#koechert

[tiaramania]

TIARA ALERT: Countess Leonie von Waldburg-Zeil-Hohenems wore a diamond necklace tiara for her wedding to Count Caspar Matuschka at St. Karl Borromäus Church in Hohenems, Austria on 22 June 2024

[tiaramania]

Amethyst Tiaras

Amethyst Tiara, circa 1830

Marchioness of Tavistock's Amethyst Tiara by Fossin, circa 1830

Amethyst & Pearl Tiara by Nils Hedenskog

Amethyst Wreath Tiara by Köchert, circa 1835

Amethyst & Diamond Tiara by Cartier, circa 1900

Fouché d'Otrante Amethyst Tiara by Koch, circa 1910

Princess Marie of Denmark’s Amethyst Lily Tiara by Flora Danica, 2011

Tiara Materials 13 of ∞

[tiaramania]

Peridot Tiaras

Habsburg Peridot Parure Tiara by Köchert, circa 1820

Peridot & Seed Pearl Tiara, circa 1830

Peridot Tiara, circa 1890

Queen of Sheba Tiara by Lydia Courtielle, 2016

Lotus Tiara by Aril Jewels, 2023

Tiara Materials 8 of ∞

[tiaramania]

Empress Elisabeth of Austria’s Emerald Ivy Tiara by Köchert is honestly stunning! What happened to it?

I know frustratingly little about Empress Elisabeth's jewels but I at least know the origins of this one. The tiara was part of a larger emerald parure made by Köchert in 1878 from jewelry that already belonged to the Austrian Imperial Family.

Some of the Austrian jewels were stolen and some of them were sold.  I’m not sure exactly what happened to the emerald parure but it doesn’t seem to exist anymore.

[tiaramania]

I have heard that the Pearl Tiara of Sissi’s daughter and the Peridot Tiara of Archduchess Isabella are now at the Albion Arts Museum in Japan . Is this true?

Not that I'm aware of but it's hard to know exactly what's part of the Albion Arts Institute. They don't feature anywhere near all of their inventory in their virtual museum and sometimes they sell certain pieces to buy others. None of the tiaras here are in the virtual museum or on any of their social media so I'm going to guess that they don't currently own them but it's possible.

Archduchess Isabella’s Peridot Parure Tiara was made by Köchert circa 1825. The only reference I could find to Albion owning it was this blog from 2014 which is not really a good enough source for me to say that it definitely belongs to them. The parure was last publicly sold at Sotheby’s in 2001 and was bought by Fred Leighton.  Then the earrings and brooch were sold again in 2012 at Christie’s but the tiara was not included. (x)

I’m not sure which of Archduchess Marie Valerie’s pearl tiaras you mean.  The first one was made by Köchert circa 1890 and was sold at Dorotheum in 2019 for 442,500 EUR to an unknown buyer.  It wouldn’t surprise me if Albion bought this but I would have expected them to make it public by now.

The second pearl tiara owned by Archduchess Marie Valerie was made by Köchert in 1913.  It was last publicly sold at Christie’s in 2005 for 252,000 CHF.  I’ve seen some Pinterest pins (that sounds awkward) that say that it was bought by Albion but when it’s been part of exhibitions in the last decade or so it’s been credited as belonging to the Qatar Museum Authority.  They’ve become big buyers of historic jewelry in recent years but like Albion they change out their inventory so it’s possible that it’s was first bought by Albion in 2005 and later sold to the Qatar Museum Authority.

So I guess my answer is a big bunch of maybe?

[tiaramania]

Tiara Possibly Owned by Empress Elisabeth Up for Auction

Marylou Whitney’s Ruby & Diamond Floral Tiara is being auctioned at Sotheby’s on December 9th in New York for an estimated 100,000-200,000 USD.  The tiara was made in the mid-1800s and consists of rubies and diamonds set in silver and gold.  The flowers are en tremblant meaning they are set on springs so they move with the wearer.

Whitney was an American socialite, racehorse owner, and avid jewelry collector who passed away in 2019.  She claimed that the tiara belonged to Empress Elisabeth “Sisi” of Austria. From The New York Times,

Mrs. Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney is “terribly happy” with hers, once owned by the Empress Elisabeth of Austria, wife of Emperor Franz Josef. “It wasn't one of the Empress's major tiaras,” Mrs. Whitney said candidly. “It was just an everyday tiara but when you wear it, inside you feel absolutely great. A tiara moves up a lady greatly.” The everyday tiara has 1,900 diamonds (weighing 180 carats) and 75 rubies and is shaped into wild roses and sparkling dew drops. It is set on little springs “to wiggle a little with a lovely movement when I walk.” Mrs. Whitney pins her tiara on with four bobby pins and then forgets she has it on. “I enjoy wearing it because it's light and so well distributed. A heavy tiara can ruin a woman's evening,” she said. (x)

Prior to the tiara being bought by Cornelius Vanderbilt Whitney in 1952 it was owned by Harry Winston and was part of his ‘Court of Jewels’ touring exhibition that raised money for local charities from 1949-1953.  There it was labeled the Austrian Diadem saying that it was from the time of Emperor Franz Joseph but did not say that it belonged to Empress Elisabeth.  

Ursula from Royal Magazin, who is my go to expert on Austrian jewels, doesn’t think that the tiara belonged to Empress Elisabeth but she did find a design sketch by Köchert that is similar to the tiara meaning it’s very possible that the tiara belonged to someone at the Austrian Imperial Court even if it didn’t belong to the Empress herself. (x)

Sotheby’s language is very careful not to say that the tiara belonged to Sisi instead stating that Whitney claimed it did.  To me this means that they don’t have any proof that it belonged to the Empress but want to mention it because it will drive up the price. 

[tiaramania]

Hey there. I love your blog and website! Thanks for all the free information you gather. I hate to be that guy, but I noticed that sometimes in posts and tags regarding the jeweller Köchert, you use Kochert instead. It is totally reasonable if your language doesn't use the ö to want to avoid it, but the correct replacement for ö is oe, not o. I know this seems minor, but it makes a HUGE difference for pronunciation and meaning. (Like the famous schwül - schwul). Thanks again for all you do!

Thanks!  I have no idea how to make the symbol above the o with my keyboard.  When I want it there I go to google type Kochert find an entry that says Köchert then copy and paste it back to where I want it.  I do the same thing with née to get the symbol above the e.  I looked back at my posts because I do want to have the correct spelling and they all had the umlaut (I learned that word from an episode of Psych) but I’ll be extra careful in the future to remember it.  I’m not sure what to do about the tags because Tumblr is weird about having special characters in the tags and I want people to be able to find my posts.  I thought I would just put both Kochert and Köchert in the tags but it doesn’t let me paste a tag.  I think I”ll put Kochert and Koechert both in the tags because people aren’t going to know to search for Koechert.