Tiaras and Trinkets on Tuesday (Empress Crystobel's Diamonds Part 1)

Diamonds, diamonds, diamonds are a girls best friend. However when you are Royalty they are probably mere accessories or sentimental trinkets as our title implies. The interesting part is that these valuable baubles often carry more history with them than the actual wearer as they are often much older than the Royal owner. As stated last week we will be presenting far more about the jewellery of the Royals on this blog and in keeping with that promise we will do a series on the diamonds that belong to Empress Crystobel in her private capacity. We start with her oldest set and also the first set that her mother received when she married Prince Christopher of Hispania in 1957.  

We present to you the Queen Crystobel Wedding Gift Diamond Parure or more accurately, the Ladies of Scotney Diamond Parure. The confusion with the name stems from the fact that this parure was indeed the young Queen Crystobel's Wedding Gift but it is more appropriate to honour the giver than the receiver or the event. Thus seeing as all the aristocratic ladies of the Kingdom of Scotney arranged for the gift to be created and presented to the Queen, it is officially named the Ladies of Scotney Parure. 

The gift of this grand set of jewellery, made from indigenous Scotney Pearls and rare Indiana Diamonds was a grand gesture from the Scotney Nobility. The Duchess of Argyle, Countess Dysart and Baroness Ferguson headed up the committee of prominent Ladies who raised the capital for purchasing the Parure as a gift to be presented as a symbolic blessing from the women of the "entire country" as it were. The enterprise took 10 long months of planning and eventual manufacture but the set was then finally presented to the young bride a week in advance of the wedding ceremony. After the great day it went on a national tour of exhibits while its new owner was on honeymoon. 

Unfortunately we have no photographic documentation of Queen Crystobel I wearing the parure except for this single photo from 1983. She is seen wearing only the tiara from the set. As we know the 1996 Revolution destroyed most of the historic records of the Kingdom of Scotney but some rare documentation and some jewels obviously survived. 

Queen Crystobel, who died in 1985 left the set to her daughter who became Queen Crystobel II of Scotney and later Empress of the United Empire of Scot-Britania. Pictured in the centre of the photo above we see the then Empress mere weeks before the Revolution wearing the parure. She managed to escape in secret, with her life and many of the family heirlooms. 

The set of spectacular diamonds makes for quite the regal display as can be seen in this photo taken at the 2011 Christmas Ball. Empress Crystobel, who inherited the parure from her mother wears it to very dramatic effect. She pairs it here with a diamond brooch from one of her other parures that we will discuss in an upcoming post. Even though it is of extreme sentimental and historic value the Ladies of Scotney Diamond Parure is not worn very often and was last seen here in 2011. 

The Empress enjoys mixing her jewellery so we at least spotted the earrings in 2012, at the Birthday Ball.... 

....and at the Knight's of the Realm Gathering

Perhaps 2013 will afford the whole set some limelight again.