Worst Royal Jewels 2 - Page 5

jcbcode99 · #81 02-27-2008, 06:58 PM

Well, just looking at it (after shielding my eyes from the blinding glare of ugliness) the necklace, shown here so we don't have to go back and forth:
Crownprincess Margareta`s Necklace
and here,
lilian just for a second view (and a better image of the tiara)---

I think with the necklace, which is just really unattractive and unflattering (MAYBE Cate Blanchett could pull it off, but that's a stretch)--
I would take the two topmost blue-ish pieces that match and make them into earrings.The middle scarab on the necklace I would turn into a petite brooch or put it on a strand of the pearls.
As for the remainder, because the scarabs are all different sizes, there is a little bit of quandry because there would be a lack of symmetry in a single necklace. I think that it is difficult to know what to do with this piece (perhaps that is why it remains in this form) but the scarabs are very good size. I would probably just divide the scarabs and the pearl strands and have four seperate necklaces made.
I'm not a good photoshopper--perhaps someone can play??
As for the tiara, I don't have the first idea what to do to help it. It's not bad, but its not great. I'll bet money that it can be found nowhere on the Favorite Tiaras thread!!!

HRH Kerry · #82 02-27-2008, 07:51 PM

If the tiara sat on the head like a headband where the ends were behind the ears vice atop the head, I think it could be lovely.

LadyCat · #83 02-27-2008, 08:02 PM

The tiara can also be worn as a necklace, scroll down the page in the second link Janet posted. I have to say it looks even worse worn around the neck.

Cat

HRH Kerry · #84 02-27-2008, 08:22 PM

LadyCat,
I think I kinda like it as a necklace. I think?

Its not bowling me over but it isn't bad.

LadyCat · #85 02-27-2008, 08:39 PM

And that is the beauty of TRF - we all have differing opinions. Gotta luv it! I have a 100 inch strand of black pearls that I love and my daughter hates. She thinks they are ugly -- as if!

At any rate, if someone held a gun to my head and said I had to wear it (haha

) I think I would have to go with the tiara form. The necklace seems too awkward to me.

Cat

Thomas Parkman · #86 02-27-2008, 09:12 PM

Nose plugs, that what you should use the ugly thing for. Nose plugs or those Hindu thingies where they glue a gemstone to the side of the nose. The thing is revoltingly hideous. Those teeensy weensy pearls look as if they came from constipated oysters. the rest of it looks like gum drops from a five and dime store in the slums of Nairobi.

If you must use it- I say sell it and take the funds and do something decent with them-help the starving of Dafour or send me a train car load of choclate or some such. I do not care for coubochon gemstones.

However, if you insist. Breat the thing up and make a series of necklaces with it using the large emerald, rubies or sapphire as a pendant on a chain of simple diamonds. Use the white stones-diamonds??? as earings and the rubies as well. The smaller emerald could be set in a ring??? (not a good idea). But anyway the whole thing together is just too tooooooo much. Cheers.

jcbcode99 · #87 02-27-2008, 09:14 PM

On Magnolia's site, lilian, it shows the tiara and says it can be worn as a necklace. Further down, there is a necklace that looks very similar--same shape and all, but are they the same? I'm not sure--the settings of the diamonds look very different--the tiara has a very stylized, laurel wreath kind of formation going on, and the necklace just looks like collet set stones to me--in the third row of pictures, in the first picture Princess Lilian is wearing the button tiara, in a blue gown, with some big diamond earrings--and the necklace in question. If you look at it, you'll see a ribbon/bow above the final drop--that is not present in the tiara form--
I'm not sure they're one in the same, but the style is so similar I'm afraid to make that definitive statement, especially since I've not seen the two worn together--

jcbcode99 · #88 02-27-2008, 09:30 PM

Found it! I didn't think they were the same--I finally, after much searching in my quest for the Worst Royal Jewels Thread (my favorite thread!!!) I found the Princess LIlian Jewlery thread: http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums...lery-4308.html

and posted by Larzen is this photo:
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums...6&d=1105381484
which shows Princess Lilian wearing both pieces at the same time--which leads to the conclusion that they are not the same piece. However, I would LOVE to see that awkward piece in necklace form!!!

And, dearest Thomas, I DO love the "constipated oysters" bit in your description of the seed pearls in the scarab necklace! I completely cracked up (which, incidentally is what should be done to this necklace)

but, I did have a thought--perhaps the scarabs could be altered in such a way that they could be (at whim) the centerpiece for a choker made from several strands of the pearls??

LadyCat · #89 02-27-2008, 09:49 PM

Mea culpa. Janet I believe you are 100% correct. I jumped to conclusions when I saw it stated that the tiara could be worn as a necklace, and assumed the pics below were showing it worn as a necklace. It didn't help that the "style" was in essence the same. On closer inspection you can tell the difference and I thank you for pointing it out to this blind blonde.

I'll have to see if I can find a pic of the tiara worn as a necklace. Maybe it does look better around the neck.

Cat

PS and we'll just call you Speedy!

LadyCat · #90 02-27-2008, 10:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Parkman

Nose plugs, that what you should use the ugly thing for. Nose plugs or those Hindu thingies where they glue a gemstone to the side of the nose. The thing is revoltingly hideous. Those teeensy weensy pearls look as if they came from constipated oysters. the rest of it looks like gum drops from a five and dime store in the slums of Nairobi.

I love it. I love it! I LOVE IT!! I just knew you would come up with an apt description of this necklace and the components thereof. The nose plugs and constipated oyster bits are new classics! Thomas you are the best!

jcbcode99 · #91 02-27-2008, 10:15 PM

Oh, LadyCat, purr-lease (couldn't resist!!!)--I've been looking at that photo of LIlian for a while wavering back and forth on whether the necklace was the tiara or vice versa. We were just lucky that someone posted a photo in the other thread! BUt, I do have to say that seeing the two pieces worn together in a harmonious fashion makes it look less bad--but it is still an odd looking piece. The necklace e isn't too bad-but again, nothing of Lilian's is in my favorites category--well, maybe those HUGE diamond drop earrings--did you see them! They were huge.

Thomas Parkman · #92 02-29-2008, 04:37 PM

You know, good people, we could do something truly cruel and paste the blasted ball of horror on the marvelous Lillian and then plop that scarab oyster constipation on Poor long suffering MII. do not get me wrong. I adore Lillian. I think she is wonderful. Just how wonderful lies in the fact that only she can pull off the six button diamond ghastly-imagine using the buttons off a dead man's uniform for a tiara-I don't care if they are diamonds. Cheers.

ellenw · #93 03-09-2008, 03:49 PM

You know, I think that QEII's Brazilian aquamarine tiara is one of the most monstrous things out there (it reminds me of an art-deco style auto dealership near where I grew up - not the kind of aesthetic leap you'd expect from a monarch's jewelry). But I love emerald-cut aquamarines, diamonds and platinum. I still dream of a ring I once saw in a jeweler's window in Italy ...

Anyway, my point is that I think that her aquamarine collection could be reset and made beautiful. The stones themselves are beautiful. I love the Napoleonic-era parures, particularly the sapphire ones of the French and the famous Leuchtenberg parure. I think that someone could reset those aquamarines in this particular style and make a gorgeous set out of them.

Am I crazy?

Thomas Parkman · #94 03-09-2008, 05:37 PM

I do not think it monstrous, but poorly designed. I agree with you, the gemstones are magnificent. The design of the piece is gangly, awkward and unbalanced. The tiara needs to be taken apart and redisigned with maybe some slight modification or recutting of the larger stones. The reconstruction needs more diamonds in it. Same for the necklace. Which is a pity, because the colour of the gems go so well with Lillian's complexion. As I have said before when QEII last wore the thing, she made the tiara, the tiara did not make her. Just goes to show that even the most marvelous gems in the world wasted in a mediocre or poor design are, well wasted.

I have always had a problem with the Nowegian emerald tiara. The large central emerald has always stuck out like a sore thumb in what is otherwise a wonderful masterpiece of the jewelers are. Now I realive the stone needs to be recut to have more sides to it, the emerald below it removed and the stone reset at an angle to match that of the other large gems on top of the jewel. Lovely. Cheers.

ellenw · #95 03-10-2008, 11:53 AM

Oh, I agree with you. With both that particular tiara and the Brazilian aquamarine monstrosity, having a prominently displayed, huge emerald-cut gemstone makes it look like the ladies are playing a high-class version of that poker game where you stick the playing card on your forehead.

I'd read somewhere that the Norwegian emerald tiara had been robbed of the two pear shaped emeralds which had once flanked the center stone in order to make the matching earrings. Bad move! At least there'd have been a graduated increase in size of the large gemstones, but now the center-cut gem stands alone. You have an artist's eye - it's completely out of balance now.

jcbcode99 · #96 03-10-2008, 12:50 PM

Complete and total agreement!
Here's a pic for all to see:
http://image54.webshots.com/54/3/17/...7VsFUvm_fs.jpg

It has never looked "right" to me--I think the stones are beautiful, but plunking that square stone down on top like that just doesn't work. Pity--
I do like this emerald tiara:
http://image54.webshots.com/54/1/42/...7xjIlEV_fs.jpg

However, I have always found this one to look odd:
Emerald & Diamond tiara from Westphalian noble family pictures from history photos on webshots
it appears to be two tiaras with one plunked down atop the other. The bottom one with the emerald is actually quite nice (I rather like the Greek Key design)

LadyCat · #97 03-11-2008, 01:23 PM

I have to agree the center emerald looks out of place and sticks out like a sore thumb. The tiara would have looked so much better had the design been continuous and the center emerald made into a lovely broach. Though it is by far not the worst tiara we've laid eyes on (Queen Margrethe's golden poppy hair net comes to mind

).

Cat

Thomas Parkman · #98 03-11-2008, 01:48 PM

Most interesting. I have known for some time that the earings to the parure were made with emeralds taken from the original tiara. It had to have been done during or before the 1930's. I wonder if a photo exists anywhere of the tiara in its original form. Then one could judge whether the origianal was unbalnce or not. Given the inherent elegance of jewels of that era, particularly of French construction, I dare say the origianal was in all likelihood balaced and much more elegant and beautiful with all of the gemstones that its present version. Cheers.

magnik · #99 03-11-2008, 01:50 PM

Two tiaras in one...doesn't look good.
Why don't separated them and do two?

jinigirl · #**100** 03-11-2008, 03:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thomas Parkman

Most interesting. I have known for some time that the earings to the parure were made with emeralds taken from the original tiara. It had to have been done during or before the 1930's. I wonder if a photo exists anywhere of the tiara in its original form. Then one could judge whether the origianal was unbalnce or not. Given the inherent elegance of jewels of that era, particularly of French construction, I dare say the origianal was in all likelihood balaced and much more elegant and beautiful with all of the gemstones that its present version. Cheers.

Here you can find very good photos of both versions
http://www.angelfire.com/la3/lone_mo...s_smaragd.html