Royal Jewels

[Imdanny]

I'm only asking that we keep the thread on topic- royal jewels. That's just my personal opinion. If some of you want to turn this thread into a thread to post about royals, like other forums that are on the internet for this purpose, then I guess go ahead. It's not like I'm going to report anyone's post for being off topic or anything. I'm only saying that pages of photos of royals and discussions of royals isn't why this thread was started and is off topic. I don't mean any personal offense to anyone. This is just how I feel about it.

Danny

Magnificent pic of Cullinan I, Danny. I could stare at that for hours. Thanks.

Of course you didn't offend anybody! And thinking about it, I agree with your outlook. You've been here a lot longer than I have & contribute more valuable info than I do. What attracts me to this thread is seeing some of the most beautiful & skillfully crafted pieces ever created. You're correct that photos of someone with, say, their new baby, etc., belong in a general royal topic forum. If it doesn't have to do with gems, it ought to be somewhere else. The bit on Princess Victoria's wedding was what I like to see -- photos of the guests & family wearing their jewelry -- and discussion of them. I learn a lot. Looking back at the beginning of the thread, on the other hand, I noticed there has always been some discussion of the owners of certain pieces, as their history is part of the story. For me, here, it needs to be about the gems primarily, not about royalty in general. That's only my opinion & anybody is welcome to disagree & I'll pipe down.

--- Laurie

Laurie, you understand where I'm coming from. Thank you.

 

[prince.of.preslav]

Danny, you sure have a good point and I quite agree with it. Still, if you look at the begining of this thread when LA was still an active poster and I was not here yet, you'll see that are many photos of royal ladies wearing jewes in daytime (custome jewel mostly) and (as Laurie said) a talk about the owners... Indeed this thread (and you acknowledge that) is not only about photos of royal parures and discussion on them. But it also is not about the US Presidents' daughters.

Bobby

 

[prince.of.preslav]

Today is the 110th anniversary of the birth of Queen Elizabeth, The Queen Mother

 

[JewelFreak]

I see merit in both opinions. Discussions of royal families & histories does add background to the jewels & I think that's interesting as well as important. But I can do without reams of photos of family groups unless they add to or illustrate the jewelry discussion -- we probably all get those from the same sources anyhow & can go there to see them. I shouldn't think a happy medium on that would be hard to achieve. And now I'm shutting up!

I'm in love with the sapphire & diamond necklace Caroline is wearing in several of those pics. It is elegant plus! Anybody know anything about it?

--- Laurie

 

[Imdanny]

I'll say no more about it. I'm sure glad you're back, Bobby. Thanks, everyone for letting me say what I wanted to say.

 

[T L]

As I see it, this thread is 219 pages long It's almost like a forum within a forum, and side discussions often occur in these types of scenarios. You should see our neighbor, the celebrity jewels thread!! However, as far as royal jewels are concerned, this one thread has a great deal of some of the best information on royal jewels anywhere on the net. It's a plethora of info and I'm grateful to everyone that has participated, like Danny, Bobby and others. I just think we need more medieval jewelry. JK. LOL!

 

[loriken214]

As a jewelry fanatic and Royal watcher, I'm excited to see all of the wonderful photos and details about the Royals themselves and their jewelry style. This has been a fun thread, so far, and I hope we can continue to post photos and share information without being afraid of insulting someone.

Case in point, the many discussions/photos of Mabel and her bows! I found this to be lots of fun.

Crown Princess Mary is my favorite royal since Diana is no longer with us. I posted the photo of Mary and her family because I had never seen one of her children. I was amazed to see that she wore very little jewelry. She doesn't have to wear a load of jewels to be beautiful....though she has a boatload of them in her jewelry box.

The historical info is priceless, but the new discussions/photos are exciting, too.

Just my opinion.

Lori

 

[alexander1917]

HM found her grandmothers (Queen Mary) brooch ins storage. The "Womwn of Hampshire" pendant / (altered later by QM into a brooch) was a wedding gift in 1893.

 

[JewelFreak]

The pics of Queen Noor got me thinking. I've always had a problem with her. Can't forget that she's regular Lisa Halaby from Dallas, though she's managed to do so quite well. When I've seen her interviewed she is oh-so-royal, over-dignified & projects superiority & distance. As the widow of King Hussein she's become an icon, but before he died I read several articles that were not favorable. She was apparently not a popular queen in Jordan; according to the reports the people felt she spent much of her time in Paris, buying jewels & socializing. They resented that she barely spoke Arabic despite her father's being half Syrian & Lisa's having spent a fair amount of time with him in the Middle East due to his business interests even before she lived in Jordan. He had an enormous range of talents & put them to good use; he was a neat guy (handsome too). To read about how she met Hussein you'd think she was practically running the airport project on which she was working, but in reality she was a very junior aide, just out of college. She would have met him anyway since he & her father were longtime friends. If you look back at reports at the time, and this is admittedly unproved, speculation on a possible divorce was rising with rumors of adultery on both sides. She was very good to Hussein when he had cancer & that's nothing to take lightly, but she also used the opportunity to lobby very hard for him to name their 18-yr-old son the next king when Hussein knew he was dying. Not so hot for the nation -- how could a teenager possibly negotiate complex Middle-Eastern politics? -- but great for her. I'm sure her good works in the last decade or 2 have been laudable (they certainly are fashionable), but apparently Jordanians, when she was queen, were not real impressed with her efforts -- especially when contrasted with Rania's now. She spends very little time there these days & I wonder if it's because she's not particularly welcomed by the present royals, who look to me to be genuinely concerned for the populace. Maybe I'm being snarky. Her personality puts me off -- modern royals, even QEII, the grandest of them, project warmth & communication with people. I get none of that from Noor.

 

[JewelFreak]

Where did that TRADE PERSON label at the top of my post come from? It ain't true, folks! Anybody know how I get rid of it?

--- Laurie

 

[loriken214]

HM found her grandmothers (Queen Mary) brooch ins storage. The "Womwn of Hampshire" pendant / (altered later by QM into a brooch) was a wedding gift in 1893.

HM looks wonderful without a hat on.....she radiates beauty....her brooch is amazing, too. Do you have a photo of the brooch before it was altered?

Lori

 

[loriken214]

Hi Laurie!

Thank you for the info on Queen Noor....I hadn't researched her and your details are very helpful. Rania is more suited for the job and I would love to see more photos of her and her jewelry.

Lori

 

[LadyMaria]

Hi Laurie!

Thank you for the info on Queen Noor....I hadn't researched her and your details are very helpful. Rania is more suited for the job and I would love to see more photos of her and her jewelry.

Lori

I always thought that Noor was in an awkward position. She married a man who was divorced twice, third wife died in a helicopter crash, and there was a 15 (I think) year age gap between them. Throw in that she was not from Jordan or any other middle east country, not of the Muslim faith (she converted only because of the marriage and on the morning of the wedding) and there is no doubt she would be hard pressed to be accepted by the people of Jordan. Sounds like now she is free to live more or her own life. She certainly stays out of the way of Queen Raina!

 

[prince.of.preslav]

Laurie, thank you for the information and photo of Queen Noor. A lot of the info I've never heard/read before. I've always known that she was a lovng wife and mother and a rather good Queen. I've always had a soft spot for her but couldn't quite understand why she didn't stay more time in Jordan and why she doesn't work there. As far as I know, since the death of King Hussein she's been living mostly in America because she's not getting on well with the new royal couple and with her sister-in-law, the former Crown Princess. I also think that she doesn't have a polished Arabian, esp compared to Queen Rania's, and she doesn't feel so good about that.

Whats was the occasion when the photo was taken? Was it in Jordan or in the Netherlands? Thanks.

Bobby

 

[alexander1917]

HM looks wonderful without a hat on.....she radiates beauty....her brooch is amazing, too. Do you have a photo of the brooch before it was altered?

Lori

I just refreshed my mind. Queen Mary altered the pendant in about 1911. I think the hook is still behind, so that you could wore it as pendant - but this is only my assumption. HM wore this brooch very seldom.

 

[prince.of.preslav]

HM looks wonderful without a hat on.....she radiates beauty....her brooch is amazing, too. Do you have a photo of the brooch before it was altered?

Lori

I just refreshed my mind. Queen Mary altered the pendant in about 1911. I think the hook is still behind, so that you could wore it as pendant - but this is only my assumption. HM wore this brooch very seldom.

Thank you Alexander, you just answered my unasked question.

Lori, I believe the only alternation to the brooch was adding the brooch fitting, so generally it is the same jewel Queen Mary received in 1893.

Here's a photo:

 

[prince.of.preslav]

I have three photos of Queen Mary wearing this brooch in the 1940s. One of them is from the christening of Prince Charles. Here's one of the other photos:

 

[JewelFreak]

The Women of Hampshire brooch/pendant is beautiful. Thanks for posting, Alexander & Bobby. Imagine finding that in storage & probably having forgotten you had it! I only wish....

Bobby, I'm sure Noor isn't a bad person & don't mean to be too hard on her; I just think she overplays the Royalty bit for a girl from Dallas who went back there as soon as she was no longer queen. I find her Distant Royal Dignity hard to swallow when I've seen her interviewed a couple of times -- especially compared with real royalty who manage to project some human empathy, which I don't see in her. Maybe someone else would see it. A lot was written about her & Hussein while he was sick & after he died. They were not together much the several years before he was diagnosed & speculation about divorce was pretty common. One mini-scandal was that when Sean Connery was making a movie in Jordan, Noor was with him constantly, and often late into the night. (Can't blame her, who'd turn down Sean Connery?) Her Arabic was poor -- but she could have fixed that, especially as Queen of a country. (Look at all the foreign Tsarinas who managed to learn Russian, for instance.) Apparently the Jordanians resented her inability to speak simple Arabic at least: a sign she didn't care enough to learn. I remember an article after Hussein's funeral saying that she & Rania had a tussle -- Noor apparently decreed that she would continue with many of the duties of the Queen & resisted moving out of the royal palace.

On the other hand I'm really impressed with Rania. She's very serious, warm & has innovative ideas on the process of improving the lives of Jordanian women. She just inaugurated a Facebook page & Twitter account dedicated to improving understanding of Arab life and in Jordan, understanding of western life. She's extremely active in organizations, starting many herself, whose purpose is to bring more modernity into her country -- with sensitivity to the cultural flavor & history & realizing it will take a long time.

Some pics of her jewelry, this one at her coronation wearing a tiara lent to her by Princess Haya, Queen Alia's daughter. It was originally Alia's & Haya inherited it:

 

[JewelFreak]

Haya wearing the tiara. The 2nd picture is Rania with her own tiara, which she got a while after her husband became king.

 

[JewelFreak]

This is an emerald tiara that I think belonged to Alia. Maybe it's the flash but it sort of looks like a Christmas decoration!

 

[JewelFreak]

Rania again. Her style is more casual so she doesn't appear in jewels too much.

 

[JewelFreak]

And least successful, here she is at Princess Victoria's wedding, pics you've all seen. Don't know what happened here, but hair & dress are kind of off, eh?

P.S. Bobby, forgot to answer your question -- the first photo was on a State visit to Holland.

 

[prince.of.preslav]

Laurie, thank you for part two of the lecture about Queen Noor and for answering my question. So, in your view, she's pretending to be more Catholic that the Pope or rather more royal than the Queen of England... I'm actually quite surprised to hear that, as HM was a frequant guest at royal gatherings (weddings, birthdays, funerals) in Europe. I woldn't think that Eu royals would tolerate someone like that, but I do believe what you're saying. I've never thought like that about Noor (what a nice name, btw) Am I righ to think that HM has been interviewd by Oprah?

Re Rania's emerald tiara - The photo was taken during the Jordanian royal couple's State Visit to Sweden and HM The Queen wore and all-emerald tiara on loan from Boucheron (I think this is one of her preffered jewellery houses). Rumours say that the thing was later dismantled. Here's a photo:

Re the wedding of Victoria - This is by far the worst appearence of Queen Rania I've ever seen - the hair was a total mess, the jewels were understated, the dress I'd rather not comment. In addition to that, The Queen of Jordan had forgotten the breast star of the Seraphim and the miniature of her Jordanian order was placed too low... A wonder where's Rania from the State Visits to the UK and Spain? Anyway, to keep this on topic, I'll say that her tiara was a bracelet from Boucheron. A photo:

 

[prince.of.preslav]

On the other hand I'm really impressed with Rania. She's very serious, warm & has innovative ideas on the process of improving the lives of Jordanian women. She just inaugurated a Facebook page & Twitter account dedicated to improving understanding of Arab life and in Jordan, understanding of western life. She's extremely active in organizations, starting many herself, whose purpose is to bring more modernity into her country -- with sensitivity to the cultural flavor & history & realizing it will take a long time.

Well, I also like it that Rania's an inovative, serious and easy going queen and I can only praise her for all her projects and initiatives, but somehow she doesn't shout QUEEN. Perhaps it's because of the clothes... But also a tweet on something on my walll in FB is not what I expect from a Queen... Queen Ranis also has a YouTube channel, btw. As far as I know, she posted the photos from the wedding almost imediately after she took them... Not that there's something wrong, it's just not quite royal like. And sometimes I have the fealing that she spends more time in the USA than in Jordan, maybe ever away from her children... Do not take it as a form of negativism towards HM, it's just an observation.

Bobby

 

[Imdanny]

Can't forget that she's regular Lisa Halaby from Dallas, though she's managed to do so quite well.

Hey, you're only human. You're allowed to feel that way. I feel the same way about Mary (heresy on this forum) and about Prince William's girlfriend.

I like Princess Grace on the other hand, but one of the most interesting aspects of her life at least to me is that her father used to be a bricklayer, not only that but Grace was the shy one in her large, competitive family, and her father never thought she'd amount to anything.

Some women, like Diana, kind of "have it" and also they blossom. Some women like Prince William's girlfriend I think, "Urg, there's not a lot there in the first place and she's such a social climber!"

I don't think we can help feeling the way we do. I know for myself one of my issues about Diana is that they meaning the Establishment said, "This is the fairy tale princess blah blah" and it was true for me, then they wanted to denigrate her and say "she's not really royal" and all that.

Well, that didn't go over very well with a great many people, and no wonder, not only was Diana great, but the Establishment are the ones who hyped her marriage in the first place. Then they want her not to be a "royal". Well, no, forget it. You can't have something both ways.

They are (all) lucky we feel anything about them since royalty is an archaic institution, and most people would rather believe that we should govern ourselves, rather than be governed by people who get their position by birth.

 

[Imdanny]

As I see it, this thread is 219 pages long It's almost like a forum within a forum, and side discussions often occur in these types of scenarios. You should see our neighbor, the celebrity jewels thread!! However, as far as royal jewels are concerned, this one thread has a great deal of some of the best information on royal jewels anywhere on the net. It's a plethora of info and I'm grateful to everyone that has participated, like Danny, Bobby and others. I just think we need more medieval jewelry. JK. LOL!

Yes, more medieval jewelry would be nice.

I'll see what I can do.

 

[JewelFreak]

Re Rania's emerald tiara - The photo was taken during the Jordanian royal couple's State Visit to Sweden and HM The Queen wore and all-emerald tiara on loan from Boucheron (I think this is one of her preffered jewellery houses). Rumours say that the thing was later dismantled.

Re the wedding of Victoria - This is by far the worst appearence of Queen Rania I've ever seen - the hair was a total mess, the jewels were understated, the dress I'd rather not comment. In addition to that, The Queen of Jordan had forgotten the breast star of the Seraphim and the miniature of her Jordanian order was placed too low...

Good idea to dismantle that tiara! Not the most elegant thing IMHO. Rania's usually so put together, her appearance at the wedding was downright odd. She looked like she woke up too late to make the school bus. I wondered about that tiara -- a bracelet from Boucheron? Interesting. I kind of like it as an understated less-formal one, maybe with a, ahem, better hairdo.

We're bound to be all off the mark in opinions of personalities of royals (or other well-known people), knowing them only through mags & websites. Easy to pontificate from our own armchairs about how they should live & behave when we don't know what they face in reality. Hasn't everybody, sometime in their lives, had someone say, "You should be doing THIS....or THAT, not what you are doing...." and the suggestions are way unlikely for us. And on the other side of the coin, they seem to have great PR people.

As for Diana's being more royal, though it's wrong side of the blanket, she was descended from the Stuarts & the Tudors. Didn't I read she had more royal blood than the QM? Loved the photo of QEQM, by the way. If William becomes king he will be the first descendant of Charles I since Charles himself was on the throne.

--- Laurie

 

[LadyMaria]

This is an emerald tiara that I think belonged to Alia. Maybe it's the flash but it sort of looks like a Christmas decoration!

Ug, this is one of the most hideous tiaras I've ever seen! Quite a change from the usual polished appearance I've come to expect from Rania. It looks like a cheap trinket from Mardi Gras.

 

[LadyMaria]

Re the wedding of Victoria - This is by far the worst appearence of Queen Rania I've ever seen - the hair was a total mess, the jewels were understated, the dress I'd rather not comment. In addition to that, The Queen of Jordan had forgotten the breast star of the Seraphim and the miniature of her Jordanian order was placed too low... A wonder where's Rania from the State Visits to the UK and Spain? Anyway, to keep this on topic, I'll say that her tiara was a bracelet from Boucheron. A photo:

AGREED! The dress didn't bother me as much, but her hair looks like it was styled with a broom and the tiara was way too insignificant for a queen at a crown princess wedding.

 

[alexander1917]

I have three photos of Queen Mary wearing this brooch in the 1940s. One of them is from the christening of Prince Charles. Here's one of the other photos:

here I think you make a mistake. QM wore to every christening of her grand-children the Duchess of Cambrige (her grandmother) pearl drop brooch. so it was called "granny's brooch"


pic, 1948, 15th dec. BP Music Room