Lady Decies’ Cartier Tiara

Today marks the 80th Anniversary of the Death of Elizabeth Wharton Drexel, Baroness Decies, who passed away on this day in 1944! The American Author and Socialite possessed this spectacular Cartier Garland Tiara, which she wore at the 1937 Coronation and to the Metropolitan Opera House during the Second World War!

But first, let’s learn about Lady Decies. The daughter of Lucy Wharton and Joseph William Drexel, she first married John Vinton Dahlgren, funding the Dahlgren Chapel at Georgetown University, until his passing in 1899. Her next husband was Harry Lehr, the so-called ‘King of the Gilded Age’, residing mainly in Paris during her unhappy marriage, with her publishing two books after his death in 1929, King Lehr and the Gilded Age (1935) and Turn of the World (1937). In 1936, she married John de la Poer Beresford, 5th Baron Decies, and contested their divorce in 1942, remaining married until his passing in 1944. Lady Decies spent the Second World War int eh Untied States, where she passed away at the Hotel Shelton in Manhattan, at the age of 76.

A striking Cartier Diamond Garland Tiara, designed as five slightly graduated laurel wreath and ribbon-bow motifs, set with cushion-shaped and single-cut diamonds, each with a swing drop centre, respectively set with a larger cushion-shaped diamond, alternating with formal floral shaped aigrettes, surmounted by a larger single diamond finial. The Tiara was created by Cartier New York in 1917, and acquired by the then Mrs Harry Lehr.

Soon after her third marriage to the 5th Baron Decies in 1936, Lady Decies was portrayed wearing the Cartier Garland Tiara for a portrait in Court Dress, possibly to mark her presentation to the King at Buckingham Palace.

The following year, Lady Decies notably wore her Cartier Garland Tiara for the Coronation of King George VI and Queen Elizabeth at Westminster Abbey in 1937.

Ahead of the Coronation, Lady Decies was photographed wearing her Cartier Garland Tiara and Coronation Dress during her dress fitting at Worth’s in Paris.

Lady Decies in her Coronation Robe. Lady Decies, wife of Lord Decies, coach Roy on at Worth’s in Paris of the robe she will wear at the Coronation ceremony. Before her wedding in Paris in May last year to the 70-year-old Lord Decies , Lady Decies was Miss HS Lehr, widow of Mr Henry Symes Lehr, an American. Photo shows, Lady Decies in her Coronation robe. 17 April 1937

Lady Decies also wore her Cartier Garland Tiara alongside her Coronation Robes for her portrait by French painter Marcel Baschet, painted in 1940.

Baroness Decies spent much of the Second World War in New York, where she wore her Cartier Garland Tiara for the final Red Cross ball, held at Grace Vanderbilt’s Fifth Avenue mansion in the 1942, just prior to it’s demolition.

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Lady Decies also wore her Cartier Garland Tiara on several of her frequent wartime visits to the Metropolitan Opera House with her friend, Mrs. George Washington Kavanaugh.

Following Lady Decies’ death in 1944, the Cartier Tiara was presumably among the diamond necklaces, tiaras and other items, valued at £18.484, among her net estate of £258,811, which was likely inherited by her only surviving son, John Vinton Dahlgren Jr., and remained in the Family until 1997, when it was sold at Auction at Sotheby’s in New York. The current location of the piece is unknown.