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Aristocracy
Coming Up · Aristocracy · Archaeology · Art · London
From 1 to 7 October the royal jewellers Wartski, at 60 St James's in London, will be showing a 2,000-year-old sky-blue ring of solid sapphire, which could go for over £500,000
From 1 to 7 October the royal jewellers Wartski, at 60 St James's in London, will be showing a 2,000-year-old sky-blue ring of solid sapphire, which could go for over £500,000. One of the most famous intaglios in the world is believed to
NB! · Aristocracy · Observations · Humour
My thoughts when yet another barely acquainted person begins to tell me about his "noble roots"
Aristocracy · Art · Observations · Mores
Do you know what is curious?
Do you know what is curious? The daughters of Sergei Ivanovich Shchukin by different women, Ekaterina and Irina, were both married to Counts Keller. The elder married the bibliophile Mikhail Pavlovich, and the younger his nephew, and from that marriage was born André-Marc Delocque-Fourcaud, one of the organisers
Aristocracy · Art · Mores · People · Humour
Count Hartig with his wife Eleonora as Roman Charity in a painting by Barbara Krafft
An unequal match, you say? The President of the Royal Bohemian Society of Sciences, friend of Emperor Joseph II, seasoned diplomat, civil servant, and man of letters and poet of acknowledged standing in Europe, Franz de Paula Anton Count von Hartig (1758-1797), is suckled at the breast of his
Aristocracy · Heritage · Mores
Wheeled library armchair of Prince Nikolay Borisovich Yusupov made by his serfs
The working chair of Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov, made by his serfs. Nikolai Borisych loved rarities and everything he had spotted on his many journeys (he visited the courts of numerous monarchs and counted Voltaire and Saint-Germain among his friends), and he would bring these things home and try
Aristocracy · Architecture · Moscow · Observations · Nature
Prince Nikolay Yusupov and the bitter orange trees in the Arkhangelskoye orangeries
When I wrote that Arkhangelskoye has nothing in common with Versailles, I was slightly mistaken. Prince Nikolai Borisovich Yusupov, great-grandson of the first baptised Yusupov, Abdul-Murza (Dmitry Seyushevich in baptism), who was himself a great-grandson of the founder of the line, the ruling sultan of the Nogai
Aristocracy · Architecture · Moscow · Museums · Observations
Arkhangelskoye, the Yusupov estate museum, at 100 and its comparison with Versailles
Arkhangelskoye was one of the first museum-estates in the country, and this year the museum marks its centenary. It must be said that both the parks and the palace building are in excellent condition. On several occasions, however, I have heard the estate of the Princes Yusupov called the
Aristocracy · Archive · Observations · Mores · Humour
When I am told that I love animals too much and people too little, I remember the Duchess of Leuchtenberg, of whom it was said that, rising at 11 in the evening, she did not sleep until 9 in the morning, kept 8 dogs, and at night ordered the livers to be
When I am told that I love animals too much and people too little, I remember the Duchess of Leuchtenberg, of whom it was said that, rising at 11 in the evening, she did not sleep until 9 in the morning, kept 8 dogs, and at night ordered the livers
Aristocracy · Art · Mores · Pop Culture
The emerald tiara of Katarina Henckel von Donnersmarck, sold in Geneva in 2011
The emerald tiara with 11 large yellow cushion-cut diamonds belonging to Katharina Henckel von Donnersmarck is usually described as the most sumptuous diadem ever owned by a person not of royal blood. Jewels of this kind are what the newspapers like to gossip about. The story of this gem
Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Moscow · Heritage
Holographic copy of Irina Yusupova's lost tiara, a wedding gift of 1914
The most emblematic Chaumet jewel connected with Russia is the sun tiara created for Nicholas II's niece Irina Alexandrovna Romanova, acknowledged as one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe. In 1914 Irina married Felix Yusupov. The tiara was a gift from Princess Zinaida Yusupova, who had assembled
Aristocracy · Art · Monarchies · Museums
Parures of the early 19th century and Napoleon I's wedding gift to Marie-Louise
As such, parures reached the height of their popularity in the early nineteenth century: in the 1800s it was precisely sets of jewellery that adorned ladies in Europe's principal capitals. This fashion owed a great deal to the jewellers of the future house of Chaumet, which over its