Regards,
Dave.
Thank you for the wedding gift reports. I was wondering before if the wording in Mary Curzon's will regarding her "diamond star tiara and a diamond brooch and pendant, given to her on her marriage by Lord Scarsdale" meant, that both, tiara and brooch were wedding gifts of her father-in-law. Apparently not.
*If* the star tiara worn by Tessa Riscoe on her wedding day was the gift of Mary Leiter's sisters, it wouldn't be too surprising, that it was described as a tiara in one report and as diamond stars in the other. It apparently consisted solely of 5 stars and 6 small intermediate parts mounted on a metal frame.
On the other hand I was asking myself, if the tiara worn by Ottilie, Viscountess Scarsdale in your photo – and also for the coronation in 1953 – might have been the star tiara later worn by her daughter-in-law, but with a more elaborate frame? It obviously had 5 larger and 6 smaller intermediate elements. Might the lighting and the sparkling diamonds obscure the stars' shape?
The jewel worn by Grace Curzon as a bandeau in 1924 – and later by Mildred and Ottilie Curzon as a tiara and as a necklace – is puzzling. Both Mildred's halo tiara and Ottilie's necklace consisted of 9 elements. If Grace had used all of them, her bandeau would have been a full circle. That's possible of course, but then: How was it supposed to be worn as a necklace? Its design suggests something like a collier de chien. In that case 6–7 elements would have been sufficient. If it was meant to be worn as a lower sitting necklace with 9 elements, why didn't Ottilie wear it that way, but chose a rather unattractive setting of loose elements on a thin chain?
The only explanation I can come up with is, that Mildred, Viscountess Scarsdale had the piece irreversibly altered to mount the elements as a fashionable halo tiara – a rather barbaric and unsuccessful alteration, in my opinion.
I've searched for Richard and Mildred Curzon's four daughters at their respective weddings, but the only photos I've found show their third daughter, Juliana, at her second wedding to Frederick Nettlefold in 1953, wearing no tiara.
As an aside, Juliana and Frederick Nettlefold's daughter Caroline Anne Nettlefold would later marry Ivor Windsor-Clive, the son of the 3rd Earl of Plymouth and his wife Caroline Helen Rice. Rice was the granddaughter of Grace Curzon, Marchioness Curzon of Kedleston from her first marriage to Alfred Duggan. Caroline Anne is now the 4th Countess of Plymouth.
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