ROYAL JEWELS

Cambridge Emeralds. The Vladimir tiara, They were won in a charity lottery in 1818by Queen Mary's grandmother, Augusta, the Duchess of Cambridge After Queen Mary acquired the Vladimir Circle Tiara she had it adapted to be worn with the remaining fifteen emerald drops.

Other pieces in the collection include two pendant brooches. Along with the emeralds presented to Queen Mary at the Delhi Durbar

This is the peridot parure of Archduchess Isabella of Austria. From the Sotheby's auction catalog (London - Magnificient Antique Jewels 6/20/01), the parure was attributed to the Habsburg Imperial Jeweller Kochert and originally made for the Archduchess Henriette, wife of Archduke Karl of Tuscany. The parure passed on from Archduke Karl to his nephew and heir, Archduke Friedrich, the husband of Archduchess Isabella. The parure consists of a tiara, necklace, earrings and a corsage ornament, with large fine quality peridots set in flower and leaves setting of the 1820's. After the death of Archduchess Isabella's widower in 1936, the parure was auctioned off in 1937. It was purchased by Count Johannes Coudenhove-Kalergi, the father of the parure's last owner.

The Norwegian emerald parure is one of the loveliest, with the dark, rich green of the rain forest. Its origins goes back to Napoleon with the neo-Classical design common for that time. The original owner was reportedly the Empress Josephine, making its way first to Sweden through Princess Josephine of Leuchtenberg. Queen Sofia of Sweden, nee Nassau, wore the tiara. During her time the necklace had seven pendants and there were no earrings. Crown Princess Margarita, nee Connaught, wore her mother-in-law's emeralds to her cousin King George V's coronation in 1911. The set was later inherited by the queen's youngest son, Prince Carl, and worn by his wife, Princess Ingeborg, nee Denmark. The tiara, necklace and brooch came to Norway as gifts to Crown Princess Martha from her parents on the birth of the Norwegian heir, the future King Harald. By the time Crown Princess Martha received the jewels, all but one of the pendants were gone, and the two large tear-shaped emeralds were replaced by diamond honeysuckle motifs and made into earrings.

One the most beautiful ruby parures was originally owned by Marie Alexandrovna, the Duchess of Edinburgh and Saxe-Coburg- Gotha. Only daughter of Tsar Alexandar II of Russia, Marie Alexandrovna was used to having the best of everything. Her jewelry collection was super, Created by Bolin and given in 1874, the year of her marriage to Prince Alfred, the parure consisted of a lotus-motif tiara, a devant de corsage and a sumptuous necklace. The Duchess of Edinburgh wore her rubies for the coronation festivities of Tsar Nicholas II in 1896.