قمــــــــــــة الرفاهيـــــــــــة
72 شواطئ
207
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Shawati’ 72
Qemat Al Rafahiya - Pinnacle of Luxury
with it a rich history. Many are directly linked to some of the most famous figures in European history. There are survivals from the French royal and imperial collections, as well as pieces personally commissioned by European royalty which have been treasured and carefully pre- served by their descendants. A key highlight of the exhibition is the rare opportuni- ty to see three significant pieces from Queen Victoria’s personal jewellery collection displayed together. The sapphire and diamond coronet will be displayed along- side her sapphire and diamond bracelet and her emerald and diamond tiara. Each of these jewels was designed by Prince Albert and gifted to the Queen. Worn for formal portraits and photographs and key events during the Queen’s lifetime and her reign, they demonstrate the royal couple’s profound interest in jewellery, and their broader commitment to art and design. Together, they reveal the royal couple’s active and important role in pro- moting fine craftsmanship in mid-19 th -century Britain. Another highlight is an important corsage brooch in the form of a rose in full bloom that was made in 1864 for Prin- cess Mathilde Bonaparte by the Parisian jewellery house Mellerio. It is an exquisite work of art, one of the most important survivals of grand 19 th -century jewels and a treasure of The Al Thani Collection. Princess Mathilde was Napoléon III’s cousin and an important figure in Parisian society, hosting salons that included royalty as well as leading literary and artistic figures of the day. Af- ter her death, the rose was acquired by Grace Vanderbilt and taken to New York, where she wore it to the grandest of balls and opera galas of her day. Every jewel carries a story of patronage, inheritance or love. Give me a couple of anecdotes or hidden his- tories you uncovered during your research that you think visitors will find especially compelling. There are so many rich stories surrounding these objects that it is difficult to know where to start! Some are wit- nesses to passionate love affairs, whilst others are re- markable survivals from turbulent political unrest and violent revolutions. One such object is a pendant created by Garrard in 1914 for Edith, Marchioness of Londonder- ry, featuring a large pink topaz at its centre. The histo- ry of this topaz is particularly captivating. It was one of several magnificent jewels given by Tsar Alexander I of Russia to Frances Anne Vane, an earlier Marchioness of Londonderry. Frances Anne, a great heiress in her own right, was residing in Vienna where her husband had been posted as Ambassador to Austria when she first met the Tsar in 1822. He fell passionately in love with her, and the two met repeatedly in Vienna, at the Congress of Ve- rona and Venice over the course of the next 12 months. In her memoirs, she declared their relationship “innocent from guilt”, suggesting the affair was never consummat- ed. These jewels, along with the Tsar’s letters, became treasured heirlooms, passed down through generations. Collectively, they now form one of the most significant surviving collections of aristocratic jewellery. A magnificent diamond bow brooch and a pair of dia- mond girandole earrings, now part of The Al Thani Col- lection, once belonged to Princess Marina, Duchess of Kent. The jewels were given to the Princess by her mother on the occasion of her marriage to Prince George, Duke of Kent, in 1934. The bow brooch can be seen in a photo- graph of a table adorned with the jewels presented to her by the groom, her parents and her future parents-in-law,
[L-R] Necklace, Formerly in the collection of Maharaja Digviyaysinhji of Nawanagar. Cartier London, special order, 1937, Rubies, diamonds and platinium. The Al Thani Collection: ATC817 © Christie’s Images Ltd.. Portrait of Empress Catherine II Attributed to Alexander Roslin, 1799–1750. The Al Thani Collection, ATC054 © The Al Thani Collection 2025. All rights reserved. Photography by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd.
الثّانـــــي بمناســـــبة زفافها. وكانـــــت الدوقة الكبرى قد تزوّجت أمير اليونان والدنمارك، نيكولاس، في قصر “تسارســـــكويه سيلو” . أمّا الأقراط، فيُعتقد أنّها كانت 1902 عام تعـــــود أيضًا إلى الدوقة الكبـــــرى فاديمير، المعروفـــــة بمجموعتهـــــا الأســـــطوريّة من المجوهـــــرات، والتي جـــــرى تهريبها بجرأة من قصر فاديمير في ســـــان بطرســـــبورغ ، على 1917 خـــــال الثورة الروســـــيّة عـــــام يد ابنهـــــا وبمســـــاعدة صديقـــــه الإنجليزي المقرّب، بيرتي ستوبفورد. غالبًـــــا ما تُعتبـــــر المجوهـــــرات كإبداعات أزلية، ومع ذلك نجـــــد أن كثيرًا من القطع في هذا المعرض قد خضعت للتّعديل أو التّفكيك أو إعادة الصّياغـــــة عبر الزمن. ماذا تكشـــــف لنا هذه التحوّلات عن تغيّر الأذواق، وتقلّبـــــات حظـــــوظ السُّـــــالات، وقدرة المجوهرات على الصّمود بوصفها تراثًا ثقافيًّا؟ تُظهـــــر هـــــذه التحـــــوّلات أن المجوهـــــرات لـــــم تكـــــن يومًـــــا ثابتـــــة أو جامـــــدة؛ فهي تتغيّر بتغيّـــــر الموضة، وتعاقـــــب الأجيال، وتبدّل الظّروف الاجتماعيّـــــة. ويُعد “تاج لوختنبـــــرغ” مثـــــالا واضحًـــــا علـــــى هـــــذه الطبيعـــــة المتحوّلة؛ فقـــــد صيغ في الأصل ، ثـــــم أُعيد تشـــــكيله في 1810 نحـــــو عـــــام أربعينيّـــــات القرن التاســـــع عشـــــر ليعكس الشّغف المتزايد آنذاك بالأشكال الطبيعيّة. وكانـــــت قطعـــــه الزهريّـــــة القابلـــــة للفصل،
والمرصَّعـــــة بالزُّمـــــرّد والألمـــــاس، تُرتـــــدى بطرق متعدّدة، في إشـــــارة إلـــــى تصميمه العملي والمبتكـــــر. وعلى الرّغـــــم من تغيّر شكله، بقي التاج مرتبطًا بنَسَبه الذي يعود إلى سالة الإمبراطورة جوزفين. وينطبـــــق الأمـــــر ذاتـــــه على تـــــاج وبروش بمناســـــبة 1889 بورتاند اللذين صُنعا عام زواج وينيفريـــــد دالاس-يـــــورك مـــــن أحد أفراد عائلـــــة بورتاند. فقد اســـــتُخدم في صناعة البروش أحجار الياقوت والألماس والل ّآلـــــئ المتوارثـــــة ضمن العائلـــــة، وصيغ التاج ليكون مكمّا لـــــه. وتُظهر هذه القطع التي واكبت تقلّبات عصرهـــــا أن التغيير لا يمحو التّراث، بل يُعـــــزّزه؛ فهي تجمع بين الاستمراريّة والتجدّد، وفي كل مرّة تتبدّل فيهـــــا، تُمهّد لمرحلـــــة جديدة مـــــن حياتها، دون التخلّي عن موروثها المادّي الأصيل. وتُبرز هذه الأمثلـــــة أن صمود المجوهرات لا يرتكز على قيمتها الماديّة فحســـــب، بل على قدرتها المستمرّة على التكيّف؛ فحتّى حين تُعدَّل لتلبية أذواق جديدة أو لتحمل معاني مختلفة، تظل هذه القطع محتفظة بوزنها الثقافي ودلالاتها الشخصيّة. ما الـــــذي تأملين أن يســـــتخلصه الجمهور المعاصـــــر - الـــــذي غالبًـــــا مـــــا ينظـــــر إلى المجوهـــــرات بوصفهـــــا رمـــــزًا للموضة أو التّرف- حين يرى هـــــذه القطع التاريخيّة في سياقها السُّالي والثقافيّ؟
combination of the sapphires and the diamonds echoed the great sapphire and diamond brooch the Prince had previously given to the Queen as a gift of love on the eve of their wedding day. The exhibition builds on this per- sonal nature of the jewels designed by the Queen and her Prince Consort in a display which focuses on less valuable but intensely personal items. These include a polished granite pebble that the Queen personally collected from her home in Scotland and had made into a brooch as a gift for her daughter, Princess Louise. Another piece, a simple gold locket decorated with a diamond and tur- quoise heart, had been Prince Albert’s Christmas gift to the Queen and which she only opened after his untimely death on 14 th December 1861. As you say, the coronet was also a political statement of power that marks the Queen’s sovereign rule over Britain and its Empire. The exhibition displays a number of offi- cial portraits of the owners of these dynastic jewels, illus- trating how they were worn to define status and position. Significantly, Queen Victoria wore the sapphire and di- amond coronet for her first official portrait, executed by German artist Franz Xaver Winterhalter in 1842. The orig- inal portrait is prominently displayed in the exhibition. A second version of the painting was widely copied and sent as gifts to other rulers, and circulated around the dif- ferent territories of the British Empire. This important portrait demonstrates how the coronet ultimately be- came integral to the public image of the Queen. Which are the highlight pieces of the exhibition that stand out as the most iconic or culturally significant - and why? There are so many highlights in this exhibition. Each piece has survived remarkably through time, carrying
[T] Bourbon-Parma tiara with fuchsias Joseph Chaumet, Paris, 1919. Diamonds, platinum, gold. Chaumet Collections, MUS 124 [M] Leuchtenberg Tiara Jean-Baptiste Fossin, Paris, c. 40–1830. Diamonds, emeralds, gold, silver. Chaumet Collections, MUS 232 Nils Herrmann © Collections Chaumet [B] Lady Beit Tiara Cartier Paris, 1909. Diamonds and platinum. The Al Thani Collection: ATC220 © The Al Thani Collection, 2018. All rights reserved. Photograph by Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd
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