Royal Jewels

[neil31uk]

Forgive me for going off topic here, but whilst I was on holiday in New York last week I became engaged, this is my engagement ring - made of a 99.9% pure platinum ring with a brushed platinum overlay, the stone is a 1.63 carat sapphire that has not been heat treated and so stil contains the "silk" that give sapphires a darker colour (on a royal theme, is this the case witht he sapphire in the Duchess of Cambridge's e-ring?). The stone is internally flawless.

 

[JewelFreak]

Congratulations, Neil! Very nice ring. Hope you'll be very happy -- when is the big day?

--- Laurie

 

[BubblyBear]

Gorgeous ring! Congratulations and best wishes!

 

[Lady_Disdain]

Congratulations - very interesting ring design.

Neil - silk doesn't make the stone darker, but it helps to distribute the light throughout the stone, which makes it seem to glow all over. Does your stone have a lab report? I find it odd that a stone with silk would be classified as IF.

 

[loriken214]

Congratulations Neil....gorgeous ring!!!

Lori

 

[prince.of.preslav]

I'm very happy to finally see the ring, Neil! Congratulations on the engagement!

Bobby

 

[prince.of.preslav]

Since Nobel Price galas are nearing (in both Sweden & Norway), I've started wondering what jewels we might see at the banquets in the two countries.
I'd start with Norway and say that it's likely that The Queen will keep the tradition of wearing Queen Alexandra's diamond choker for the (black tie) banquet. But I'd also like it if HM uses the jewels she wore at Princess Martha-Louise's birthday this year.
And here's the more difficult part - Sweden. A quick review from last wear -We saw the Leuchtenberg sapphires on the Queen at the actual ceremony and banquet and on the next day Queen Silvia wore the Nine Prong tiara. The Crown Princess wore the Cut Steel tiara and then Queen Josefina's ruby and pearl brooch as a hair ornament. Princess Christina wore her own small tiara on both nights.

So what about this year? Surely, I'd not like to see a repeat of jewels from last year. My pearsonal hope for the ceremony is the Cameo parure, though I'd give the Braganza tiara a pass. For The King's dinner I hope to see Queen Silvia's tiara on her head (especially since Madeleine wont attend) or the ruby tiara.
On The Crown Princess I'd like to see the amethysts (though she wore parts of the pearure in 2009). Maybe the six button tiara or her own small tiara for the second night (or why not her mother's tiara for the first time?). The Baden fringe would also do.
Princess Christina - she did a wonderful job with the Six button tiara at Victoria's wedding and that's a sight I'd like to see again. I'd also love to see a reappearance of the Connaught tiara on HRH's head (especially since this year is going to be a bit more glittering).

And here's the surprise - TRH The Grand Duke & Grand Duchess of Luxembourg are also going to attend the Nobel Prize ceremony and the day after gala. So, what would Maria Teresa wear? My personal guess would be the diamond floral tiara that HRH wore at Margrethe II's birthday and the sapphire tiara.

Any thoughts?

 

[LadyMaria]

I've been meaning to post something on this too Bobby! It seems like we have not heard much from Crown Princess Victoria lately. I am hoping all is well with her pregnancy. I would like to see the Connaught on the Crown Princess. Princess Madeline wore it for the first time at her sister's wedding, but I do not think the Crown Princess has ever worn it. This would be a great opportunity! As for the Grand Duchess, I hope she does not wear the really big one she wore to the Swedish royal wedding (Grand Duchess Charlotte's tiara?). I don't think her jewels should overpower her Swedish and Norwegian hosts.

 

[JewelFreak]

Maria, CP Victoria has been busy as ever. However, the Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor (http://orderofsplendor.blogspot.com/), one of my favorite haunts, is extremely grumpy about her maternity wear -- much of it regular baggy dresses not made for baby bumps, so the hems are uneven. Too short too. No big jewelry in her schedule recently, that I've seen. Hope she jazzes herself up for the Nobels!

 

[BubblyBear]

The Connaught tiara is on my top 5 favorite tiaras list. It's delicate, feminine, and oh, so shiny!

 

[Fly Girl]

Maria, CP Victoria has been busy as ever. However, the Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor (http://orderofsplendor.blogspot.com/), one of my favorite haunts, is extremely grumpy about her maternity wear -- much of it regular baggy dresses not made for baby bumps, so the hems are uneven. Too short too. No big jewelry in her schedule recently, that I've seen. Hope she jazzes herself up for the Nobels!

I've been following CP Victoria on My Royals (http://myroyal-myroyals.blogspot.com/) and I agree that she is out and about quite a bit, generally wearing a rather short dress. I just figured that it is her personal style choice.

 

[prince.of.preslav]

As for the Grand Duchess, I hope she does not wear the really big one she wore to the Swedish royal wedding (Grand Duchess Charlotte's tiara?). I don't think her jewels should overpower her Swedish and Norwegian hosts.

The very large tiara that The Grand Duchess wore at Crown Princess Victoria' wedding is commonly known as the (Luxembourg) Empire tiara. It is thought to have Russian provenance. The tiara from the family's collection mostly associated with Grand Duchess Charlotte (and about which little is known) is a laurel leaf tiara with a large sapphire in the center (I mentioned it as a possible tiara for Maria Teresa).
No member of the Norwegian royal family is going to be host for The Grand Duke & The Grand Duchess, as TRH are only going to attend the festives in Sweden.

Bobby

 

[prince.of.preslav]

A couple of days ago (December 5th) HRH The Princess Royal attended the Royal Variety Performance in aid of the Entertainment Artistes' Benevolent Fund at the Lowry, Greater Manchester.
The Princess wore th pearl and sapphire choker, her copy of the Prince Albert brooch and a pair of pearl and diamond drop earrings. HRH wore the dress she wore at the pre-wedding event for her nephew The Duke of Cambridge.


Here you can see the picture in full size and read more about the event - http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/royal-...ess-anne-glam-up-for-salford-115875-23613308/

Bobby

 

[JewelFreak]

A former Buck. Palace employee is auctioning a group of Christmas cards she received from the Queen & P. Philip and from Diana & Charles. (Tacky.) Here are 2 I like:


1987 with grandchildren. HM wearing the Queen Anne & Queen Caroline pearls & the Albert brooch.


1995 at Balmoral. HM has on her triple strand pearls, pearl earrings -- and can anyone tell what brooch? Possibly the William IV or the Hyderabad Rose? Sorry the photo is so small -- PS shrank it, but the original isn't big enough to get a good look either.

 

[AGBF]

A former Buck. Palace employee is auctioning a group of Christmas cards she received from the Queen & P. Philip and from Diana & Charles. (Tacky.) Here are 2 I like:

The employee actually may need the money! Can you imagine how much one would be tempted, if one were a simple working class person, to part with a card-even if he had been very fond indeed of the people who sent it to him-if he could make thousands of dollars from it? I throw away most of my Christmas cards at the end of the season, after all!

But the reason I posted was to say that I agree with you that the cards you picked to show are lovely, Laurie!

Deb/AGBF

 

[prince.of.preslav]

A former Buck. Palace employee is auctioning a group of Christmas cards she received from the Queen & P. Philip and from Diana & Charles. (Tacky.) Here are 2 I like:

1987 with grandchildren. HM wearing the Queen Anne & Queen Caroline pearls & the Albert brooch.

1995 at Balmoral. HM has on her triple strand pearls, pearl earrings -- and can anyone tell what brooch? Possibly the William IV or the Hyderabad Rose? Sorry the photo is so small -- PS shrank it, but the original isn't big enough to get a good look either.

Thanks for bringing these to my attention, Laurie! I've always enjoyed seeing the Christmas cards that the various royals send and these here (all that are to be sold) are quite unique and rare in terms of the worm moments they've captured. The photograph of the royal couple with their grandchildren is quite lovely and I've always enjoyed it. I wish a new one with all of The Queen & The Duke's grandchidren will be taken, pearhsps next year. A also like the two photos from the Highlands (on the lawn and in Balmoral) and the one of The Queen Mother with the corgis very much.
The most impressive, however, is (IMHO) the one of HMY Britannia and the tens of boats that sailed along her.

Now back to the topic - in all photos where The Queen's wearing a necklace it's the same tree rows of pearls. As far as brooches go, we can see (check the link, please) a pair of gold, diamond and sapphire pansy brooches, and un-id diamond brooch, the smaller of the Cambridge emerald brooches, the Teck pearl brooch and the Prince Albert brooch.

And here you can see the Daily Maul article with the rest of the cards from the auction - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/a...oments-turbulent-times-life-Royal-family.html

PS: As far as I can understand, some of the Christmas card have been retained by the former employee.

Bobby

 

[prince.of.preslav]

Right now I'm watching the Nobels live (on http://svt.se/nobel) and I can tell you that The Queen's wearing the dress she wore at the concert and dinner the evening before the royal wedding in 2010 with the Nine prong tiara, Queen Victoria' collet necklace with the Vasa diamond, the earrings from King Carl XIV Johan's collection and the rectengular diamond brooch. The Crown Princess is in an abfab dark blue dress and is wearing parts of the sapphire parure (the earrings, brooch and hairpins); on her head shines the Six button tiara with an extra row of diamonds added to the base (a neede improvement, if you ask me).
Though I've not seen her, I can tell that The Grand Duchess of Luxembourg's wearing the Art Deco tiara with the large cabochon emerald.

Bobby

 

[prince.of.preslav]

The ceremony is almost over and the Royal Family have left the Konserthuset. Princess Christina's wearing her own small pearl and diamond tiara. I couldn't see her other jewels.

Edit - Here aretwo photos showing The Queen and The Crown Princess

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0g3SdwacScf2v/610x.jpg

 

[prince.of.preslav]

Here are some other photos of Crown Princess Victoria's jewels -
Tiara, earrings and hairpins - http://kungligamodebloggen.svenskdam.se/files/2011/12/Bild-211.png
The tiara - we can see the added riviere - http://kungligamodebloggen.svenskdam.se/files/2011/12/Bild-10.png
The brooch - http://kungligamodebloggen.svenskdam.se/files/2011/12/Bild-9.png
Family order - http://kungligamodebloggen.svenskdam.se/files/2011/12/Bild-8.png

The Grand Duchess of Luxembourg with her fabulous jewesl and awful tiara hair - http://kungligamodebloggen.svenskdam.se/files/2011/12/Bild-113.png

*pix courtesy of Svensk Damtidning's Kungliga Modebloggen

Bobby

 

[prince.of.preslav]

An advise to women who might wear a tiara one day (Lady Maria knows this already!) -
This is not how it should be done:

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0drR5abbTqarB/x610.jpg

This is the right way (do you notice how the riviere hides into the hair?):

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/012AehF5yA2ch/610x.jpg

Back view:

http://svt.se/content/1/c8/02/63/87/23/vilvias_haruppsattning.jpg

Another good example:

http://svt.se/content/1/c8/02/63/87/23/silvias_haruppsattning.jpg

And last but not least - finally a good photo of Princess Chrisitina, wearing her small pearl and diamond tiara and other jewels in gray and white pearls. Any guesses what the pendant might be? It looks like a diamond to me.
I hope we'll see some bigger jewels on the Princess tomorrow.

http://cache.daylife.com/imageserve/0dFR5fp2NPgWQ/610x.jpg

Bobby

 

[prince.of.preslav]

Here are some other photos of Crown Princess Victoria's jewels -
Tiara, earrings and hairpins - http://kungligamodebloggen.svenskdam.se/files/2011/12/Bild-211.png

In this photo you can also see a piece of wire that goes behind Victoria's ear. I guess I don't have to explain why it's used (just think of the weight of the earrings).

Bobby

 

[LadyMaria]

I agree the Crown Princess' dress is great! It minimized her baby bump, but didn't totally disguise it. Maternity wear is tricky enough as it is, let alone evening wear. I never felt comfortable wearing something so tight that it screamed "look at me, I'm pregnant!" but at the same time I wanted to look like I just had a basketball attached at my stomach, not an elephant (I certainly felt like the later after packing on 70 pounds with my son and daughter). I think it would have even looked better with the sapphire tiara instead of the six-button. The blues would have played off well on each other!

 

[LadyMaria]

An advise to women who might wear a tiara one day (Lady Maria knows this already!) -
This is not how it should be done:

Bobby

Thanks Bobby! When I wear one of my tiaras, wrapping the hair around the sides is the trickiest part. I can fully understand the benefit of adding hair pieces or extensions. But, I'm only a Lady, so I have to make do with my own hair.

Speaking of, remember my description of the activity I did in class where I dressed up like a queen? I did that this week, but with a slight modification. We have a new curriculum this year, and I don't have to teach rock cycle anymore. So I don't dress up as the Queen of Geologica. Instead, our chemistry section has increased a lot. I changed my activity to use elements on the Periodic Table (which, incidentally, is the most fabulous example of anal retentive organization ever!). So now I call myself the Queen of Quemika (kind of a play on the word chemistry). The activity went very well, as it usually does.

I did splurge for a new dress instead of my blue ball gown. This year I decided to wear the Princess of Packing, along with my "diamond" paurue. I always have some female students ask if they can try on my tiara, and I have to explain to them that it is actually twisted into my hair so sorry, they can't try it on.

So here I am as the Queen of Quemika... This was after I got home from school, so the hair is a bit messed up after a long day of teaching!

 

[50shadesofblack]

I have been reading this thread for days!! And I am still only on page 73! It will take me at least a week to get to the current posts

Nice work, ladies. I appreciate all the time and effort it took to present us all these lovely pieces, together with information.

 

[laurensmama]

Welcome Ivana, glad you are enjoying. A little at a time, it can get overwhelming! In addition to thanking all of the ladies on this post, we should also thank the gentleman. Two of them are extremely knowledgeable ( you will soon discover who they are) and a great delight to talk with through this forum, a true treasure trove of knowledge and PICTURES!!! Some which havent seen the light of day in a long time, those are especially wonderful. Enjoy!!

 

[50shadesofblack]

Oh I'm sorry! I have to admit I was not paying much attention to nicknames of people posting the stuff, I was mostly just looking at pictures


prince.of.preslav and imdanny, thank you guys as well!

 

[laurensmama]

No need to apologize, wasnt being nasty, just want to give credit where it is due. So glad to have another member to add to the discussion. They do sometimes get lively, which is also wonderful to hear everyones opinions. Have been interested in royalty and jewels since I was a child, and am still learning, thanks to some very interesting posts.

 

[BubblyBear]

Yes! Q Silvia brought out my favorite tiara!

Sorry for the less than spectacular photo.

 

[Imdanny]

Oh I'm sorry! I have to admit I was not paying much attention to nicknames of people posting the stuff, I was mostly just looking at pictures


prince.of.preslav and imdanny, thank you guys as well!

Oh gosh that's nice but I can't accept- Neil and Alexander know way more than me, let alone Bobby!

Welcome!

BTW, the royal yacht and HM visited the city where I was born once- Tampa, FL, at the time, and maybe today, I don't know, the 7th largest port in the US.

They cliosed a main road for HM and she traveled from the port to, hmm, also downtown to the University of Tampa (?) where I remember she called our mayor Sandy Freeman "Madame Mayor."

LOL!

 

[50shadesofblack]

Happy birthday prince.of.preslav!!

Just yesterday I stumbled upon a post where you said you share a birthday with some royal. I do not remember who it was, but I made a mental note not to forget to wish you all the best after midnight!


I hope you have an awesome day!