Happy Birthday to Princess Eugenie of York, Mrs. Jack Brooksbank, who turns 35 today! The late Queen’s artistic granddaughter who is 12th-in-line to the Throne wore the magnificent Boucheron Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara for her Wedding!
Greville Emerald Tiara | Wedding Earrings | Queen Adelaide’s Ears-of-Wheat Brooches
Composed of brilliant and rose cut diamonds pavé set in platinum, with six emeralds on either side, and a massive 93.70 carat central emerald, the Tiara was created by Boucheron in 1919, modelled on the fashionable ‘kokoshnik’ style popularized in the Russian Imperial Court, for the society hostess the Hon. Mrs Ronald Greville.
While there are various accounts of her wearing her magnificent emeralds, Dame Margaret Greville was pictured only once wearing the Emerald Tiara with her Emerald Necklaces and Emerald Earrings for a Concert at the Austrian Embassy in London in 1937, during the Coronation Festvities for King George VI.
(full credit for this find goes to my friend Beth of HRJMB)
On the death of Dame Margaret Greville, the Hon Mrs Greville in 1942, the majority of her magnificent Jewellery Collection, all pieces valued over 100 pounds, was inherited by Queen Elizabeth. In 1942, the Queen wrote to Queen Mary:
I must tell you that Mrs Greville has left me her jewels, She has left them to me ‘with her loving thoughts,’ dear old thing, and I feel very touched, I don’t suppose I shall see what they consist of for a long time, owing to the slowness of lawyers & death duties etc, but it is rather exciting to be left something, and I do admire beautiful stones with all my heart.”
When the jewels arrived to the Queen a few months later, there was much unwanted press attention on the contents of the initialled black trunk, which included the Greville Diamond Tiara, an Emerald Tiara, the Festoon Necklace, the Diamond Chandelier Earrings, Emerald Earrings, a Ruby Necklace, two Emerald Necklaces, Ivy Leaf Clips, Diamond Bow Brooch, and a pair of Pearl Earrings, alongside several spectacular Diamond Earrings, Necklaces, Brooches and Bracelets, the true extent of which has never been publicly revealed.
Unlike the Greville Diamond Tiara, Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara remained relatively unknown until Vincent Meylan discovered an image of the Tiara in the Boucheron archives.
The Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara remained unworn until Princess Eugenie stepped out of the 1977 Rolls Royce Phantom VI with the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara glittering atop her Peter Pilotto and Christopher De Vo gown for her Wedding to Jack Brooksbank at St. George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle.
Princess Eugenie paired the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara with a pair of diamond and emerald drop ear-rings which were a Wedding gift from the Groom.
After the Wedding, the Greville Emerald Kokoshnik Tiara and the Wedding Earrings went on public display, with the rest of the wedding outfits, at Windsor Castle in the Spring of 2019, but has not been seen since!
Greville Emerald Tiara | Wedding Earrings | Queen Adelaide’s Ears-of-Wheat Brooches
