Mrs Greville, Mrs Keppel, Mrs Wales
Among the breathtaking gems we saw on display yesterday at the Diamonds: A Jubilee Celebration at Buckingham Palace were some bequeathed to her friend the late Queen Mother by the magnificent Dame Margaret "Maggie" Helen Grenville; the Peardrop Earrings and the Chandelier Earrings - the latter a set of earrings designed to show the greatest possible variety of modern cuts of diamond including half moon, trapeze, square, pear, baguette and emerald.
Several of the Greville jewels - part of a collection of sixty pieces in the Royal Collection - are often nowadays worn by Camilla. And therein lies a connection...
For Maggie Greville, an ultra-wealthy heiress in her own right, wife of the aristocratic Ronald Henry Fulke Greville and matriarch of the grand mansion of Polesdon Lacey [which we visited a few years back], was a close friend of George Keppel and his wife Alice. Mrs Alice Keppel was one of King Edward VII's favourite mistresses.
Alice's daughter Sonia married Roland Cubitt, a descendant of Thomas Cubitt (who was architect of the original house at Polesden Lacey). One of their daughters Rosalind was the mother of Camilla, former mistress of Prince Charles and now Duchess of Cornwall.
So one Royal paramour is now proudly wearing diamonds that were worn at grand occasions at which another was entertained.
The revenge of the courtesan?
An appropriate song, methinks...
The other diamonds on show are our latest "exhibit" in the Dolores Delargo Towers Museum of Camp
Would a "lovely stones" comment be inappropriate...?
ReplyDelete(I think I know the answer....)
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Square-cut or pear-shaped, these rocks don't lose their shape. Jx
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