Letizia, Princess of Asturias Jewellery 2: August 2007-June 2014


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The rubies are gorgeous as a necklace, but in my eyes the problem with the ruby tiara is, that they look so much like a necklace put on a frame. And be big velvet base underneath doesn't really help, imo. The double row version is definitely better than the single row, but a completely different design would be needed to turn them into a successful tiara.

could somebody please post a picture of Queen Sofia with the rubies as tiara?
Thank you.:flowers:
 
Thank you Warren. I spent some time on this beautiful thread - really nice.
Hm - now after reading a lot about the jewelry of the SRF, I am longing to see the new tiara, Felipe gave to Letizia.
 
On some Spanish forums there is more talk about the new tiara. The journalist Maria Angeles Alcazar obviously has talked about it on a Spanish TV programme. She said the new tiara was made out of old pieces of Queen Federica and other family jewellery which was rarely used. Ansorena's jewellers and Prince Felipe designed them into a piece that would suit Letizia's personality and taste.
I find this more and more intriguing. The first article about the new tiara definitely sounded as if it was a completely new piece. Now I wonder how much of the old settings was kept in the new tiara, or if they completely broke up the old things and only re-used the pearls and diamonds. It would be difficult anyway. If the diamonds are from different jewellery pieces, the size, cut, quality and even colour might vary.
What I also read on the same forum is, that the SRF are cutting back on state occasions because of the crisis. It really might take some time till we finally see the "Letizia Mystery Tiara". Too bad!
 
That bit about Frederika's old pieces sounds worrisome.You know, since I read that Anne Marie said that the big diamond tiara was still in the family and since it was not used by Tatiana as I expected , I was wondering that maybe Sophie inhetired but never used it because she found it too large for her taste. If that is the case, I hope she has not dismantled that piece to make a new tiara for Letizia - that would be a shame IMO :ermm:
 
:eek::previous:You scare me! The fate of that diamond tiara indeed is a mystery which I would like to be solved (without having to learn that is was broken up). But I just can't imagine that Queen Sofia would allow to break up on of the most important jewels of her mother. Besides there are no pearls in that tiara. Hopefully they took some less important jewellery.
I don't know enough about Queen Frederika's jewellery. Maybe there is a long un-seen corsage brooch? A corsage wouldn't be use much these days and it would be big enough to provide for a small new tiara.
 
Well, there is a convertible diamond and pearl tiara/ necklace, (currents whereabouts unknown) that Frederika wore as a necklace and Irene as a tiara. But I always assumed that Irene inherited that piece along with the circle tiara. And also a diamond necklace that she wore for her first official portraits and at her wedding. She never wore it after Paul ascended to the throne I believe. Maybe that necklace is the "old piece" they are reffering to? Here is a pic of the necklace http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Paul_and_Frederica_of_Greece.jpg
 
What a crime, if they really took these apart! Especially the pearl necklace/tiara makes too nice a tiara to change it. And if it is still in the family, I don't understand why it was never used.
 
What a crime, if they really took these apart! Especially the pearl necklace/tiara makes too nice a tiara to change it. And if it is still in the family, I don't understand why it was never used.

Perhaps it's still in Irene's posession. As she never attends white tie events it would explain why it never worn.
 
It is a fact that Princess Irene doesn't attend banquets nowadays and she could have hidden the tiara in a box deciding to will it out to a nephew or niece. It is also possible though that she sold it privately years ago, to raise money for her charities - these where my two guesses. However , after reading Tilia C.'s post I started thinking again, because there is a mention about old pieces from Queen Frederica. I have been looking lately in old photos to found out more of her jewellery and I notice that only a few pieces are not currently used by her children and grandchildren and I don't know what happened to them : the large Prussian tiara, the convertible pearl necklace , a large ruby brooch that belonged to her mother-in-law, the diamond necklace I mentioned above, some long pearl necklaces and few diamond brooches and earrings. I have no idea which of these pieces could be hiding in Sofia's collection without been seen all these years. But Irene perhaps owned a pearl tiara and given she might use some extra cash (given her charity works or her cancer treatment) she might have asked her sister to buy the tiara. Letizia could have found it unflattering or out of style (I always thought it was too pointy) , so they dismantled in, along with some diamond pieces belonging to Queen Frederica / Queen Ena / the Countess of Barcelona to get some diamonds and make a tiara that "would fit Letizia's personality and taste" .
And now I guess I should stop guessing before confusing everyone else in the forum with my theories. :D
 
I like to read your theories, snowflower:flowers:! But my own theory is that Queen Sophia would never dismantle such important historic jewels as the grand diamond tiara or the pearl tiara/necklace, even if she had them in her possession. She is too conscious about keeping her royal heritage, imo. Also it wouldn’t make much sense to dismantle a tiara in order to create a new tiara (QEII has done so, but not successfully!!). My reason for thinking about a corsage was that they are hardly ever worn anymore, so no-one would really miss it. But when looking at pictures of Queen Frederica, I only noticed the corsage brooch from the emerald parure, which is still worn by Queen Anne-Marie. The new tiara might also be made up of smaller jewels like brooches or bracelets. I assume that a Queen like Frederica had jewels in her possession, some of which she might never have worn when being photographed.
 
I like the idea if Letizias new tiara consists of recycled pieces from Sofias family, much better than a new tiara without any history.
Looking forward to seeing it but I dont think that its the right time now.
 
Just one thought - I would expect the GRF to have sold some of the less important jewelry for making some living during their exile - don't you thinkg so? King Konstantine said during the interview that the first years of the exile (Rome...) have been difficult in financial terms..
 
:previous:
Hmmm, but then we should have heard about this Royal Jewels Sale.... every major auction house would have advertized with this royal past, as this guarantees a higher final price. And normally one "impressing" piece must be included (such as a tiara) to even increase raising the interest.

The only other option could be, that rich Greek Royalists offered them some financial support in the beginning and therefor received some of the lesser valuable pieces as a "thank you" reimbursement.
BYe Bine

Nevertheless I just can´t wait to see her with her new Tiara -- and I hope this will happen soon.... now, as the information is spread already, she well may wear it.....
Bye Bine
 
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:previous:
Hmmm, but then we should have heard about this Royal Jewels Sale.... every major auction house would have advertized with this royal past, as this guarantees a higher final price. And normally one "impressing" piece must be included (such as a tiara) to even increase raising the interest.
The auction is not that recent, it happened in the 70s a little after the referendum if I remeber correctly and it included one pretty impressing piece - Queen Marie of Romania's large sapphire and also a fine riviere necklace (that was an inheritance by Empress Frederick I believe), so a tiara was not perhaps neede to attract attention. However I would like to find out about the full list of items included in the catalogue.
 
Nevertheless I just can´t wait to see her with her new Tiara -- and I hope this will happen soon.... now, as the information is spread already, she well may wear it.....
Bye Bine
I hope that too ! Since the story is linked why should she not wear it not, even with the recession? People now know she has it so she might as well do as a favour and wear ti to admire it ;).
 
Thanks for the link but there was very little information on the jewels of either of the Kings sisters .
I saw today in another forum some pictures of Pilar and Margarita wearing tiaras. I'll post them in the other thread.
 
Finally a picture of the tiara!!
But I don't know what to make of this story!? Obviously previous information has been wrong: It was not ordered by Prince Felipe but it was an idea of Ansorena which dates back to the wedding. Nor is it made up of unused family jewels. If I understand the article correctly the tiara was completed in 2006. But Hola skillfully avoids mentioning if it was purchased by Felipe or if it was a present from Ansorena.
The fleur-de-lys brooch which Letizia sometimes wore on her order ribbon is the central part of the tiara. When did she start wearing this brooch? I think it was before the financial crises, so why didn't she wear the tiara?
By the way, Hola makes a mistake in the article: they say that so far Letizia only wore the flora and the Prussian tiara. But as we know also has worn the Mellerio shell tiara.
Actually I'm not sure what to think about the design. I expected something insubstancial, but to me it lacks detail and inspiration. Maybe it improves on me by being worn?
 
Hmmm, Tilia, I see your point. It seems simple in design but maybe thats a good thing. I love the pearls, even though Princess Letizia does not seem to wear much pearls. Some earrings a couple of times is all.

I cant wait to see it on her......!!!
 
If this is the tiara indeed the media has been speculating about it is simple but lovely and very suitable for Letizia's style, she would look horrible wearing the big tiaras of Queen Sofia (that suit her and her shape of face very well).

What I wouldnt find suitable is Letizia wearing it during her time as CP, the Fleur de Lys is the symbol of the Spanish Kings and it should only be worn on a Queen's head (Sofia only wears her Fleur de Lys tiara on very rare occasions and has never passed it to anybody else).
 
If this is the tiara indeed the media has been speculating about it is simple but lovely and very suitable for Letizia's style, she would look horrible wearing the big tiaras of Queen Sofia (that suit her and her shape of face very well).

What I wouldnt find suitable is Letizia wearing it during her time as CP, the Fleur de Lys is the symbol of the Spanish Kings and it should only be worn on a Queen's head (Sofia only wears her Fleur de Lys tiara on very rare occasions and has never passed it to anybody else).
I don't share this opinion :flowers: . The Fleur de Lys is the symbol of the Borbóns, not of the King. Letizia has worn a Fleur de Lys brooch before(in fact, the centre of this tiara, that is detachable) and the other day she wore a fan with many little Fleur de Lys on it. This is not the Queen Tiara, like the Fleur de Lys tiara that belonged to Victoria Eugenia and only the Queens have worn.
 
I think it's a great design for Letizia-sort of delicate and elegant but not too plain and boring. Love love love the pearls and hope she gets a chance to wear it in public soon (hopefully with a really fantastic red gown!!):flowers::);)
 
It's nice, I like her new tiara. It's simple which is good since she's crown princess she has a simple fleur de lys tiara, and when she's queen she'll have an extravagant one and then Letizia could pass this one too Leonor and start a tradition of sorts. :)
 
I don´t like the new tiara is very simple. When they bought the tiara?
 
I think it's delicate enough for Letizia's petite frame. Can't wait to wait to see her wearing it. She wore the Fleur de Lys as a brooch at Victoria's wedding.
 
According to the new article in Hola the tiara was an idea of the late owner of Ansorena (he died in 2006 and his successors completed the task). Hola does not give a precise time line, but Letizia wore the fleur-de-lys brooch from the tiara already in 2008. According to Hola the tiara was not an idea of Prince Felipe and he did not commission it. On the Spanish board Foro Dinastias there is a large discussion going on because all the contradicting information looks like the court is manipulating information. Maybe the court tries to pass it off as a present from Ansorena, in order to pacify the discussions about their spending too much money.
All this sounds like a thriller to me:
chapter 1: a wedding anniversary present commissiond for Letizia by her husband who is involed in the design
chapter 2: the tiara is made from recycled family jewels
chapter 3: the tiara is all new, a present from the jewellery house (by the way: Ansorena has tiaras for sale which are variations of the same design, so it is good advertisement for them.)
chapter 4:...???:cool:
 
I dont find anything special about the new tiara nor to i find the craftsmanship anything special. There are much nicer tiaras in the family collection. I agree its a delicate tiara & could look good on Letizia but cant judge till ive seen it on.
 
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