Tea at Trianon: An Emerald Necklace

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, December 17, 2019

An Emerald Necklace

From Vogue:

It comes as a surprise then that the Queen unveiled a never-before-seen emerald and diamond necklace at the annual diplomatic reception held at Buckingham Palace this week. To accent her white gown and Vladimir tiara (the same tiara the Duchess of Sussex Meghan Markle was allegedly not allowed to wear to her royal wedding), the Queen made her appearance in a yet-unseen emerald and diamond drops necklace.

As per People, the necklace in question, comprised of 10 emerald drops, bears a resemblance to the Greville emerald necklace belonging to the Queen’s mother. However its setting (specifically, the drop design of the emeralds) suggests that the Greville necklace may have either been reset, or that the Queen’s jewellery piece is entirely new.

Given the Queen paired the necklace with the Greville emerald and diamond drop earrings, it is likely the speculation that the jewellery piece is a revision of the original may indeed be true, though this has not been confirmed. The Queen’s bracelets however, have been identified as two Cartier Art Deco bracelets, these too featuring diamonds and emeralds.

As reported by People, the details and history of the Greville jewels are themselves mysterious, surrounded by an air of intrigue and hard to ascertain. A gift from Dame Margaret Greville (a patron of Cartier and Boucheron) to the late Queen Mother in 1942, it is believed that pieces in the collection (including the Greville emerald and diamond necklace) once belonged to Marie Antoinette and the Empress Josephine of France, imbuing the jewellery with an important royal and historical legacy. (Read more.)