tiaras and trianon

Norma Shearer in the 1939 motion picture Marie Antoinette. Oh those dresses

tiaras, ‘toinette and royalty barbs for 5 years

How to commemorate all we’ve been through together? Sure, there were some tears. Maybe we saw other people for awhile but now we’re together again. Thus your Blog Hostess decrees commemoration in GIFS.

who could forget doña Cayetana at the  Empire Ball in New York.

Zog I…

it's #TiaraTime again. Grab this diamond halo when it goes on sale November 30! #tiara

We all know that digesting our Thanksgiving feasts will take a week at least. Good news for your intestines! A week from today, 30 November, Christie’s London will auction off gads of dazzling “important” jewellery. Your Blog Hostess can’t think of a better digestif than buying a tiara.

tiara experts help us procrastinate less

Granted, this blog post postpones a trip to the grocery store that…

Royal Jinx at 2016 Euro Championships?

King Philippe of Belgium and Princess Elisabeth cheer on Belgium today

Today’s sysmatic European quarterfinal in which Wales sent heavy favorites Belgium home after a 3-0 defeat caught your Blog Hostess’ attention for more than one reason. (1) Obviously duh, the game was an honest-to-God, edge-of-your-seat matchup. Literally, we were on the edge of the couch. The best our posture’s been in years.…

Carl XVI Gustaf’s Birthday, Postal Salute

How better to kick off the King of Sweden’s 7oth Birthday hullabaloo tomorrow than with a 30-year retrospective in stamps! It’s not our first episode of Fun with Stamps but gee is it fun. Especially because dear ol’ Carl Gustaf tends to eschew the humdrum lone-world-leader-in-profile look in exchange for an en-medias-res motif. Like this 1986 stamp below where the mountainous landscape almost…

tiara time! art déco bandeau tiara

If your Blog Hostess hasn’t been all over the auctions like white on rice, well then nobody has…except the jewelry dealers. That’s their job. Yet another Christie’s offering up for bids in Geneva May 18th, we have this bad boy diamond bandeau tiara, whose only provenance is the nebulous description “Property of a Lady.” Gee, thanks for the backstory, Christie’s.

Unlike the many of the other…

tiara time: Queen Geraldine’s Coronation tiara

A diamond tiara once owned by the Queen of Albania came to the block this Tuesday at Sotheby’s New York. The auction house estimated the Ostier tiara to fetch between $30,000 and $50,000. But how could a tiara once owned by a queen not gavel for far more? How much more, you ask? $180,000 was the hammer price but that pesky buyer’s…

Prince Carl-Phillip & Princess Sophia Welcome Royal Son

  STOCKHOLM, April 19, 2016:  At 6:25 pm Stockholm time, Princess Sophia gave birth to a baby boy in Danderyd Hospital. Prince Carl Philip, the 2nd of King Karl Gustav and Queen Sofia’s children, was present for the entire delivery. You go Carl! We don’t think we could stomach it! A few hours later the Prince announced the royal details for the press.

No, he is not describing the fish that got…

Princess’ Jewelry Up For Auction too

If it isn’t enough that Shirley Temple’s blue sapphire ring, the Queen of Albania’s Coronation tiara and jewels owned by the Duchess of Windsor are all up for bids this month, in May 2016 Christie’s Geneva will feature some of the amazing baubles from Gabriele, Princess zu Leiningen.

Gabrielle was previously married to Prince…

Tiara Time! 3 Rose Diamond Tiara

Hailing from the late 19th century, this Sotheby’s offering had “credit card warning” in flashing neon the second your Blog Hostess came across it. Offering no provenance or manufacturer’s name, Sotheby’s London had priced it between $9,000–$15,000 USD and your Blog Hostess knew she had that much room on a credit card. The temptation was staggering. Not just to own a tiara, but one we wouldn’t…

carrington and co.'s kokoshnik-style emerald and diamond #tiara has no #royal provenance but what you make of it.

this is yet another tiara SOS! Your Blog Hostess is certain she’s seen this emerald-and-diamond kokoshnik prior to the March 15 auction. If you’ve got the info, please cue us in!

Yet another tiara that came to the block on March 15 was this kokoshnik-style tiara. This gorgeous emerald-and-diamond diadem sported its original fitted case, Carrington & Co. embossed in the leather. It’s not a…

Tiara Time! the RV Tiara of Indiana

*cue Simon & Garfunkel’s America. Feel free to hum along*

who says there’s no tiaras to be seen in Indiana?

Whilst on Spring Break these past two weeks, your Blog Hostess thought they’d be no posting, given the lack of Internet and resources at the house on Lake Muskego. As we drove along Route 80 though Indiana, this little treat appeared:

Not bad, huh? So if you’re a fan of royal headgear and…

on the anniversary of the beloved dowager queen’s death, let’s revel in the good times past:  

 the Duke & Duchess of Windsor, 1927.

  mother-and-daughter both hail in new coronation halos, 1937.

  marriage of Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon to Prince Albert, Duke of York, April 23, 1923. Lady Elizabeth became the trendiest princess with this “statement” wedding gown.  

 your blog hostess salutes the…

the Crane Gilt-Metal Chaplet

What’s doin’ at Sotheby’s London this Tuesday? Firstly this gilt-metal recreation of an ancient Olympian’s achievement. The catalogue describes this chaplet-style tiara as “a series of textured bay leaves with an inner circumference of 540mm.” That’s 21 1/4 inches in case your tape measure doesn’t work in metric. Hold on, we’re off to measure the Hostess’ cranium.

Although the tiara’s make is…