Sapphire Tiaras for September
There are tons of tiaras out there set with sapphires and most of them are utterly boring piles of nothing but (priceless) diamonds and blue sapphires. You know I'm always on the hunt for tiaras that are out of the ordinary and I did manage to find a few!
First up is the This pretty little silver bandeau was part of a Sotheby's auction in 2022. The larger green central stone is a cabochon emerald but the other gems are sapphires. The tiara is thought to have been made by Arthur and Georgie Gaskin, a couple who met while they were students at the Birmingham Schol of Art. They began designing jewelery in 1899. Their pieces were rarely signed but their style was heavily influenced by the Art Nouveau movement and a design of closely-packed leaves and flowers set with gems is typical of their work. This next tiara is Countess Sonja Bernadotte's Ruby and Sapphire Tiara. The gems are from a pair of cufflinks that had belonged to Gustav V. Not much else is known about this tiara: who made it, when it was made (post 1951 because that's when the cufflinks were passed down to the Countess's husband) or who inherited it after Countess Sonja died. If you go to The Royal Watcher's site, you can see photos of several different royal ladies wearing the tiara. It may seem like a little no-nothing tiara but I like it! It's elegant but understated. Perfect for wearing on a run to the grocery store! The Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens are one of South Africa's National Botanical Gardens. In 2014, a bespoke jewelry collection was commissioned as part of a fundraising effort. One of the pieces in the collection is this tiara, inspired by the King Protea (Protea cynaroides), which is the national flower of South Africa. The tiara is crafted from platinum and set with diamonds, pink sapphires, pink tourmalines and tsavorite garnets. Isn't it stunning? If you go to the source link you can see photos of the rest of the jewelry collection, which is equally amazing. The photos on this site are not as good but they do state what the pieces names are and who designed them. This tiara is mildly diamond-y for my tastes but that is mitigated by the central section which becomes a massive in-your-face brooch, the base, which unwinds to become a necklace and the scandal it was part of. First off, some details about the tiara. The Christie's auction notes say That's a little confusing but it sounds like they're saying the spray is from the early 19th century and the necklace part from 1890-ish. Since it came with a fitted case with the name S.J. Phillips, Ltd on it, they either created the tiara or made it a case when it came into their possession.
So, the scandal. This tiara is legit and was sold by Christies in 2014 for GBP 74,500. The next time we see it, it's part of an exhibition and identified as a Fabergé tiara and having belonged to Empress Alexandra Feodorovna! I'm going to quote part of Tiara Mania's Tumblr post where she discusses this: Remember the tiara that was on display last year at the ‘Jewels! The Glitter of the Russian Court’ exhibition at the branch of the Hermitage Museum in Amsterdam that I was skeptical was made by Fabergé? Well it turns out it’s part of a big ol’ fake Fabergé scandal. I feel like we don’t get good jewelry scandals anymore so I’m excited. The fakes in question belong to Alexander Ivanov, an art collector who owns the Fabergé Museum in Baden-Baden, Germany. They are currently on loan to the State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia as part of the ‘Fabergé - Jeweler of the Imperial Court’ exhibition that opened in November and runs until March. André Ruzhnikov, an art dealer, has accused Mikhail Piotrovsky, the director of the State Hermitage Museum, of displaying at least twenty fake items. There’s a lot of Russian political stuff intertwined with everything involving Konstantin Goloshchapov, Ivanov’s partner-in-crime who is close friends with Putin, and Viktor Vekselberg, a rival Fabergé collector and billionaire. If you go to the post, there is some more information and also photos of the fake - Fauxbergé - tiaras. The art dealer who called out the museum director has a write up on his blog (in English) of the whole incident. There's a link in that post to an open letter he wrote to the museum's director and it is scathing! Ruzhnikov was very much feeling a way about this whole thing. The tiara is real, it's just really not Fabergé. According to Tiara Mania's post, A London Fabergé dealer told ArtNet off the record, “It is inconceivable that Russian Empresses, with the unmatched Russian crown jewels at their disposal, would demean themselves with composite low-quality tiaras of this type.” Ouch! My poor little tiara got dissed. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this look at some unusual sapphire tiaras! 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.
"...the central spray with early 19th century elements detaching to form a brooch, the fleur-de-lys panels forming a necklace, circa 1890, fitted S.J.Phillips Ltd. case..."
