The Countess of Suffolk, born as Miss Marguerite Hyde Leiter—better known as Miss Daisy Leiter and the sister of Lady Curzon, Vicreine of India, is pictured with her Cartier sun tiara as stomacher around the year 1905.
Cartier's first sun tiaras date from 1904 and were delivered to J.P. Morgan in New York and the Countess of Suffolk, see the picture.
The radial glittering head ornament are probably in the tradition of the Baroque Theatre of goddesses.
The Queen of the Night in Mozart's "Zauberflöte" was one of the last representatives of this pagan spirit world to be seen on a stage in the Enlightenment era.
The Sun tiara was based on the form of the kokoshnik. Sunbeams made of diamond radiate from a central point close to the hairline, most of them circumscribed within aflat ellipse called a "sun". Several of these ellipses may be place on top of each other, in which case one speaks of several suns.
In London Cartier's were still designing sun tiaras in the 1920s some of which were set with a large center stone ab seen above.
Sun tiaras are recorded from the beginning of the nineteenth century. At the 1889 Paris Exhibition the jeweller Vever had made a model containing a 54 carat diamond.
Marguerite Hyde Leiter 1879–1968 known as Daisy, married Henry
Molyneaux Paget Howard 1877–1917 , 19th Earl of Suffolk and 12th Earl
of Berkshire. The daughter of a multi-millionaire retail magnate, Daisy
was one of many high-profile American heiresses. Once
described as ‘Daisy with the violet orbs…the loveliest eyes in
Washington’, with her marriage, she joined the ranks of these so-called
‘Dollar Princesses’.
Following her marriage, the new Countess came to live at the Howard
family’s ancestral seat at Charlton Park in Wiltshire. After the early
death of her husband in the First World War, she split her time between
Britain and America.
Later, the Dowager Countess personally acquired a group of paintings
from the Howard family’s ancestral collection as security on a loan she
made to her son, the 20th Earl of Suffolk. On her death at the age of
89, the terms of Daisy’s will made it possible for the paintings to be
given to the nation and it is these that are today known as The Suffolk
Collection.
Above we see the Countess of Sufffolk, pictured in wearing, the Cartier Sun Tiara.
As well we noted a pendant of two pearls to form a heart-shaped ornament surrounded with brilliants. The costly pendant is still worn by the future Countesses of Suffolk.
On her wrist there is pinned a diamond cluster brooch with two pendants and large diamond
navettes.
Source:https://charltonparkestate.com/; Morning Leader;North Wilts Herald ; The Scotsman;
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