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The personal jewelery formerly belonging to the late Empress of Russia.
This interesting jewel was a traditional Victorian mourning jewel belonging to Tsarina Alexandra. The tiara style hair comb with jet balls was a hair accessory of the time. She wore black, because she was in mourning of her father-in-law, the tsar.
Victorian jewelry made of black materials was always worn by those in mourning. This includes pieces made of jet, vulcanite, gutta-percha, and bog oak.
Jewelry worn during “first mourning,” the first months after the death of a loved one, had a matte black finish referred to as “dead black” by those seeking these items. Most all of these pieces were worn during mourning, how long depended upon the closeness of the deceased, and they had motifs and embellishments in accordance with mourning traditions.
We know for the Russian court that mourning was one year for the tsar. However, in 1894, tradition was broken for one day, for the birthday of the Dowager Tsarina which was the day of the wedding of Tsar Nicholas II and his bride, Princess Alix of Hesse-Darmstadt.
In a later variation of these pictures the details of the balls are transformed into pear-shaped pearls, but it was not black pearls.
Also shown above is this magnificent diamond riviere and matching diamond earrings, two pieces which were some of her earliest jewels worn by the Tsarina, as well as her talisman-like array of bracelets.
Grand Duchess Elisabeth Feodorovna (1864-1918), in a letter of 5 Nov 1884 to Queen Victoria, written before the marriage of her sister Princess Alix of Hesse to Emperor Nicholas II, described the wedding ceremonies and traditions of the imperial court. She also gives an insider’s glimpse of the family mourning the death of Alexander III, her brother-in-law. From Russia, Royalty & the Romanovs, opening at The Queen's Gallery, Palace of Holyroodhouse on 21 June 2019.
Sources:Memories of the Russian Court; Royal Collection; Russisches Staatsarchiv;
Thank you to Laura
for her help.
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