Happy 75th Birthday to Carmen Martínez-Bordiú, the former Duchess of Franco! She received this magnificent Emerald Tiara and Parure from her grandfather, the Spanish Dictator General Franco, when she married the former King’s grandson, and only discovered that the emeralds were painted glass when she tried to sell it off!
When Maria del Carmen Martinez-Bordiu y Franco married Don Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cadiz, the grandson of King Alfonso XIII of Spain, she received a magnificent Emerald Tiara and Parure as a wedding gift from her maternal grandfather, Spanish Dictator General Franco. Reportedly, the parure was made in Spain in the XIX century and her mother later said:
It was a gift from my parents, it was made by a jeweller from Palma de Mallorca.
The new Duchess of Cadiz notably wore the Emerald Tiara for her Wedding of Don Alfonso, Duke of Anjou and Cadiz in the chapel of the El Pardo Palace in Madrid in 1973.
The following year, the Duchess of Cadiz wore the Emerald Tiara with the magnificent Necklace and Earrings for the International Diamond Jubilee at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York City.
Later that year, the Emerald Tiara was worn by the Duchess for the Wedding Gala of Princess Theresia of Sayn-Wittgenstein-Sayn to Luis Figueroa, Count of Quintanilla in 1973, which was it’s last public appearance.
Ahead of the divorce of the Duke and Duchess of Cadiz in 1982, the Emerald Tiara and Parure were put on Auction at Sotheby’s in Geneva in 1981, when it was discovered that the Emeralds were painted glass. The jewels did not reach the estimate of 30,000 to 50,000 Swiss Francs so they failed to sell.
They were glass painted green on the back glued to a sheet of talc, with egg white.
It was then painted green and closed behind with metal.
Eventually, the Tiara was sold in London for 60,000 Pounds, while the Necklace remains in the Franco family, being once worn in the 1990s by Jose Toledo, the former wife of the Duchess of Franco’s nephew, José Cristóbal Martínez-Bordiú y Franco.
