Emerald Tiaras for May

Photo of the Leuchtenberg Diadem. The tiara structure is made of gold and silver and has eight detachable elements with flowers and leaves. The pieces are set with diamonds and emeralds. The central flower element is a narcissus and is twice as tall as the others. The center of this flower is set with a hexagonal emerald.

source

Since it's May, we're going to take a look at some tiaras featuring emeralds! Now, I know, this first one is kind of diamond-y. Actually, several of them will be. But look at that huge central in-your-face flower!

This is the Leuchtenberg Diadem, made circa 1830-1840 by Jean-Baptiste Fossin, who was known for his diamond floral arrangements. It is set with 698 diamonds and 32 emeralds, one of which is that honking huge hexagonal emerald, weighing in at 13 carats. That huge flower, which is supposed to be a narcissus, is set en tremblant (on a set of springs so it shakes at the slightest movement).

You all know how much I like a convertible piece of jewelry. All 8 of these floral motifs detach and can be worn as brooches or in a hairdressing ornament. In addition, there is a second frame that allows all the elements to be arranged on the front of a dress's bodice.

This is the first tiara I'm covering that has its own dedicated Wikipedia page! There is some additional information on the page that is interesting, so it's worth a visit. I'll put the link in the rabbit hole.

Art Deco style diamond tiara made of several diamond studded shapes that look like an S on its side, made from 3 rows of diamonds. The S shapes overlap. In the center is a large hexagonal carved emerald.

source

The star of the show here is really the emerald. The tiara was made by Cartier fairly recently, in 2012, specifically to feature the emerald which has quite a history of its own! I've included a close-up so you can get a good look at the beautiful carving.

Large hexagon shaped emerald carved with flower and leaf images.

source

It is known as the Bérénice Emerald and was likely carved during the reign of the Mughal emperor Shah Jahan (1592-1666). According to Richard Jean-Jacques, who runs a fascinating blog dedicated to the history of Parisian jewelers, jewelers and manufacturers of the 19th and early 20th centuries, this emerald was

Born in the mines of Chivor, Muzo or Coscuez – cradles of emeralds – in Colombia and extracted by the Conquistadors, in the XVIth, it was transported to Seville, transited through Lisbon, made a stopover in Goa – India counter – to reach Jaipur in Rajasthan in order to be engraved in the royal workshops.

He has a lot of other cool information about the emerald that you would probably find interesting, like even more history than I'm relating here, pictures, why it was called the Bérénice Emerald. I'll put his blog link down in the rabbit hole. Anyway, the whereabouts of the emerald was unknown until Cartier showed it off at the 1925 Exhibition of the Arts. They had the emerald set into a shoulder jewel. The page this information is from is in French and I thought that might have been a bad translation but, no, they actually made a jewelled piece that draped around both shoulders, like so:

Black and white magazine drawing of possibly a mannequin. It is an armless upper half of a woman that appears to be on a tabletop. Her dark hair is done in a fancy bun. Her head is turned to the side. She is wearing earrings, a tiara, a jewelled piece that drapes across both of her shoulders and a corsage ornament on the front of her sleevless dress. She is gazing into a mirror that reflects the side view and shows off the endpiece of the shoulder jewel, which drapes over the shoulder and on the back.

source

I don't know if shoulder jewels were ever really a style but I think they need to become one. The shoulder jewel was dismantled and the emerald was sold in 1927. It disappeared from history once again until it was sold at a Christie's auction in 2009. And sometime in between 2009 and 2012, it made its way back to Cartier where they had this tiara created to showcase it.

Diamond tiara made from swirly shaped motifs and set in platinum. The front of the tiara has a very large square emerald with 2 small square emeralds above and below. There are 3 more squarish emeralds along the bottom, nestled within the swirly shapes.

source

Once again, the real star of the show here is the 42 carat emerald and the platinum and diamond tiara was created in 2005 to specifically show off the stone. I think this is much more visually interesting than the previous one. You can find this in the Houston Museum of Natural Science's Cullen Hall of Gems and Minerals as part of the Lester and Sue Smith Gem Vault. The designer of the tiara is Houston jeweler Ernesto Moreira and it is apparently his job to create beautiful jewelled settings for some of the gems in the vault. That's so cool!

I have to quote this from an article I'll link to below because it just fascinates me:

While Cullen Hall showcases the raw materials, the Smith Gem Vault displays expertly cut, polished and mounted specimens gathered during a 10-year global treasure hunt directed by museum president Joel Bartsch and Lester and Sue Smith, museum board members and benefactors. "We always had plans to do this," Lester Smith says. "Along the way we would pick up a loose piece here and a loose piece there."

I don't know what the reality was but I am imagining Romancing the Stone levels of gem acquisition.

A Belle Epoque Emerald and Diamond Tiara designed as a graduated openwork garland and scroll motif gold frame, set with various-shaped cabochon emeralds and pear-shaped emeralds, centering a cushion-shaped double cabochon emerald, enhanced by diamond collets, mounted in gold, circa 1905.

source

Such an interesting piece! I can find no other pictures or information on this tiara, only what's available on Christie's auction site. I love the look - it falls into what I call "proper princess tiara" territory. Created circa 1905 by Tiffany & Co., it is made of gold with cabochon and pear-shaped emeralds and diamond collets. The site doesn't list the date sold (or who it went to) but it went for $34,500.

Tiara on a gold and silver frame with diamond sprays of oak leaves, and emerald acorns with gold caps.

source

Created around 1840-1850, this is another convertible tiara. The leaves detach to become 3 brooches. I love those emerald acorns! I have found no information on who made the tiara or any other history on it. Boylerpf, a jewelry store that specializes in both modern and antique jewelry, posted a picture of the tiara on their Tumblr and had this to say about the symbolism:

In Europe, the resilient nature of the oak tree is regarded as a symbol of royalty, while acorns represent the protected people.

It is currently part of The Illuminata Collection and has traveled the world to be in various exhibitions. The Illuminata Collection is owned by one person who wishes to remain anonymous and, despite having a trove of beautiful jewels, doesn't consider herself a "collector." Also, this information is from an interview with Nicolas Luchsinger, the President of Van Cleef and Arpels Asia Pacific, and he says the not-a-collector is "...one of the world's leading experts in the field of classical Chinese furniture, renowned and highly respected for her extensive and top-quality collection." which kind of sounds to me like he just outed her? I'll link to the interview, it is quite interesting and there are other jewel photos.

The tiara is formed as an undulating series of pierced geometric panels, set throughout with vari-cut emeralds and old brilliant and rose-cut diamonds, mounted in silver and gold.

source

For our last tiara of the post, we have this lovely Art Deco piece made around 1935. It came with a fitted case from Carrington & Co so I'm going to assume they were the makers. It's made of silver and gold with emeralds and old brilliant and rose-cut diamonds. It was sold at auction by Bonham's in 2012 for £11,875 (equivalent to £17,499.41 in today's pounds). It's convertible into a brooch and double clips. There is an interesting tidbit of information on the auction site regarding the provenance of the emeralds that you might want to go read. Clicking on the source link of the photo will bring you to that page.

I hope you have enjoyed this roundup of emerald tiaras!

image of a white rabbit popping out of his rabbit hole, looking around, and going back in. His rabbit hole is surrounded by grass and some carrots in the ground.

When I first started using Zonelets I had Disqus set up as a commenting system but it looked obnoxiously ugly and I ditched it. Some people are happy to not have blog interaction but I'd love to hear from you if you have any thoughts you want to share! You can respond through my guestbook or email. If you found this link on Discord or the 32-Bit Cafe Discourse, you can message me there or leave a message on my Neocities profile page.