Well heck, we’ve had such a positive response to me simply slapping up the photo of this tiara that we might as well talk about it. Gasp! But she never speaks! Wow, we really enjoyed putting sarcastic words into your mouths. Yes! Those reverse tear-drop emeralds do look like Vick’s lozenges or a more appealing sort of Jolly Rancher…kudos to my gals who pointed that out.  Halloween ain’t over yet kids!

But what else is there to say about this sparkly corona that once belonged to a woman with an incredibly long name? Well, if you check on any other tiara site, they will all tell you the same thing. WORD FOR FUCKING WORD! Come on, get creative people and try to paraphrase instead of just cutting and pasting what showed up on the Sotheby’s website. Well, we write here…sometimes too much but–nyahhh!

Yes, the candy tiara sold at Sotheby’s Geneva for a shitload of samolians in 2011: $12.76 million. ( €11.91 million if you’re across the pond.) The tiara is popularly ascribed to Chamuet made around turn-of-the-Century thus raising a huge question-mark to the claims that it was originally owned by Eugénie de Montijo, Napoleon IIIs wife. By 1900, she was already living in exile and Napoleon III moved on to that great war-zone in the sky. Where’d the ex-Empress get the scratch? It doesn’t add up.

In reality it was commissioned by the first Prince Henckel von Donnersmarck aka Guido as a gift to his second wife Katharina Slepzow. (Why do the 2nd wives get all the bad-ass bling. Somebody remind me to become a second wife…)  The eleven pear-shaped emeralds are Colombian in origin and of a quality to which my soul can only aspire. Where the hell did that come from? Who here thinks your Blog Hostess is going to hell? If so, which ring?

At any rate, the emeralds boast a total carat weight of about 500 and detachable from their spires. Let’s face it, if one must drill into such a flawless stones, why not use a delightful diamond detail at each base to hold them? We dig that some have a sleek halo while other are reminiscent of flower stems but then again you can see it.

Hey, does this sound familiar? “This emerald and diamond tiara is of foliate and floral inspiration.” I found that on about 5 websites…you know who you are, also if you used the word ‘muguets.’

But enough of that, the base is just as impressive, an example of sublime gold-and-silver handiwork. Below the spires and the swooping festoons that attach them, we have eleven cushion-shaped diamonds set in place by alternating Lily-of-the-Valley designs. To further the bloom and leaf motif, the very base is fashioned as laurel leaves with rose and brilliant-cut diamonds sparking throughout.

All this talk about scrollwork, motifs and collet diamonds makes one fact certain: the emeralds really do look like candy!