Happy Birthday to Princess Anne, Duchess of Calabria, who turns 85 today! The Orléans Princess who married the Head of the Royal House of the Bourbon-Two Sicilies and became a member of the extended Spanish Royal Family, Princess Anne came from a Royal Family with an impressive jewellery collection, and married into one with an even more historic collection of jewels, yet the Coty Emerald Tiara was the most significant jewel worn by Princess Anne!
Habsburg Diamond Button Tiara | Coty Emerald Tiara | Orléans Diamond Comb
When the future Count of Paris married Princess Isabelle of Orléans-Braganza in 1931, the Countess received a ‘magnificent diadem of diamond foliage set with seven large cabochon emeralds’ from French Industrialist François Coty.
The Countess of Paris primarily wore the Orléans Sapphire Parure or the Action Française Tiara, so the Coty Emerald Tiara was not publicly worn until her seven daughter, the Filles de France, were grown up, with the Tiara appearing on Princess Isabelle d’Orléans at the Wedding Ball of Archduke Ferdinand of Austria and Countess Helen zu Toerring-Jettenbach in Munich in 1956.
Two years later, Princess Isabelle wore the Emerald Tiara at the Grand Bal de la Cour, which was held at the Royal Palace of Brussels on the occasion of the Universal Exhibition.
Princess Isabelle also wore the Coty Emerald Tiara during the Wedding Ball of her sister, Princess Diane, to Duke Carl of Wurttemberg at Schloss Altshausen in 1960.
A few months later, Princess Anne of Orléans wore the Coty Emerald Tiara for a Gala to mark the tricentenary of the wedding of King Louis XIV and the Infanta of Spain in Biarritz.
Princess Anne also wore the Coty Emerald Tiara again for one of the Wedding Balls of Prince Juan Carlos and Princess Sophia of Greece at the Royal Palace of Athens in 1962.
It wasn’t until the 1990s that the Countess of Paris was seen wearing her Coty Emerald Tiara for the Wedding Ball of her grandson, Duke Friedrich of Württemberg, and Princess Marie of Wied at Schloss Altshausen in 1993, when she was photographed having her hair done by the famed Alexandre de Paris.
At some point, the Countess of Paris sold the Coty Emerald Tiara to her youngest daughter, Princess Chantal, Baroness de Sambucy de Sorgue, who has broken the Tiara up to create a pair of earrings and a pendant, that have been worn on numerous ocassion,s including the Wedding of the current Count and Countess of Paris in 2009.
Habsburg Diamond Button Tiara | Coty Emerald Tiara | Orléans Diamond Comb
Orléans Sapphire Parure | Orléans Sapphire and Pearl Tiara | Action Française Tiara | Chaumet Curvilinear Tiara | Coty Emerald Tiara | The Orléans Royal Tiaras
