Princess Natalie Paley | Imperial Romanov Emeralds

Important Jewelry From a Family Collection Inherited From Mrs. John C. Wilson - Princess Natalie Paley, daughter of Grand Duke Paul Romanov, the brother of Tsar Alexander III. of Russia.

Above in two pictures we see Princess Olga Paley, the 2nd wife of Grand Duke Paul in the traditionell russian Boyaryshnya costume, probably for a costume ball at the russian court. The kokoshnik covered with veil and a net of pearls and lace of pearls. Five rows of pearls are seen on her neck.

The broderie is made of gold, pearls and gems, the gems most are emeralds. As large buttons she wore two emeralds in the same style of the bracelet which her daughter owned, made from older emeralds from Carter in 1940.

 

She was born Countess Natalia Pavlovna von Hohenfelsen in 1905, and was the daughter of Grand Duke Paul Alexandrovich, uncle of the last Russian Czar, Nicholas II. She escaped Russian with her mother and sister and lived in exile in Paris during the 1920s. Her mother could sell some of her famous jewels for a house in France. Probably some lesser items are gone to her and her sister Princess Irina Pavlovna Paley.

 

There is no evidence of that, but Princess Natalie made up for lost treasures. She moved to London and modeled for Steichen and Horst and Beaton, and while there she met Broadway John C. “Jack” Wilson, business partner of Noel Coward, Alfred Lunt, and Lynn Fontanne. Wilson and Natalie were married in 1937 at his home in Fairfield, Connecticut.

Princess Natalie Paley, in black and white, in the background, was undoubtedly one of the 20th Century’s most stylish women.

 

GOLD, EMERALD AND DIAMOND BRACELET, CARTIER

Of buckle design, composed of coiled gold links, the terminals set with a square-cut cabochon emerald and a sugarloaf emerald, accented with old mine and single-cut diamonds, gross weight approximately 58 dwts, internal circumference 5¾ inches, signed Cartier, partially numbered .882; circa 1940.