Duchess of Buccleuch’s Diamond Necklace

Today marks the 70th Anniversary of the Birth of the late 10th Duchess of Buccleuch, who was born on this day in 1954! The daughter of the 12th Marquess of Lothian who married into one of Britain’s most illustrious and wealthiest noble families, the Duchess possessed a magnificent Jewellery Collection, but most notably wore this heirloom Diamond Necklace!

The striking Diamond Necklace, which can also be worn as multiple bracelets, is no doubt a family heirloom, and seems to have been worn by the 6th Duchess of Buccleuch, Mistress of the Robes to Queen Victoria, with the Mayflower Tiara for the Wedding of Prince Carl of Denmark (later King Haakon VII of Norway) and Princess Maud of Wales in 1896.

In 1937, Mollie, the 8th Duchess of Buccleuch was photographed wearing the Diamond Necklace underneath the family’s Diamond Rivière for the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elisabeth at Westminster Abbey in 1937, when the Duchess served as a Train Bearer during the Queen’s Anointing Ceremony.

The Duchess of Buccleuch also wore the Diamond Necklace across her bodice with a large diamond brooch on her shoulder as she posed for Madame Yevonde wearing the Diamond Belt Tiara on the cover of Tatler.

Around the same time, the Diamond Necklace was worn as Bracelets by for a portrait taken by Cecil Beaton in the 1930s, paired with the Buccleuch Emerald Tiara and the Diamond Belt.

Throughout the 1930s, the 8th Duchess of Buccleuch was often photographed wearing the Diamond Necklace, usually with a pearl corsage brooch as a pendant, as shared by the wonderful Beth.

By the 1950s, the Duchess of Buccleuch usually wore the Diamond Necklace in a smaller configuration, more closely around her neck, most notably for the ‘April in Paris Ball’ at the Waldorf Astoria in New York City in 1957.

At some point in the late 1980s, multiple generations of the Duchess of Buccleuch were photographed by Lord Lichfield for a striking portrait, for which the then Countess of Dalkeith wore the striking heirloom Diamond Necklace, while her sister-in-law, Countess Charlotte de Castellane, wore the Pearl Corsage Brooch.

Despite being the custodian of one of the largest Aristocratic jewellery collections, the Duchess was not photographed wearing any other heirloom jewels until her passing last year, and we now have to wait to see them worn by the current Countess of Dalkeith!