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Mrs Claude Leigh
Posted by Beth on February 17, 2020, 6:10 am
In November last year in reference to jewels said to have belonged to Marie Antoinette, I mentioned that Mrs Claude Leigh, an American living in London in the 1930s, was said to own a ruby necklace with rubies belonging to the tragic Queen.
At the time I didn't get around to posting about Mrs Claude Leigh's jewels.
I don't have any positive proof but I think that the following photos show the "famous" rubies.
Mrs Claude Leigh was photographed wearing this necklace frequently. I think it is probably the ruby necklace.
It seems to me that each of the elements with a diamond border contains several "small" rubies.
Whether this necklace (and also the one on her forehead) also has rubies is unclear to me.
Similarly, I don't know what stones were in the elaborate earrings.
Although I suspect that the bracelets may have contained ruby beads.
Others jewels
Does any one know anything more about these stylish jewels?
Re: Mrs Claude Leigh
Posted by mauriz on February 17, 2020, 7:18 am, in reply to "Mrs Claude Leigh"
Sotheby's published the following information about Mrs. Claude Leigh when they auctioned a portrait of her and her daughter Virginia by Philip de László in 2013:
»Myrtle Johnson was born 24 April 1896 in Chicago, Illinois, the daughter of Edward Johnson and his wife Augusta Ackerbery. The sitter adopted the stage name Myrtle Thoreau as a cast member of the Ziegfeld Follies 1923-25. At the end of the 1924 theatrical season she visited Deauville, France, where she met Claude Moss Leigh (1888-1964), a widower and wealthy London estate agent. They married 11 February 1925 in Marylebone Registry Office.«
Claude Moss Leigh is pictured with his wife and the Marchioness of Carisbrooke at the 'Hundred Hosts' Ball at the Park Lane Hotel, London in 1932.
Leigh was the founder of the Metropolitan Housing Corporation (which would evolve into the MEPC, one of the United Kingdom's largest property companies) and at the time of the photo the marchioness' husband Alexander of Battenberg, Marquess of Carisbrooke, brother of Queen Ena of Spain, was working for him.
Re: Mrs Claude Leigh
Posted by Beth on February 17, 2020, 1:57 pm, in reply to "Re: Mrs Claude Leigh"
Than you Mauriz! The background is interesting, and explains why the Mrs Claude Leigh I focused on disappeared from press coverage. I assumed it was because both were American and moved back to the US during the war.
Mrs Claude Leigh was heavily involved in charity functions in London.
One of her functions was the Gay Nineties Ball held in 1933.
A photo of her from that event,
Even better-- a video.
Mrs Claude Leigh can be seen in it. She has a sizeable jewel holding the feather in her hair!
Re: Mrs Claude Leigh
Posted by mauriz on February 17, 2020, 6:09 pm, in reply to "Re: Mrs Claude Leigh"
The video is priceless! Thank you for posting!
Re: Mrs Claude Leigh
Posted by Beth on February 18, 2020, 4:24 pm, in reply to "Re: Mrs Claude Leigh"
The body language!!
Re: Mrs Claude Leigh
Posted by Alejandro E. on February 19, 2020, 6:05 am, in reply to "Mrs Claude Leigh"
What a beautiful and stylish woman! Thank you so much for the pictures, Beth. I have read she divorced Claude Leigh and later remarried Frank Delaney.
Do you know if she was a rich heiress before her wedding with Mr. Leigh? When did she die? I would like to know more about her, she seems to be a very interesting character.
Kind regards,
Alejandro E.
Re: Mrs Claude Leigh
Posted by Beth on February 19, 2020, 4:30 pm, in reply to "Re: Mrs Claude Leigh"
I cannot find anything (in a quick search) on her American family but, as she was a member of the Ziegfeld Follies team circa 1923-25, I doubt if she was an heiress.
There are several references to her having been married prior to her wedding to Claude Leigh (whose birth surname was Levy).
One press item in the UK said that she had an older daughter as well as Virginia Leigh, the daughter of Claude Leigh.
Below are a couple of news reports stating she would marry Claude Leigh.
She used the name Myrtle Thoreau as a stage name, but whether she had legally changed her name is something I cannot ascertain. Could it have been a corruption of her first husband's name? Again, I don't know. I haven't found anything about the first husband.
The online transcription of the UK Births, Deaths and Marriages registers shows that, for her surname when she married Claude Leigh in 1925 , three surnames were given: Thorelius, Thoreau and Johnson. According to the information provided by Sotheby's Johnson was her birth name.
At the time of the divorce from Claude Leigh in London in 1940 she was calling herself Mrs Myrtle Leigh. She accused him of cruelty.
May 1940
Her marriage to Frank Delaney, a wealthy solicitor, was relatively short lived. According to Sotheby's, they married in November 1944. By late November 1952 Myrtle had secured an annulment on the grounds that he did not have the Court's permission to marry while his first wife was alive. (I have to confess I do not understand this type of restriction. I have never heard of it previously). [Note some reports named her as "Christiana", some as "Kristina". It is definitely the same lady whose jewels we have looked at]
Annulment November 1952.
The latest information I found on her as Mrs Myrtle Leigh was for 1956.
More information about Myrtle Leigh's character can be found in reports about her youngest daughter, Virginia Leigh, daughter of Claude.
Virginia seems to have moved between the US and the UK after the war, and starred in at least one film.
During the 1947-48 Debutante season in New York Virginia Leigh received considerable publicity, most of it apparently engineered by her mother.
The following report comes from the Australian Women's Weekly. Could I stress that this magazine was not a scurrilous rag. It was a reputable, highly respected and influential magazine.
Virginia Leigh is in the forefront. 27 October 1947.
Mother and daughter at the Opera New York
Sadly, I don't have any other information on either mother or daughter. There are a number of photos of Virginia Leigh on historical photo sites on the net -- most from her first days as a deb.