Re: Greville bequest - a question raised - Archived Message
Posted by Franck on January 31, 2016, 3:16 pm, in reply to "Re: Greville bequest"
Dear friends,
I greet and thank quite particularly our friend Vincent as for these further information.
I also take advantage of his message and its remark concerning the quantity of jewels possessed by Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother to raise a question I have been asking for a very long time (I believe to have already spoken about it previously).
It has been about 25 years since I am interested in the jewels of queen Elizabeth II and intrigued by the number of jewels possessed by her Majesty.
Indeed, it is famous that we see only the sumbergée part of the iceberg.
The different authors say the same :
-Susy Menkes, Leslie Field highlighted that many jewels are not worn by the royal family. - Andrew Morton in the portfolio " Theirs is the Kindgom " says page 120: This estimate is based on jewels which are gaunt known and been photographed. Yet the vault at BP is filled with boxing rings, brooches and counterparts of the year design Edwardian and Victorian gaunt which light barely see the of day ". - Vincent Meylan: Clarence House's cupboards abounded in jewels and it was surprising to discover a deposited diadem no more than 50 years ago in the drawers of chests of drawers.
However, I do not understand the extent of the collection of her Majesty. Indeed, the majority of the jewels which come from the vault are well known are we were almost certain that they were in the vault: for exemple : The diamon cockade, the russian brooch sapphire, the Delhi Durbar tiara, the coronation necklace, the amethyst, pearl and diamond long necklace, the dog collar from Queen Mary the diamond sautoir from Queen Mary, The same with the double greek key tiara worn by Princess Ann and described by Susy Menkes in her book.
I would have the same feeling if one day the resille necklace would be worn, the pearl and diamond stochamer from Queen Mary the few different tiaras (the emeral one from Margaret Greville, the sapphire one from golden Queen Mary the pearl and diamond lozenge tiara.)
Only for me were of real discoveries: the citrine and diamond brooch worn by the orange Duchess of Cornwall from Queen Elizabeth the Queen mother, the diamond collet necklace with a sapphire pendant (from QE the Queen Mothe t r ? ), idem for the aquamarine and diamond necklace ((from QE the Queen Mothe ? ) the wedding tiara to Sophie. So, I sincerly raise the question if the collection of Elizabeth is as well enormous as we can believe it.
If this collection would be so enormous, why the duchess of Lover's Cambridge would wear the knot tiara (worn by Princess Diana), the lotus tiara flower….. We should indeed see them wearing never seen or describd in books…
I do not know if other people share my feeling.
Very friendly,
Franck
--Previous Message-- : Thank you, Vincent. : : I have personally no problem with the : Vladimir Tiara in the emerald version (the : Cambridge emerald drops are indeed slightly : too large for the gaps between the circles : of the Vladimir Tiara, but the tiara still : looks great like this). : : But as Hugh Roberts himself points out in : his book The Queen's Diamonds (page 174), : the Durbar emerald necklace, made in 1911, : is of " strikingly modern design : ": no elaborate scrolls or festoons, : just the cabochon stones, with a thin : diamond border, linked with two simple lines : of small diamonds, and the two emerald and : diamond pendants of unequal length. I think : that this modern design would match very : well with the Art Déco design of the : Greville emerald tiara, made in 1921 (but of : course, I would be happy to see this tiara, : whatever necklace is chosen to accompany it! : ). : : We know that the picture posted at the : beginning of this thread (and initially : published in Vincent's book about Boucheron) : depicts the Greville emerald tiara as it was : made in 1921 (only ten years after the : " strikingly modern " Durbar : necklace...). And the Australian Women's : Weekly 's article published in 1947 mentions : that " a tiara of diamonds and cabochon : emeralds " was part of the Greville : bequest, at the death of Mrs Greville in : 1942. But we can not totally exclude the : possibility that the tiara was transformed : at some point between 1921 and 1942, : possibly by another jeweller than Boucheron : (we know that Mrs Greville had some of her : Boucheron jewels transformed by Cartier). : : :