Fascinating Fridays (Jewellery Terminology; "De Resile" Necklace)

"De Resile" is a Franconian term meaning "hair net".  It was applied satirically in the late 1800's to a fashionable style of necklace worn by the upper classes. A progression from what we may consider the standard choker, the De Resile necklace added layered strands and pendants to the bottom of the close fitting " dog collar". This was what many considered to be the apex op wearing a maximum quantity of precious stones around the neck from as high up to as low on the cleavage as appropriately possible. In that " golden age" of  jewellery, wearing profuse amounts of jewels to show rank and status became the epitome of Royal style. The tiaras were huge, earrings heavily dangled low and necklaces must have felt like farmyard yokes. The " hairnet" comparison alluded to these necklaces often applying a net-like appearance by virtue of dangling festoons and criss-cross elements in their design. Here follows some of the many necklaces that fall in this category amongst our Royal Collections. 

Queen Gloria of Normandia wears the oldest know "De Resile style necklace in this photo. It is part of the Crown Jewel Collection of Normandia and predates the era where this style became popular but definitely set the stage for future manifestations of the necklace. 

Empress Crystobel had two necklaces in this style of oddly exactly the same design. The only difference was the use of coloured stones. This photo shows her wearing the purple amethyst and black pearl version but she also owned a white pearl and diamond one. 

This composite archive photo allows us to compare the designs of the necklaces. Also not the similarity albeit not exact copies of the tiaras.

The Romagna Royal Jewel Collection includes a De Resile necklace pictured in the center of the photo. It has low hanging festoons doing justice to the net effect these necklaces are meant to display. 

Here, the Duchess DiGiorgio can be seen wearing the necklace in 2012 from the Romagna Collection. 

The Duchess of Argyle received this very low hanging necklace, pictured above, as a gift from the Duke of Swann. 

The Duchess of Argyle is seen wearing her necklace to very dramatic effect which is exactly what these types of necklaces are meant to do, namely impress for shear size. 

Tiaras and Trinkets on Tuesday (Similar Ruby Tiaras)

It does sometimes happen due to fashion trends or even unintentionally that some jewellery end up looking much alike. We discussed this in a previous post where we compared two sets of emerald jewellery that were very similar in design and over all appearance. In today's post we will refer to two tiaras that can only be distiguished by the cut of the coloured stones. The one tiara is very famous and often worn by the wealthiest Royal in the world. The other is less famous but has been infamously worn by the so called "Punk Princess". Let us compare these two ruby tiaras. 

Empress Crystobel is known to love rubies more than any other gemstone and her combined collection of rubies is the largest in the world. Here she is seen wearing the tiara in question. This Tiara is called the Ruby Dowry Tiara and forms part of a much larger set. 

Some pieces of the larger collection of Rubies called the Crystobel Dowry Collection can be seen in the above photo. The rubies in the Dowry Tiara is said to have belonged to the wife of the first King of Scotney as an independent Kingdom. They remained uncut for centuries until Queen Crystobel I of Scotney had them faceted and set into this tiara. This is where the rumour began that the dowry tiara's design was copied. 

Princess Oktavia owns a very large historic collection of jewellery of which this early 19th century ruby parure is probably the center piece. She wears it here in a typical punk mode for a gala event in 2011. 

The Von Hohen und Silberstein princely rubies are more than 200 years old. The set consists of a choker necklace, bracelet, long sautoire necklace and the tiara. The rumour is that the Imperial Tiara was made to copy this older version belonging to the Von Hohen uns Silberstein family as Queen Crystobel of Scotney ordered her version of the tiara shortly after a visit from the Hohen und Silbersteins. The square rubies in the older tiara are far larger than thr round ones in the newer Imperial tiara. The new stones however are of a better quality and a more modern cut. 

Which one do you prefer and which wearer pulls it off more successfully?

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.