Tiaras and Trinkets on Tuesday (Hanoverian Container List of Jewellery Contents)

A mysterious container was handed over to the Duke of Swann on his State Visit to Hanoveria. The Grand Duke of Hanoveria, the Duke of Swann's cousin, discovered the container in the basement of a warehouse building earmarked for restoration and refurbishment as modern apartments.

SNN Lifestyle Feature Reporter Kitty Spice joined the Duke of Swann at his private residence in Hanoveria to discuss the story surrounding the container and its history and of course to report to the international public on the great "reveal"of its contents. Inside the now famous container was found a 1909 Rolls Royce discovered to be the property of the Duke of Swann's Great Grandfather and a sealed chest.

This sealed solid oak trunk was also found inside the container and it was agreed to open it separately as its contents might also be of historical significance.

What has been called the "Find of the Century" revealed a spectacular historical treasure. The long thought lost Crown Jewels of Ruskiana saw the light for the first time in over 70 years. In amongst the official crowns was as yet many other pieces of spectacular historic jewels. In this photo the Imperial Crown, an Iconic Cross in red pearls and some tiaras are clearly visible. The current pretender to the Ruskian Imperial throne and the Ruskian government were officially informed of the find and was allowed to participate in the investigation as to how the jewellery ended up in a forgotten warehouse. Today's post will reveal all the findings so far as to the exact contents of the chest and exactly how the story transpired. Let us take a look at the contents.

The primary piece of jewellery must be the historic and intrinsically valuable Imperial Crown of Ruskiana. It was made in 1789 by the Court Jeweler Bolinovich from Gold, Silver, Rubies and exceptionally large and valuable Diamonds.

The Ruskian peasants revered their monarchy and imbued it with an almost avatar-like status. Thus the Crown of the Tzar was seen as a holy object. When the Revolution broke out the military staged coup sought to procure the Crowns for propaganda purposes to prove to the people that the Tzar was just a man and that God had obviously no role in human society. The Crowns however went missing and were rumoured to have been taken during the chaos of Revolution by a group of monks who served the Tzar and his court in secret. This story became an almost folkloric myth and the whereabouts of the Crowns were entrusted to the "hands of God". The superstitious belief ingrained itself in the Ruskian rural peasant community who claimed that the Crown will resurface at the right time and proclaim a new Age of Kings. It is now clear that the Duke of Swann on tour in Europa in 1909-1910 managed to smuggled the Crown Jewels out of Ruskiana with the help of the Imperial Family just before the War and Revolution could lead to their destruction. 

The smaller Consort Crown of the Empress or Mother's Crown as it is affectionately termed was made as and indeed is seen as a smaller version of the Imperial Crown. It too was clandestinely procured from the Imperial Family for its salvation from increasing danger incited by anti-monarchists factions during the Great War. The crowns as Symbols of State are considered the property of the people of Ruskiana and will be returned to their native land to be entered into a museum exhibit in honour of the history of Ruskiana.

This Ruby Parure consisting of a sumptuous tiara set with diamonds and very large rubies, earrings and a brooch was thought to have been lost to history as no records of it exists in the archived catalogue of the Bolshevik Government who annexed whatever remained of the Imperial Jewels after the revolution. It was presumed like many pieces of jewelry to have merely been looted by soldiers but legends abound of servants and monks who hid pieces of sentimental or religious significance in the hope of an Imperial Restoration. The picture above shows the more fashionable aspects of the Imperial Rubies but the set includes another pair of earrings, two necklaces and a pectoral cross  employing very rare red pearls and cabochon ruby beads shown in the picture below. The large cross suspended from the necklace was a famous icon said to employ red pearls that gained their colour from being dyed in the wine that was made from water in one of Christ's miracles. This legend might have led spesifically to the Duke of Swann saving it for posterity. 

The more religious and traditional uncut ruby beads and iconic cross from the Imperial Ruby Parure. The Rubies are considered officially the property of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna as the legal claimant to the inheritance of the last Tzar of Ruskiana.

This tiara was completely unknown to history upon its discovery in the chest. This was due to no memory or photo being known to anybody connected with the Ruskian Court of old. It is clearly Ruskian in style and being found in the trunk with the Imperial Crown Jewels means that it is significant enough to have some records somewhere. Some historic research from jewellery manufacturing archives and lists or inventories made by prominent Royals lead to a gemological link. A diary entry made by the Count Tolstoievski mentioned his intent to have a set of jewellery made from exceptional sapphires unearthed in the mine in his local town of Toltstoi. Gemological testing of the sapphires by the Duke of Swann in his Johannesburg Jewellery Workshops revealed there origin to be from the mine in the region of Tolstoi. Sapphires of this quality and size are extremely rare so general concencus is that they are the ones referred to in the diary. Final proof was found when the current Countess Tolstoievski produced a design sketch found amongst her grandmother's personal affects of the set made by a Pariseum jeweller in 1905. The sapphires will be returned to their rightful owners.

These emerald earring eluded all efforts to be identified. The Ruskian Government and the Countess Tolstoievski are in agreement that all unidentified pieces of the find will be sold at auction to raise money for a Ruskian charity of the choice of Grand Duchess Xenia Alexandrovna, the pretender to the Imperial Throne of Ruskiana.

Many tiaras were made at the turn of the last century and at that stage the saturation of design overflow lead to some jewellers to experiment with "new" ideas in order to keep clients interested. This led to the development of a specific look called "Tutti-Fruiti". The frivolous and colourful look is not everybody's cup of tea and considered to suit the slightly eccentric or bold. However its playful employ of rubies, sapphires, emeralds and diamonds in combination is not entirely ugly and worn by the right person makes for a very effective display. This set could also not be traced to a particular owner and as such will be sold at auction.

That includes the entire list of this truly miraculous find. We look forward to report on the auction and also on the eventual display of the historic jewels in Ruskiana. We are also excited about seeing the Imperial Rubies blazing on the head of Grand Duchess Xenia as soon as she deems fit to wear her fortunate inheritance.