Today marks the 95th Anniversary of the Death of Princess Paley, who passed away on this day in 1929! The noblewoman who had an affair with a widower Grand Duke and later became his morganatic wife, Princess Paley possessed some spectacular jewels, which included this splendid Princess Paley’s Cartier Aquamarine Tiara and Parure!
Princess Paley’s Cartier Aquamarine Parure | Princess Paley’s Pearl Corsage
A magnificent Aquamarine and Diamond Aigrette Tiara, an Aquamarine and Diamond Corsage Ornament, and an Aquamarine and Diamond Necklace were created by Cartier in 1912. The Parure was commissioned by Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich of Russia for his morganatic wife Countess Hohenfelsen around the time their marriage was recognised by Tsar Nicholas II and their family returned to Russia, and was given the title of Princess Paley.
The Tiara centring on a cushion-shaped aquamarine within an arched surround of interlaced open work scrolls millegrain set with circular- and rose-cut diamonds, surmounted by a pear-shaped aquamarine
The Corsage in the garland style centring on a cushion-shaped aquamarine drop within an open work millegrain surround of circular-, single- and rose-cut diamonds suspended from a pair of oval aquamarine brooches within open work lozenge shaped frames to a millegrain-set connecting chain
The Necklace in the garland style, centring on a cushion-shaped aquamarine within an openwork scroll frame of millegrain-set circular-cut diamonds, suspending a similarly set pear-shaped aquamarine drop, to a necklace designed as two graduated lines of circular-cut diamonds accented with a pair of circular aquamarine links,
Unlike her Cartier Pearl and Diamond Corsage and her Cartier Diamond Tiara, Princess Paley was not pictured wearing her Aquamarine Tiara and Parure. During the Russian Revolution, the Grand Duke and her son, Prince Vladimir Paley, were both executed by the Bolsheviks, though she retained most of her Jewels (which she had sent away with a diplomat, though any heirlooms in the bank were seized) in exile in Paris in the 1920s.
The Grand Duke and his wife were frequent clients at Cartier’s premises on the Rue de la Paix during their Parisian exile. They ordered, in addition to the jewels on offer here, a pair of opera-glasses, a magnificent diamond tiara and a diadem of Greek design.
The Cartier Aquamarine Tiara and Parure was auctioned at some point after her death in 1929, by her two daughters, Princess Irina and Princess Natalia, and bought by Demetrius Zafiropulo, a greek jewellery amateur, and was later inherited by his daughter, Fanny Zafiropulo Bouboulis, in 1959.
In 1963, the Cartier Aquamarine Tiara and Parure was worn by Euphrosyne Eugenidi, the wife of Michael Melas , the Greek Ambassador to the United Kingdom, for the Return Banquet hosted by King Paul and Queen Frederica of Greece at Claridge’s Hotel in London.
The Cartier Aquamarine Tiara and Parure remained in the Zafiropulo until it came up for Auction at Sotheby’s in Geneva in 2009, with the Tiara being sold for 566,500 CHF, the Corsage Ornament for 182,500 CHF, and the Necklace for 434,500 CHF.
Princess Paley’s Cartier Aquamarine Parure | Princess Paley’s Pearl Corsage
