Well Thomas, regarding the Leuchtenberg sapphires I agreee more with your first assessment: 'Drooling drop dead gorgeous'.
I'm glad to inform you that I consider my hair to be nobody's business but mine & my hairdresser's, but as it was you in the first place suggesting some kind of hair ornament for me (and Warren), excuse me for detecting a slight hint of ungratefulness in your latest reply as you don't seem to appreciate the mind-boggling process of very deep thinking I went through while digesting your suggestion.
Regarding feathers, I don't have the faintest interest in them and would be glad to see all of them end up on Queen Bea's hats - she needs each & every one feather which her mad hatters can lay their hands on!
By the way, as for your complaint about the Swedish sapphire tiara: I don't consider it 'top-heavy' at all - can you imagine a more stunning jewel to out-balance the tiara's sapphires than the parure's necklace? But the tiara really doesn't have a decent base. An earth-shattering desaster, really. But on one event, Queen Silvia outsmarted us all, obviously thinking of the same terrible problem, and trying to solve it by putting a diamond collet necklace around the tiara's base for more 'balance'. Here's the link from some Nobel ceremomy in the mid-80's:
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=3005&d=1046241817
Bottom line: The Swedish Leuchtenberg sapphires are indeed drop dead gorgeous, the very best around, and thus they represent everything this thread is NOT supposed to be about!
Let's get back to real desasters, and when it comes to sapphires, does anybody have a pic of the Wuerttemberg sapphire tiara which is such an ugly high 'whopper' that it would look good only on an elephant? Cheers, Boris