Rare and Highly Important 18th century jewel

Formerly in the Collection of the Marquess of Anglesey

Cf.: Diana Scarisbrick, Ancestral Jewels – Treasures of Britain’s Aristocracy, Vendome Press, New York, 1989, pg. 89.

Cf.: Diana Scarisbrick, Diamond Jewelry – 700 years of Glory and Glamour, Thames & Hudson, London, 2019, New York, pg. 128- 159, for an in-depth assay on 18th century jewellery.

Cf.: Olga W. Gorewa, Irina F. Polynina, Nikolai Rachmanov and Alfons Raimann (eds.), Joyaux du Trésor de Russia, La Bibliothèque des Arts, Paris, 1990, pg. 52-55, for the cordelières jewel from the Russian crown jewels, the pair of épaulettes and the archive images of the parementures tressées.

Cf.: Bernard Morel, Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France, Fonds Mercator, Antwerp, 1988, pg. 205 – 211 for a text on the private jewels of Marie-Antoinette.

Cf.: Madame Campan, Mémoires de Madame Campan – Première Femme de Chambre de Marie Antoinette, Mercure de France, Parsi 1988, pg. 234 – 251, for a first hand account of the affair of the necklace.

Cf.: Simon Heffer (ed.), Henry ‘Chips’ Channon – The diaries 1943-57, London, 2024, pg. 375 for a Chips Channon’s assumption that the so-called Anglesey tassels were once part of the necklace refused by Marie Antoinette.

Sources from the Paget and Plas Nywedd papers held at Bangor University:

Box of cheque books, bills and receipts (many of the latter from foreign suppliers)(PAG/2/6).

An inventory & Valuation for the purpose of probate of jewellery and silver, September 1947 (PAG/3/575).

File of miscellaneous financial papers, including schedule of life policies (PAG/3/286).

Folder of tributes and newspaper cuttings relating to Marjorie Anglesey following her death in 1946 (PAG/5/24).

In 1959, the jewel was exhibited in London as part of The Ageless Diamond Loan exhibition, alongside many famous Royal and aristocratic diamond jewels including the Williamson Pink Diamond and the brooch set with the Cullinan III and IV diamonds belonging to Queen Elizabeth II.

In 1979, the jewel featured in the American Museum of Natural History’s Bicentennial Exhibition. At the time it was claimed that it was created 1776 by Collingwood and that George III reportedly gifted it to the Duchess of Marlborough.