Ah, day four of Amethysts Ahoy! Theme Week! This tiara is often referred to as “Queen Alexandra’s Mystery Tiara” but there’s nary a nebulous quality to it. Remember when I said that there’s something about the Queens of England and amethysts? Queen Mary wore her parure once then gave it to the Queen Mum who didn’t want it. Nor did her daughter, Elizabeth II. This prompted Stonebiscuit to comment “What is wrong with those Queens?” amongst some other hilarious things in her reply to Monday’s post.

Queen Alexandra‘s “Mystery” Amethyst Tiara: this picture doesn’t do it justice.
Queen Alexandra (the Queen-Consort of England who came before Mary of Teck) also had an amethyst tiara that wasn’t without its intrigue. These amethysts were also gifts from a tsar, Alexander III, though these Siberian aubergines were completely free of amorous overtures. There’s nothing like a no-cords-attached, good ol’ fashioned over-privileged emperor to over-privileged monarch lavishing of jewels, now is there? (The real question is, “How do We get in on that action”? Yeah, you know what I mean…)
Let’s defer to the description in Christie’s auction page:
The important diamond and amethyst tiara was composed of seven single oval amethysts graduating from the centre to lozm flowers, supported by twin leaves and single diamonds within a graduated oval diamond frame, each intersected by diamond bars, with single diamond tops, and supported by twin diamond semi-circles, with single line diamond base.
It wasn’t that Queen Alexandra disliked the tiara the way her successors Mary, Elizabeth & Elizabeth turned their noses up at the Mary of Teck’s Amethyst Parure. After Alix’s husband King Edward VII died in 1910, she became more and more solitary and quite uninterested in jeweled finery. (So sad to see a queen mother so blasé about gemstones!) The now-Dowager Queen was so disinterested that Alix died without a will. It’s generally believed her children divided her jewellery among themselves.
(What cannot be proven is whether the divvying up of Alix’s collection was amicable or elbows were thrown. I’m guessing the process wasn’t like an afternoon of backyard croquet but no black eyes were incurred either. But this is editorializing for humor.)
This amethyst tiara carried the moniker “mystery” for quite some time because, firstly, if someone was hitting the town in this the tiara, no one had seen it. Secondly, few people were aware that the Amethyst tiara had been passed down through the Fife line of the family. If you ask me, the real mystery is how all Alix’s tiaras managed to float atop that happenin’ Kid-n-Play flat-top hairdo she was always rockin’.
Queen Alexandra’s eldest daughter, Louise, Princess Royal and Duchess of Fife had taken the amethyst tiara as well as a sapphire necklace also gifted by Tsar Alexander III. Just like all great, lesser-known tiaras, There are no pictures of the Duchess of Fife wearing it, so here’s a few of the Princess Royal, in case you, uh, ever have to pick her out of a crowd. Okay, a textbook…that’s far less of an anachronistic speculation. To the left is the official portrait from her marriage Lord Alexander Duff, who was upgraded from Earl to Duke of Fife two days after the wedding. Doesn’t Alix look thrilled to be getting married? Yikes!

(left to right) A commemorative souvenir of the wedding; the London News headline: 27 July 1889 and another portrait where Alix doesn’t look quite so tortured.

In addition to the Mystery Amethyst Tiara, several other pieces of Alix’s jewellery were auctioned at Christie’s. The tiara fetched a mere £1750. Now, Alix’s tiara is on display in a museum in Germany. No mystery there either!
references
- Wikipedia, Wikipedia commons, some photo credits.
- The Scotsman: June 21 & June 27, 1946, editions.
Related articles
- Ahoy Day Three! the Almost-Adulterous Amethysts of Londonderry. (tiarasandtrianon.wordpress.com)
Alix looks probably so bored on her marriage photo because her corset is so tight. I wonder how she can breathe. She probably can’t. But the amethyst tiara is wonderful. 🙂
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Good point…she probably laced it “extra skinny” for her wedding. So either (1) there’s not enough oxygen going to her brain or (2) the corset squeezed the all blood upward to her head and she’s suffering a minor aneurism. Also might explain why they just keep giving tiaras away…
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“—Can you see our hat bows from space? …Good”
Mummy always dresses us this way for that very purpose.
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Hahaha! I’m so glad you noticed, that bit was my favorite in the whole post. I included it just to put that caption.
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we are dying to know what Maud of Fife needed the cash for that she snuck off to some auction house to get it listed in the catalog(ue)……….intriguing.
hope it was an early automobile and she drove it with Abandon (rather than paying for death duties and a new roof like most aristocrats)
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“Can you see our hat bows from space? …Good.”
The corset could be to blame for how the children are dressed, as well. 😉 These women look wasp-waisted, that couldn’t be healthy.
I like this picture: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Alexandra_of_UK_with_daughter_Victoria.jpg
Alexandra looks like she’s holding a Pekingese.
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Oooh! I do so very much enjoy a reply with visual aids! Ah the corset conversation…we’ve been there before! When I’m done with the amethysts, there is a two-part post highlighting that pesky undergarment coming down the pike!
Brace yourself (<- bad pun or good pun?) for plenty of organ-displacing, halitosis-causing details!
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