auction in 1960, when Queen Mary of Yugoslavia (then widowed and in exile) sold her jewels. The catalogue mentions that the fringe tiara "was given by the Czar Alexander II to his daughter Marie, first Duchess of Edinburgh, who bequeathed it to her daughter, Queen Marie of Roumania, who gave it to her daughter, the present owner" (Mary, Queen-Mother of Yugoslavia).
So, either the fringe tiara belonged to Queen Mary of Romania, and not to her sister Infanta Beatrice (to whom it could have been occasionally loaned, though, by her sister), either the catalogue's caption is deliberately erroneous.
I think this second option might not be excluded. When Queen Mary of Yugoslavia sold the tiara in 1960, she (and the auction company) could have thought more attractive (financially speaking) to associate the tiara with the famous and romantic figure of Queen Mary of Romania rather than to her lesser-known and lower-profile sister Beatrice. Or maybe that Queen Mary of Yugoslavia thought it would not be respectful towards her aunt Beatrice (who was still alive in 1960) to remind publicly that she had had to sell her heirlooms in the 1930s.
(sorry, I do not remember who posted these catalogue scans first: maybe Dmitry, or Ianusk?)
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