Princess Marie Bonaparte’s Cartier Tiara

Princess Marie Bonaparte was quite a catch. Not only was she the g-g-niece of Napoleon, she was also wealthy through her mother’s family (real estate developers). No surprise then that when she was courted by the son of a King, it was considered an ideal match. In 1907, at 25 years old, she walked down the aisle with Prince George of Greece and Denmark in Athens.

To the Cartier brothers’ delight, the #weddingjewelry was commissioned from Cartier (royal weddings were like gold-dust, both for the boost in sales and for the association with a princess bride, not dissimilar to today really). In fact, so proud were the team at #13ruedelapaix Paix that they held an exhibition, with this #diamondtiara the star of the show. The design was a nod to the princess’ heritage and the family she was marrying into: the wreath evoked tiaras worn by Bonaparte women, while olive wreaths were worn by brides in #ancientgreece . And, in a clever multi-gem twist, the eleven #emerald ‘olives’ could be swapped out for diamonds if desired.

Researching #royalweddings is always fun but hearing from those in some way personally connected to them takes it to another level. This rings especially true when speaking to Prince Dimitri (as I’ve been doing in preparation for our upcoming Cartiers/Romanovs virtual event) as he brings so many of the Cartiers’ royal clients –who were members of his family– vividly to life. Take Princess Marie here (or Aunt Mimi as she was known), turns out she was a real character: intellectual, independent and eccentric. She studied with Sigmund Freud in Vienna (later smuggling him out when the Nazis wanted to arrest him), wrote books on sexuality, became a leading authority in her field and interviewed murderers in prison to determine the cause of their violence.

The photos of #PrincessMarie in the tiara here (2nd image of her wedding day and almost 5 decades later at Queen Elizabeth II’s coronation) come from Prince Dimitri’s new book, #onceuponadiamond . Highly recommend it and lots more great ones to show you next week… as Galerie Magazine brilliantly summed up, “the most glamorous family scrap book you’ll ever read.” #royalhistory