Empress Eugénie’s pearl and diamond tiara tiara was commissioned by Napoleon III as a wedding present for his bride, the Spanish-born Eugénie de Montijo. Created by Parisian jeweler Gabriel Lemonnier in 1853, the tiara was made with 212 pearls and 1,998 tiny diamonds (totaling 63.3 carats) that already belonged to the French crown. These stones had been used in previous …
Tiara Tuesday: Irina Youssoupov’s Wedding Tiara
Made by Cartier in 1911, Irina Youssoupov’s wedding tiara was purchased three years later by Prince Felix Youssoupov as a wedding present for his bride. This tiara is unusual because the bottom part of the kokoshnik is made of rock crystal topped with platinum and diamonds. There’s a big diamond in the center of the top row – it’s a …
Tiara Tuesday: The Mountbatten Tiara
The Mountbatten tiara belonged to Edwina, Countess Mountbatten. Made around 1910, it features borders of channel-set diamonds in platinum with scrolls and thirteen trefoils in between. There’s a similar design in Chaumet’s archives, but the maker’s mark on the actual tiara is said to be “unclear.” It was last seen in a Cartier case, though, and Cartier did some fantastic work …
Tiara Tuesday: Princess Stéphanie of Belgium’s Tiara
Princess Stéphanie of Belgium’s tiara was made by Chaumet. She got it when she married the heir to the Austrian throne in 1881. We have very little information about this tiara, but we have a crap-ton of information about Stéphanie herself, so buckle up – it’s gonna be a bumpy ride. Poor Stéphanie grew up basically ignored by her shitty …
Tiara Tuesday: The Arabic Scroll Tiara
The Arabic scroll tiara comes by special request from a website visitor – Kareem, this one’s for you. This tiara was created for Queen Rania of Jordan in 2005, at the special request of King Abdullah. Abdullah asked Yan Sicard, one of Rania’s favorite jewelers, to design and craft it with her in mind. Sicard’s firm, FRED, used 1,300 diamonds …
Tiara Tuesday: The Braganza Tiara
The Braganza tiara was made for Empress Amélie of Brazil in 1829, as a wedding present from her husband, Emperor Pedro I. Brazil used to be a Portuguese colony, and the surname of the Portuguese royal family is Braganza (Bragança in Portuguese), hence this tiara’s name. You might also remember Charles II’s queen, Catherine of Braganza – she was a …
Tiara Tuesday: The Astor Tiara
The Astor tiara belonged to Nancy Langhorne Astor, a Southern girl who became the first woman to serve as an MP in the British House of Commons. The tiara, made by Cartier, holds the famous 55.23-carat Sancy diamond in its center. In 1906, the tiara was valued at $75,000 – without the Sancy. Go ahead and gawk. I’ll just wait …
Tiara Tuesday: The Norwegian Emerald Tiara
Legend has it that the Norwegian emerald tiara originally belonged to Empress Josephine. Yes, that Josephine – Napoleon’s first wife. It’s dedicated to this week’s two birthday girls, Dava Stewart and Jillian Ashe. If you’re like me, you’re probably wondering, what’s with the whole “legend says” thing? Was this Josephine’s tiara or wasn’t it? And why the hell is this …
I’m Giving Away Free Books. Want Some?
To celebrate releasing The Red Road, I’m giving away two free paperback book prize packages! And because I like reading different genres of books, I think my readers do, too. So you’ll also get my thriller (The Romanov Legacy) and my award-winning romantic suspense novel (The Cherbourg Jewels). It’s insanity, right? I already made a special trip to the post …
Surprise Romanov Connections from Tiara Tuesday
In this week’s Tiara Tuesday post, I wrote about Princess Helena Victoria and Princess Marie Louise, two granddaughters of Queen Victoria. Turns out that each of them had surprise Romanov connections. I did not see this coming, you guys. Helena Victoria Romanov connection: Helena Victoria, or “Thora” as she was called, was very close with her cousin, Princess Alix of …