Tea at Trianon: Tiaras

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Tiaras

From the Wall Street Journal:

This renewed interest in tiaras is likely to heighten in coming months as Queen Elizabeth II—the woman said to have the finest collection in the world—dons a glittering assortment for her Diamond Jubilee, and exhibitions mark the occasion. At Buckingham Palace, her majesty's "Girls of Great Britain" tiara, made by Garrard, and other personal jewels will be available for closer study in "Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration," opening June 30. The fairy-tale diamond tiara, with its delicate festoon-and-scroll design, was presented to Princess Victoria Mary of Teck, who later became Queen Mary, as a wedding gift in 1893, on behalf of the "Girls of Great Britain and Ireland." She passed it on to her granddaughter Elizabeth on her wedding day in 1947.

Last year, Prince Albert II of Monaco's wedding gift to his bride, now Princess Charlene, was the "Océan" tiara [above], fashioned from diamonds and sapphires by Van Cleef & Arpels. But it isn't only royals with state banquets to attend who go shopping for bespoke tiaras. "With the growth of republics and democracy, so many courts vanished in the 20th century and therefore the tiara assumed a decorative value. It no longer has the same political implication," says Diana Scarisbrick, a London-based jewelry historian and author whose books include "Timeless Tiaras." "But always it is to transform the looks to make you look rather more special than the next person." (Read entire article.)