She ordered to rebuild the delicate and exquisite Chaumet Garland Ruby Jewel, around the year 1942, to make a new choker from the Burma Rubies in Egyptian style with palmette.
THE VANDERBILT FAMILY JEWELS Jewels of Gladys Vanderbilt Countess Széchenyi
Gladys Moore Vanderbilt’s Cartier Diamond and Amethyst Tiara – and its Surviving Fragment
When Gladys Moore Vanderbilt (1886–1965), the youngest daughter of Cornelius Vanderbilt II and Alice Gwynne Vanderbilt, married Count László Széchényi of Hungary in 1908, her wedding became one of the most celebrated unions of the Gilded Age. To mark this transatlantic marriage, Alice Vanderbilt commissioned Cartier to create a magnificent diamond and amethyst tiara in the Belle Époque style.
The jewel was conceived as eight delicate sprays of lilies, rising gracefully above the bandeau, each set with old-cut diamonds. The innovative design allowed for interchangeable drops: either pear-shaped amethysts or similarly shaped diamonds could be suspended from the sprays, altering the tiara’s appearance according to occasion and fashion.
This tiara was more than a personal adornment; it symbolised the Vanderbilt family’s ambition and their determination to translate American industrial wealth into European aristocratic prestige. Gladys, one of the last of the great American heiresses of her generation, embodied this transfer of fortune and status across the Atlantic.
In the years that followed, the tiara was eventually dismantled-a fate not uncommon among great jewels of the period, as changing styles and inheritance divided once-cohesive parures into smaller, wearable pieces. Yet fragments survived, carrying with them echoes of their original splendour.
One such surviving jewel has now resurfaced: a Cartier diamond brooch, designed as a single lily spray, set with an old-cut pear-shaped diamond weighing 4.55 carats. Originally part of Gladys Vanderbilt’s tiara, the brooch retains the elegance of Cartier’s Belle Époque craftsmanship and stands as a rare tangible relic of the Vanderbilt legacy.
In November 2025, this brooch will be offered at auction in Geneva. Its reappearance not only revives the story of Gladys Vanderbilt’s celebrated wedding gift but also highlights the enduring allure of jewels that once served as instruments of social power, familial aspiration, and transatlantic identity.
In March 1912, Countess Széchenyi’s jewelries worth $200,000 ($8 million today) was stolen from her town residence in Budapest, the detective afterward found the jewels in a motor car garage, where they had been hidden by being wrapped in a piece of newspaper behind a barrel.
The tiara was divided between her children:
Countess Cornelia „Gilia“ Széchényi de Sárvár-Felsövidék 1908–1958 Eugene Bowie Roberts 1898–1983
Countess Alice „Ai“ Széchényi de Sárvár-Felsövidék 1911–1974 Countess Béla Hadik
Countess Gladys Széchényi de Sárvár-Felsövidé 1913–1978, Countess Winchilsea Nottinham |Viscountess Maidstone, Finch Hatton
Countess Sylvia Anita Gabriel Denise Irene Marie „Sylvie“ Széchényi de Sárvár-Felsövidék 1918–1998 Countess Antal Szapáry von Muraszombath Széchysziget und Szapar
Countess Ferdinandine „Bubby“ Széchényi de Sárvár-Felsövidék 1923–2016 Countess Alexander E. Eltz
Through her eldest daughter, Cornelia, she was the grandmother of three – Gladys Vanderbilt Roberts (b. 1934), Cornelia Roberts (1936–1982), who married Count Hans-Heinrich von Coudenhove-Kalergi (1926–2004), and Eugene Bowie Roberts, Jr. (1939–2020).
Through her daughter Alice, she was grandmother to Count László Hadik von Futak (1932–1973) and Count János Hadik von Futak (1933–2004).
Through her daughter Gladys, she was the grandmother of Christopher Denys Stormont Finch-Hatton, the 16th Earl of Winchilsea (1936–1999) and the Hon. Robin Finch-Hatton (1939–2018).
Through her daughter Sylvia, she was the grandmother of Count Pál László Szapáry (b. 1950) and Countess Gladys Vanderbilt Szapáry (b. 1952).
Through her youngest child, Ferdinandine, she was the grandmother of Count Peter von und zu Eltz (b.1948) and Count Nicholas (Nicky) von und zu Eltz (1950–2012)
Battenberg Pearls Pearl Necklace Pearl String| Princess Victoria of Hesse, Princess of Battenberg|Countess Milford Haven
A Pair of Diamond and Pearl Bracelet and a Pair of Pearl and Diamond Bracelet Jewels of Queen Alexandra British Royal Jewels
After four decades of mourning under Queen Victoria, the coronation of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra was envisioned as a dazzling public spectacle, symbolizing a new era of glamour for the monarchy. However, just three days before the scheduled ceremony, Edward underwent emergency surgery for appendicitis, postponing the event by six weeks. When the coronation finally took place on August 9, 1902, it became one of the most opulent royal celebrations in British history.
Traditionally, coronation gowns were simple white or cream robes, inspired by ecclesiastical attire. Yet Alexandra, a global fashion icon, defied convention with a striking gold dress designed by the Parisian fashion house Morin Blossier, led by women. The gown was adorned with thousands of tiny gold spangles, meticulously crafted to shimmer under the newly installed electric lights in Westminster Abbey—a first for such an event.
At Alexandra’s suggestion, her coronation dress became the first royal ensemble to incorporate Britain’s national emblems—the rose, thistle, and shamrock—a tradition upheld in every subsequent coronation dress, including those of Queen Elizabeth II and Queen Camilla. The intricate gold net of the gown was embroidered over five months by forty artisans in Delhi before being sent to Paris, where it was layered over cloth of gold to create the final masterpiece. Now exceedingly fragile, the rarely exhibited dress required over 100 hours of meticulous conservation work to prepare for display.
Alexandra adorned herself with an array of jewels and pearls for the coronation, including a diamond necklace and earrings—a wedding gift from Edward—displayed here for the first time, alongside the Dagmar necklace, a present from the King of Denmark. Also featured is her ostrich feather fan, its handle embellished with a diamond crown, an ‘A,’ and the national emblems.
The choice of a radiant gold fabric would have been breathtaking at the time, with contemporary accounts describing moments during the ceremony when the Queen appeared bathed in a golden glow, her dress illuminated by the Abbey’s electric lights. This shimmering vision epitomized Edward and Alexandra’s delicate balance of tradition and modernity as they ushered in the 20th century—a fleeting moment of splendor before the world descended into war.
Princess Alice of the United Kingdom, Grand Duchess of Hesse by Rhine, wearing her pearl jewels – the pearl string collier with a diamond pearl clasp, a pair of pear shaped ear pendants a pearl brooch a pearl pendant, from her wedding gifts, later called the „Battenberg Pearls“, it’s known the royal pearls are presented from Queen Victoria, to her daughter Princess Alice the Grand Duchess of Hesse, as wedding gift and later presents.
A small gold tiara is in her hair, probably the wedding gift from the Duchess of Sachsen-Coburg ,notice the emerald clasp on the wrist, we had in a post before as center of a necklace and I will do an addition about it, as well as the emerald drop on the side.
The Cartier Diadem, was set with 1,033 brilliants, 84 baton diamonds and 17 diamond beads.
Account dated 8 January 1948, £5,000;
above the sketch of the wedding gift the “parure” of opals and diamonds from both her parents
Royal Jewels with Opals |Princess Louise of Great Britain & Irland | Duchess of Argyll
