Hohenzollern Jewels

[grandduchessella]

From Ursula's site:

In the swedish magazine SVENSK DAMTIDNING, in the numbers of the spring 1956, some articles about the memories of Crown Princess Cecile of Germany (1886-1954) are on public.
The articles mention that the Crown Princess left her jewels to her chauffeur Mr Otto Groha.

She wrote her last wills on May 2nd 1952 and January 29th 1954. On October 21st 1955 a law court annulled her last will.

Mr Otto Groha became forced by the court to return back to Prince Louis Ferdinand (1907-1994) a diamond diadem with 15 stones of 13,9 carat and about 2300 smaller brilliants. [I wonder if this is the Faberge or the Meader?]

Other jewels belonged to the Crown Princess which was mentioned in the articles are

* Pear shaped drop sapphire, she got from her husband (which she wore in her deLaszlo portrait)
* Famous Romanov emerald worth 300.000 swedish crowns (belonged to her mother)
* Small bow brooch of platinum and brilliants, also from her husband

[Eric_Lowe]

I heard that the ruby demi-parure was a gift from Kaiser Wilhelm to his daughter-in-law.

[grandduchessella]

Since the ruby parure belonged to the Prussian royal house, it would seem that the Kaiser would have to be the one to give it to Cecile.

[Eric_Lowe]

You say it belonged to Queen Elise of Prussia ? I thought she left her jewels to Vicky...

[grandduchessella]

Ursula's site said the ruby parure was part of Queen Elisabeth Ludovica of Prussia's collection. Vicky had died by the time Cecile married. Even if she had inherited all of the jewels of Queen Elisabeth, she still could've left them to the Kaiser (and thus keep them in the hands of the Prussian royal family) and the Kaiser could've bequeathed them on to the Crown Princess.

[Eric_Lowe]

Doubtful...First of all Queen Elise of Prussia willed her jewelry to Vicky so that they were not part of the offical "crown jewels" collection that was listed in the Lord Twining book. The only thing Vicky got when she became Empress were the orange pearls (that was also listed in the Twining book). When Empress Augusta died, she pass the jewels to Dona directly, much to the disgust of Vicky. Augusta also did not leave much jewels to Vicky's daughters (Mossy, Sossie and Moretta). When Sophie asked her mother for more jewels (in the book of letters "Empress Frederick writes to Sophie"), Vicky told her she will have to wait until she died to recieve any more. It is unlikely she will leave any jewels for William but to compensate his much poorer sisters. However it is possible that William bought the parure from his sisters for the imperial collection.

[grandduchessella]

I didn't say anything about them being 'crown jewels' so they wouldn't be listed in the Twining book. I said that if Vicky inherited ALL of Queen Elisabeth's jewels, she MAY have chosen to give these to Wilhelm. Regardless, Ursula is usually very well-researched so if she says they were QE's rubies, I'm inclined to believe her since there's no evidence to indicate otherwise.

[Eric_Lowe]

I did not say that they are not. The problem is that Vicky would be more than likely to provide for her own daughters than to give it to Wilhelm (who is much richer than her). I think most likely Wilhelm would have bought it from his sisters (either Moretta or Mossy) after they recieved it from their mother.

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

What beautiful jewels! Do you know if the jewels of the last photo still exists?

[Robert_Hall]

Many of the jewels were stolen by American officers when they occupied Feirdrichhoff. They were hidded behind a brick wall. Family silver was stolen as well.  Some were eventually recovered, but not all.

[Eric_Lowe]

I think those were Hesse jewels and not Hohenzollern jewels.

[Robert_Hall]

You may very be correct, Eric, now that you mention it. If so, my mistake and I apologise  for mis-posting.

[Eric_Lowe]

No worries. I am sure Mossy got some Hohenzollern jewels from her mother Vicky and also from Queen Elise's collection. I wonder if Cecilie kept all her jewels in tact ?

[grandduchessella]

You may very be correct, Eric, now that you mention it. If so, my mistake and I apologise  for mis-posting.

I wouldn't quite say it's a mistake, Robert. I don't have the articles in front of me, but weren't some of the jewels stolen Hohenzollern jewels that Margaret had inherited from her mother? I think Royalty Digest also had an article about  the jewel heist that gave more information on what was stolen and what ultimately became of much of the jewelry. I think that most of the jewels came into the Hesse family through Margaret and not Frederick Charles's own family. Does anyone remember the article or where it was from?

[Yelena Aleksandrovna]

Do you know if there are some jewels in museums? Several jewels of other royals are in museums,
but I don't know about Hohenzollern's jewels