Where did the Romanovs' jewels disappear after the 1917 revolution?

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

Even Elizabeth II has a couple of old jewelry of the Russian imperial family.

Incredible in beauty and luxury, diamond, emerald and sapphire tiaras of the Romanov dynasty were well known to European monarchies. It's all about their unusual shape: most of the jewelry resembled an old kokoshnik headdress.

The fashion for "Russian dress" was introduced at court by Catherine II, and in the middle of the 19th century, under Nicholas I, this became mandatory. At official receptions, women began to wear tiaras with a national flavor - tiare russe, as they are called abroad.

Treasures of the House of Romanov, which the Bolsheviks were going to put up for auction. Found tiaras are in the center.

In addition, these were transformer jewelry that could be worn both as tiaras and as necklaces, as well as to replace pendant stones. This feature became the reason for the disappearance of most of the jewelry - what the members of the royal family could not take out, the Bolsheviks sold out in parts at auctions.

Gokhran employees remove stones from jewelry. 1923 g.

Vladimir tiara

Maria Pavlovna in a tiara with pearl pendants.

This decoration was ordered to his bride Maria Pavlovna in the 1870s by the Grand Duke Vladimir Alexandrovich, the younger brother of Emperor Alexander III. The tiara consists of 15 diamond rings with pearl pendants in the center of each.

Maria Tekskaya in a tiara with emerald pendants.

The Grand Duchess turned out to be one of the few Romanovs who managed not only to escape abroad after the 1917 revolution, but also to take out her jewelry.

Some of the treasures were transferred through the Swedish diplomatic mission in two pillowcases, and some were helped by a British diplomatic courier across the border. Among them was the Vladimir tiara, with which Maria Pavlovna did not part until her death in 1920, bequeathed to her daughter Elena, wife of Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark.

She, however, only a year later sells it to the British Queen Mary of Teck in order to improve her financial affairs.

Elizabeth II in the Vladimir tiara.

In Great Britain, emerald pendants are made for tiaras, which can be changed with pearl ones. Now the tiara is worn by Queen Elizabeth II, both with pearls and emeralds, or even "empty".

Elizabeth II in the Vladimir tiara without pendants. (Getty Images)

Sapphire tiara

Romanian Queen Maria and a portrait of Maria Pavlovna wearing a sapphire tiara.

The kokoshnik tiara with diamonds and huge sapphires, belonging to the wife of Nicholas I, Alexandra Fedorovna, was made in 1825. She also paired a brooch with pendants.

The tiara was inherited by Maria Pavlovna, and she remade it for Cartier in 1909, asking to give it a more modern shape. She also managed to take this jewelry out of Russia after the revolution, and also had to sell it to her children.

It went to the Romanian Queen Maria, a distant relative of the Romanovs, and the brooch was no longer included.

Romanian Queen Maria and Princess Ileana.

She practically did not part with the tiara, passing her daughter Ileana to the wedding. However, after World War II, a revolution took place in Romania and the royal family was expelled from the country. Ileana left with the tiara to the United States, where she sold it to a private person in 1950. The further fate of the jewelry is unknown.

Diadem with pink diamond

Tiara with a pink diamond and Princess Elizabeth in a wedding dress, wedding crown and this tiara, 1884.

Diamond Fund in the Moscow Kremlin; THE NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY

The diadem of Empress Maria Feodorovna, wife of Paul I, was made in the early 19th century in the form of a kokoshnik with a huge diamond. In total, the diadem contains 175 large Indian diamonds and more than 1200 small round cut diamonds. The central row is decorated with large free-hanging diamonds in the form of drops. This adornment, along with the wedding crown, was traditionally part of the wedding dress of royal brides.

This is the only original diadem of the Romanovs that remained in Russia as a museum piece - it can be seen in the Kremlin's Diamond Fund. It was this pink diamond that saved her from being sold, which art critics considered priceless.

Diadem "Ears"

This is what the tiara looked like in the original. Photo taken for auction.

This original diadem also belonged to Maria Feodorovna. It consists of gold "spikelets of flax", adorned with diamonds, in the center of which is leucosapphire - a colorless sapphire that symbolized the sun.

One of his rare photos was taken in 1927 especially for the Christie’s auction, where the Bolsheviks sold Romanov jewelry. There is no information about this piece after this auction.

Diadem "Russian Field" from the treasury of the Diamond Fund. (Yuri Somov / Sputnik)

In 1980, Soviet jewelers made a copy of this diadem and named it "Russian Field". It is kept in the Diamond Fund.

Pearl diadem

Pearl diadem and the wife of the Duke of Marlborough Gladys in it.

Jewelry with pearl pendants was ordered by Emperor Nicholas I for his wife Alexandra Feodorovna in 1841. After the auction in 1927, the tiara changed several private owners: Holmes & Co., British 9th Duke of Marlborough, First Lady of the Philippines Imelda Marcos.

Most likely, the diadem now belongs to the government of the Philippines.

Diadem "Russian beauty". (Sergey Pyatakov / Sputnik)

The Diamond Fund has a copy of this 1987 Russian Beauty jewelry.

Large diamond tiara

A large diamond diadem and Alexandra Feodorovna wearing it at the opening of the State Duma.

This large diadem with elements of the then popular “lover’s knot” ornament was made in the early 1830s also for Alexandra Feodorovna. It was decorated with 113 pearls and dozens of diamonds of different sizes. It was in it that the last empress, also Alexandra Feodorovna, was captured by photographer Karl Bulla at the opening of the State Duma.

The Bolsheviks decided that this diadem was of little artistic value and sold at auction. Since there is no information about the subsequent owner, most likely, the tiara was sold out in parts.