Tiaras and Trinkets on Tuesdays (Similar Emerald Tiaras)

So we are still on the topic of emeralds. Seeing as we missed a whole week of posting, I thought it a good idea to handle two separate sets of jewellery but that have a very similar appearance and both are in emeralds. This shows how close designs can sometimes end up. Lets take a look at the two full emerald parures and their histories.

This set of emeralds belongs to Princess Augusta of Scot Britania. Here she wears it to the Syldavian Investiture earlier this year. After the revolution, those nobles who weren't killed were often completely dispossessed. Some had to sell their jewels to survive and Princess Augusta helped many of them through her international jewellery business to gain good prices. This set belonged to a Scot-Britanian Baronial Family and ended up being kept by the Princess as a personal acquisition. The set is dated to the late 1800's and was made for the 10th Baroness Bunting. The last Baron Bunting was killed during the revolution but his wife and daughter escaped to Americania where they sold the parure to Princess Augusta.

She was first seen wearing it (at left) in 2008 at the current grand Duke of Serbieski's wedding.

Infanta Isabella of Hispania  wore the historic Hispanian Crown Emeralds, also to this year's Syldavian Investiture. It was a bit of a coincidence that both sets happened to be at the same event. The Hispanian Emeralds belong to the Crown of Hispania and as such cannot be sold but is kept as a national treasure and used by the Royal family. Old Crown emeralds were recut into a more modern square cut in the early 1900's and then set into this parure as part of the Hispanian Crown Jewels. It is thus a slightly younger set than that of Princess Augusta. The rules for this tiara is that only the wife or daughters of a Hispanian Monarch may wear them. As such it is often worn by Infanta Isabella or her mother the Dowager Princess Cataljone. We have yet to see Queen Maria or her daughter wear them.

Here the Dowager Princess of Cataljone is seen, wearing the set, standing behind the groom at the Von Bismarck wedding.

For proper comparison we spliced these two archive photos in order to see the sets on scale next to each other. The one on the left is the Hispanian Parure and at right the Bunting Parure. They are very similar and at a distance one would struggle to tell them apart. We look forward to seeing more of them at future events.