Marchioness of Dufferin’s Diamond Stars

Today marks the 90th Anniversary of the Death of Hariot Hamilton-Temple-Blackwood, Marchioness of Dufferin and Ava, who passed away on this day in 1936! The Anglo-Irish Aristocrat who was the Viceregal Consort of Canada and the Vicereine of India, we have already featured the magnificent Diamond Shamrock Tiara, and will now feature her spectacular Diamond Stars!

Diamond Shamrock Tiara | Diamond Stars

The exact origin of these Diamond Stars is not known but after the discovery by Alyette de Royere that the Diamond Shamrock Tiara was created by Mellerio dits Meller in Paris in 1866, it is likely that the Diamond Stars were created by Mellerio as well.

In the late 1860s, the then Baroness Dufferin and Claneboye was portrayed wearing Diamond Star Earrings with the Mellerio Diamond Shamrock Tiara, for a portrait.

In the 1870s, the now Countess of Dufferin wore the Diamond Stars on a velvet Choker for several portraits during her tenure as the Viceregal Consort of Canada.

A notable portrait was taken when the Earl of Dufferin served as the British Ambassador to Russia, when the Countess of Dufferin wore Diamond Stars on a band across her hair and also on a velvet choker.

In later years, the now Marchioness of Dufferin wore the Diamond Stars suspended from a Diamond Rivière for a portrait taken after she had received the Persian Order of Aftab at the end of her tenure as the Vicereine of India.

The Diamond Stars wee also worn suspended from the Rivière with the Diamond Shamrock Tiara for a portrait of the Marchioness of Dufferin painted by the Swiss-American artist Carl Gutherz in 1893, which was housed in the collection of the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art in Memphis, Tennessee, before being auctioned off earlier this year for $5,888.

While the magnificent Diamond Shamrock Tiara remains in the family and is now on permanent display at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the fate of the Diamond Stars is not known, but they could have possibly been inherited by the Marchioness’ daughters.