Princess Fawzia of Egypt’s tiara was commissioned from Van Cleef & Arpels by her parents, King Fuad I of Egypt and Queen Nazli. The occasion? Fawzia’s 1939 wedding to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, the Crown Prince (and later Shah) of Iran. It came with a necklace and a pair of earrings, all set in platinum. The tiara features pear-shaped and baguette-cut …
Tiara Tuesday: The Westphalian Tiara
The Westphalian tiara came via special request from Monica Kent. I’m so happy I was able to find this sucker for her! This tiara doesn’t have an actual name because it’s not famous or well-documented, so I’m just calling it the “Westphalian tiara.” It’s made up of two rows of diamonds and a single octagonal emerald. The upper tier is set …
Tiara Tuesday: The Portland Sapphire Tiara
The Portland sapphire tiara was created around 1890, probably by Garrard. The 6th Duke of Portland commissioned it for his wife, Winifred Dallas-Yorke. That’s her in the image above. Five of the sapphires came from Ceylon, four from Burma, and the last three are anyone’s guess. The pearls are all natural saltwater pearls. The sapphires have different origins because the …
The Red Road Is Done. Now What?
The Red Road is finished. I put the entire manuscript in an InDesign template, and am working on the final formatting touches. At this point, it’s down to nitpicking for hyphens and em dashes and ellipses (oh my!). I’m the kind of writer who could tinker and edit forever, so naturally, as I look at what I’ve written, there are …
Tiara Tuesday: Queen Alexandra’s Mystery Amethyst Tiara
This one became a rabbit hole, folks. First, you start off by choosing a simple picture labeled “Queen Alexandra’s Amethyst Tiara.” Then you dig around to see where that tiara is now. Then you find some sources that say this is the same tiara worn by Queen Alexandra in the photo below, taken in 1889. Then you find other sources …
Tiara Tuesday: Leeds Cartier Tiara
The Leeds Cartier tiara belonged to Nancy Leeds, a regular girl from Ohio who became a princess. Yes, folks, dreams really do come true. But it gets even better…because she ordered this tiara from Cartier in 1913, before marrying a prince. No one gave it to her as a wedding present and she didn’t inherit it. She bought it because …
Tiara Tuesday: Aosta Knots and Stars Tiara
The Aosta knots and stars tiara was created for Princess Hélène of Orléans when she married the Duke of Aosta, nephew of the king of Italy. The king and queen of Italy gave her the tiara as a wedding present in 1895. Maybe this tiara helped cheer her up—after all, she’d been in love with the Duke of Clarence (Edward …
Tiara Tuesday: Queen Victoria’s Strawberry Leaf Tiara
Queen Victoria’s strawberry leaf tiara looks a bit different today than it did when Prince Albert designed it for her. Back then, the middle row of rectangular stones was actually the bottom of the tiara – and it contained rubies, not diamonds. And that’s not all. Each of the strawberry leaves and diamond points on top also had a ruby. …
Tiara Tuesday: The Donnersmarck Tiara
The Donnersmarck tiara was made in about 1900 by the French royal jeweler Chaumet, with more than 500 carats of detachable Columbian emeralds. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Chaumet (@chaumetofficial) on Jul 28, 2019 at 5:00am PDT For awhile, there was speculation about where those emeralds came from. They were drilled and polished in India during …
Meet My Character Blog Hop: Christof Ehrlichmann
I‘ve been tagged by the wonderful heroic fantasy writer Will Hahn to participate in the “Meet My Character” blog hop. The logical thing to do here would be to introduce you to Emma, the protagonist in my soon-to-be-finished literary novel, The Red Road. But when have I ever done the logical thing? I do everything the hard way, including this …