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    Re: Queen Alexandra's tiara -amethysts amd sapphires Archived Message

    Posted by Beth on February 5, 2016, 2:37 am, in reply to "Re: Queen Alexandra's tiara -amethysts amd sapphires"

    Thank you every one. I have outlined an idea - a working hypothesis, which I think makes sense of the information I have collected, but I have an open mind and will take on board comments and information supplied by others.

    As every one knows I have never accepted that the tiara, as seen in the photos of Queen Alexandra, contained large amethysts - as seen in the photo of the Countess of Southesk at the 1937 Coronation. I would have accepted that smaller amethyst clusters were used, but no one was advocating that, and I also had to make sense of the reports of the Queen's jewels at the wedding of her daughter, Princess Louise and the photographs in the Royal Collection from that occasion.

    It was Malluu's comments (2015) which made me seriously consider if the central elements in the tiara were interchangeable. Dmitry's and others' comments today have reinforced that.

    Barbara D's comment has now made me wonder if there were more elements which could be used in the tiara. That is possible, and might explain references to Queen Alexandra wearing large emeralds in a diamond tiara (I had assumed that she might have had emerald elements attached to her wedding gift tiara). I hope we can find more information to clarify this. Thank you Barbara for that suggestion.

    For a long time I have thought that there were sugar loaf sapphire and diamond clusters in the tiara (as worn by Queen Alexandra) and assumed that she had another 7 such gemstones set to match the necklace given to her by her sister and brother-in-law for HM's 25th wedding anniversary. That is, of course, possible; however, I have never seen a report specifically stating that HM had worn both a sapphire tiara and necklace - but it is difficult to be sure of that as so many of the reports of Queen Alexandra's jewels refer to her necklaces, brooches etc as "ornaments", although tiaras are separately identified.

    Then I re-read Ursula's site. (Thank you Ursula for such a great resource)

    What I have suggested is an idea only.

    I don't claim my idea is accurate, and as Nellie has mentioned it would be enlightening to be able to access Queen Alexandra's jewel inventory. Her dress books (if she kept them) would also help us. Unfortunately, I suspect that these items are unlikely to be available in the public domain for many, many years.

    Although we don't have access to HM's jewel inventories etc, I think it is reasonable to try out various hypotheses based on press reports and photographic evidence - even if it is proved incorrect tomorrow.

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