My gosh, Fabiola's jewel collection is like a peek into Ali Baba's cave of treasures! Those emeralds! That Waterfall brooch!
King Baudouin showered his beloved queen with many jewels during their life together, but I think the very elaborate pieces like that magnificent parure of emeralds came from Heads-of-State during overseas visits.
The Waterfall was a 55th birthday gift from Baudouin to Fabiola. I am so thrilled that it is now in Mathilde's collection.
I loved her style and that hair???? Cracks me up!
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King Baudouin showered his beloved queen with many jewels during their life together, but I think the very elaborate pieces like that magnificent parure of emeralds came from Heads-of-State during overseas visits.
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And the green stones on her tiara are they emeralds ?Where are they coming from ??
She received this tiara with red stones , wore it also with green stones (emerald?) and finally with aigue marines.
Christophe Vachaudez, an expert who wrote a book on the Belgian royal jewels, described these as "green stones polished as cabochon", hinting that these are "just" semi-precious stones and not at all emeralds. The difference between emeralds and Queen Fabiola's "green stones" are clear:
Cabochon emeralds (diadem Count Henckel von Donnersmarck)
Cabochon green stones (collier Queen Fabiola of the Belgians)
It is clear why Christophe Vachaudez remained careful. It does not look like emeralds at all.
The Spanish tiara originally had two set's of coloured stones, red and green. They were thought to be rubies and emeralds, but at least one of the sets was later found out to be paste. Now some people say that Fabiola stopped wearing these stones then. Other sources tell the Franco, on being informed about this, replaced them with real stones.Marengo is right Princess Lilian's gave her Brooch as engagement present to Donna Fabiola.
Princess Lilian gave the year before half moon with pearl earrings to Donna Paola as engagement present . She wore them her whole life!
But the lighting [in photographs] make it impossible to judge.. for example the stones in the Cambridge necklace, [certainly Emeralds] look VERY like the cabouchons in Queen Fabiolas necklace..
The Spanish tiara originally had two set's of coloured stones, red and green. They were thought to be rubies and emeralds, but at least one of the sets was later found out to be paste. Now some people say that Fabiola stopped wearing these stones then. Other sources tell the Franco, on being informed about this, replaced them with real stones.
The story goes that the original owner, the dukes of Medinaceli, had loaned this tiara to a monastry, where it adorned the head of a madonna statue. There seems to have been some confusion over the ownership, it seems the nuns saw it as a gift. So they sold the coloured stones and replaced them with paste. When the Medinaceli reclaimed the tiara, nobody remembered that the stones were fake, it was sold like that to Franco.
That is also the version that I believe to be true. Franco certainly wouldn't want anybody to think that he was stingy and giving fake presents. He was honour bound to replace the stones, and so he did. But the other version, that the stones are still fake, is still circling around. Probably it was fed by the fact the Fabiola only wore the aquamarines in her later years.As far as I know, the fake set was replaced with real stones. Most sources on the web cite that version,
That is also the version that I believe to be true. Franco certainly wouldn't want anybody to think that he was stingy and giving fake presents. He was honour bound to replace the stones, and so he did. But the other version, that the stones are still fake, is still circling around. Probably it was fed by the fact the Fabiola only wore the aquamarines in her later years.
Duc et Pair, the Cambridge stones ARE Emeralds too.. but they are not 'see-through' either..
with expert Christophe Vachaudez
Although king Baudouin gave his wife some lovely jewels I doubt he could & was willing to spare several millions to buy them. It would be very much out of character as the couple was modest and often preferred to donate money to religious projects. Considering the sum would be gigantic if the stones are emeralds, I also doubt that king Baudouin would buy them on a whim while he was visiting Tunesia for 3 days. Even rich people tend to think twice before they spend a few million.