Originally posted on Michael Walsh Stories and Books:
Priceless emerald necklaces and brooches with huge sapphires that once adorned the gowns of Russian tsarinas later found new owners: American socialites and the wives of oil tycoons. Following the 1917 Revolution, the Bolsheviks sold the Romanov family’s treasures off…
Priceless emerald necklaces and brooches with huge sapphires that once adorned the gowns of Russian tsarinas later found new owners: American socialites and the wives of oil tycoons.
At official functions, European royalty can often be seen wearing tiaras that resemble an old Russian headdress called the kokoshnik. In Russia, empresses and grand duchesses wore this kind of tiara beginning from Catherine the Great’s rule during the second half of the 18th century. Outside of Russia, the fashion for the tiare russe developed thanks to Queen Alexandra, the wife of King Edward VII and sister of the Russian Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Alexander III. Some of those tiaras still include the word “kokoshnik” in their official names, although they never actually belonged to any members of the Russian royal family
The opening of the exhibition “Faberge – Jeweler of the Imperial Court” took place on online; the exposition will be available to visitors from November 25 to March 14, 2021.
Even Queen Elizabeth II has some old pieces of jewelry that once belonged to the Russian royal family.
The diamond, emerald and sapphire tiaras of the Romanov dynasty were remarkable for their beauty and opulence, and they were well known to other monarchies in Europe. This has to do with their unusual shape since most were reminiscent of the kokoshnik, an old type of Russian headdress. It was Catherine the Great who first brought the fashion for “Russian dress” to the court, and then in the middle of the 19th century under Nicholas I it was made mandatory. At official receptions, women began to wear diadems with a national flavor—“les tiares russes,” as they are called abroad.
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