Royal order of satorial splendor full#

Sold by her grandson it's now back in the Louvre. It was a wedding present from her father-in-law William Viscount Astor. Her tiara had the historic 55 carat Sancy diamond as its central stone. Viscountess Nancy Astor in 1936, by Cecil Beaton. The Sancy was in the collection of Vasiliy Rudanovsky until 1828, when it purchased by Prince Demidoff for £80,000, and then sold to Indian Industrialist Sir Jamsetjee Jeejeebhoy for £100,000 in 1865, and sold the following year and being exhibited at the Paris Exposition in 1867 before disappearing for a few decades. The Sancy Diamond remained a part of the until the French Revolution and the famous theft of the Royal Treasury in 1792, when it was stolen along with many famous diamonds.

It eventually came into the possession of the future King James II, who was forced to sell it in exile Cardinal Mazarin in 1657, who bequeathed the diamond to the latter’s cousin, King Louis XIV of France in 1661.

The Sancy Diamond was sold to James I around 1605, described in the Tower of London’s 1605 Inventory of Jewels as “…one fayre dyamonde, cut in fawcetts, bought of Sauncy,” and briefly set into his Mirror of Great Britain. Reportedly, a messenger carrying the Diamond never reached his destination, but de Sancy was convinced that of the man’s loyalty and searched his murdered body, where the jewel was found in his stomach. #sancy #sancydiamond #susanroland #nancyastor #blooddiamond #marieantoinette #diamond #rosecutdiamond #golconda #cartier #tiara #cartiertiara #diamondtiaraĪ post shared by Official Andrew Prince Jewels on at 11:33am PSTĬreated by Cartier around 1906, the Tiara features the legendary 55.23 carat Sancy Diamond, which comes from India, and was earliest recorded with Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, passing to his cousin King Manuel I of Portugal and being taken by António, Prior of Crato when he fled Portugal, selling the diamond to Nicolas de Harlay, the Seigneur de Sancy, who loaned it to King Henry III of France to decorate his cap and as security for financing an army. So now, after all it’s torturous, blood soaked and exciting journeys, it is safely at rest along with the remaining pieces of the French Crown Jewels within the Galerie D’Apollon in The Louvre, Paris. Here she is wearing it with an unusual arrangement of pearls…! Nancy died in 1964, and in 1978 the Fourth Viscount Astor sold the stone to the Banque de France and Musée de France.

It was also rumoured that he thought the diamond was cursed, so who better to give it to? Nancy was a woman of very strong views and drive, and in 1919 she became the first woman elected to sit as a Member of Parliament, a position she held until 1945. Apparently he did not much like Nancy and in the end did not attend the wedding. He had purchased the stone in Paris in 1892, a gift for his wife Mary, but sadly she died in 1894. She received the diamond as a wedding gift from her father in-law Viscount William Waldorf Astor. Anyway, the next picture is Nancy Longhorne Astor who married Waldorf Astor in 1906. It is a truly fascinating read and well worth getting.

Royal order of satorial splendor full#

I’m not going to go into the full history as it is too long, confusing and convoluted, but if you want to read up on it, I certainly recommend the book “The Sancy Blood Diamond” by Susan Ronald, published in 2004.

The stone has a long and fascinating history that may be traced back to 1398, when it was first mentioned in an inventory of jewels belonging to the daughter of the Duke of Milan. In the centre is the legendary 55.23ct Sancy Diamond. This is the Astor tiara, created by Cartier in about 1906.