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Grand Duchess Vladimir
Posted by 992234177 on March 8, 2021, 3:53 am
Point 1. Who Got What
I have always wondered about the Grand Duchess Vladimirs collection and how it was divided after her death. According to Field Elena got the diamonds and pearls, Boris the emeralds, Kiril the sapphires and Andrei the rubies this is from memory might be wrong). If it is true this is an odd division. The white jewellery would by my guess be at least 50% of the collection, the emeralds 25%, the sapphires 20% and rubies 5%. Does anyone know if this is true. My guess is that Elena received a parure of diamonds and pearls (e.g. Bolin tiara and suite to match), and the sons received a complete coloured parure each, and everything else was divided equally. If Andrei only received the rubies that would be an unfair division financially. The imperial collection had the following major items (not counting earrings etc.)
Alexandra Feodorovna Sapphire Tiara Necklace Stomacher Bracelet Alexandra Feodorovna Emerald Tiara Necklace Stomacher Sapphire Wave Tiara Necklace Wheat Tiara With Sapphire Ceylon Sapphire Tiara
Emerald Lozenge Necklace Emerald Leuchtenberg Necklace Diamond bow Brooch with Sapphire Pendant Romanov Talisman Sinople Queen Emerald Brooch Maria Feodorovna Sapphire Brooch
But very few rubies.
Point 2. How Big
Consuelo Duchess of Marlborough talks the vast scale of the GDV’s collection
‘She had a majestic personality, but could be both gracious and charming. After dinner she showed me her jewels set out in glass cases in her dressing-room. There were endless parures of diamonds, emeralds, rubies and pearls, to say nothing of semi-precious stones such as turquoises, tourmalines, cat’s eyes and aquamarines”
I think this needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Prince Christopher talks about her octagonal dressing room containing the jewels. I cannot see an eight sided room on the floor plan of her palace, so I think it must have been a fairly normal room with the corners cut off by built in display cases. Since Consuelo had two tiaras seeing five or eight tiaras might be described as endless. The semi precious stones were probably limited limited to amethyst, turquoise as aquamarine sets only, I can’t imagine how hideous a cats eye tiara would be. My question is how huge was her collection. As far as tiaras I can only think of the following
Bolin Tiara Russian Fringe Waterfall Aigrette Tiara Pearl Vine Tiara (not the one worn by Pss Alexandra) Sapphire Tiara Emerald Tiara Ruby Tiara
The pictures we see of her are stupendous but her jewels are repetitive.
A very interesting train of thought 992234177. One of the problems for jewellery lovers is that usually only the most prominent items were advertised in the media when jewels were sent to auction and so without auction catalogues, it is difficult to judge what an individual many have sold or possessed.
Similarly, authors tend to focus on only a select few jewels. Most importantly, I suspect that very few people would have had the opportunity to see the complete inventory of the Grand Duchess' collection.
albert Stopford recounted that the Gladstone bags in which he rescued the Grand Duchess' jewels once contained 25 of her tiaras, so that is an excellent gauge of the scale of her collection.
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Point 1. Who Got What
I have always wondered about the Grand Duchess Vladimirs collection and how it was divided after her death. According to Field Elena got the diamonds and pearls, Boris the emeralds, Kiril the sapphires and Andrei the rubies this is from memory might be wrong). If it is true this is an odd division. The white jewellery would by my guess be at least 50% of the collection, the emeralds 25%, the sapphires 20% and rubies 5%. Does anyone know if this is true. My guess is that Elena received a parure of diamonds and pearls (e.g. Bolin tiara and suite to match), and the sons received a complete coloured parure each, and everything else was divided equally. If Andrei only received the rubies that would be an unfair division financially. The imperial collection had the following major items (not counting earrings etc.)
Alexandra Feodorovna Sapphire Tiara Necklace Stomacher Bracelet Alexandra Feodorovna Emerald Tiara Necklace Stomacher Sapphire Wave Tiara Necklace Wheat Tiara With Sapphire Ceylon Sapphire Tiara
Emerald Lozenge Necklace Emerald Leuchtenberg Necklace Diamond bow Brooch with Sapphire Pendant Romanov Talisman Sinople Queen Emerald Brooch Maria Feodorovna Sapphire Brooch
But very few rubies.
Point 2. How Big
Consuelo Duchess of Marlborough talks the vast scale of the GDV’s collection
‘She had a majestic personality, but could be both gracious and charming. After dinner she showed me her jewels set out in glass cases in her dressing-room. There were endless parures of diamonds, emeralds, rubies and pearls, to say nothing of semi-precious stones such as turquoises, tourmalines, cat’s eyes and aquamarines”
I think this needs to be taken with a pinch of salt. Prince Christopher talks about her octagonal dressing room containing the jewels. I cannot see an eight sided room on the floor plan of her palace, so I think it must have been a fairly normal room with the corners cut off by built in display cases. Since Consuelo had two tiaras seeing five or eight tiaras might be described as endless. The semi precious stones were probably limited limited to amethyst, turquoise as aquamarine sets only, I can’t imagine how hideous a cats eye tiara would be. My question is how huge was her collection. As far as tiaras I can only think of the following
Bolin Tiara Russian Fringe Waterfall Aigrette Tiara Pearl Vine Tiara (not the one worn by Pss Alexandra) Sapphire Tiara Emerald Tiara Ruby Tiara
The pictures we see of her are stupendous but her jewels are repetitive.
Just found this quote from a review about the book about the rescue of her jewels,
‘The glass cases were set into four corners of her dressing-room, with red stones (rubies), blue (sapphires), green (emeralds), and white (pearls) in each corner, giving the room an almost octagonal appearance. Her grandchildren remembered their visits as small girls to the Vladimir Palace, and especially the inner sanctum of their grandmother’s dressing-room. To amuse the girls Maria would often invite them to choose what jewels she should wear for her next formal occasion. Red, perhaps? Or blue, green, or white? Olga, the eldest [granddaughter], usually made the final choice.’
This quote is a bit different to the one by the Duchess of Marlborough.
on March 8, 2021, 3:53 am
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