Interesting Women of the Nobility

[ChristineM]

Now, that IS pretty.   It looks very delicate.   In fact, so delicate I doubt it would withstand wearing.

tsaria

[Martyn]

Now, that IS pretty.   It looks very delicate.   In fact, so delicate I doubt it would withstand wearing.

tsaria

I quite agree with you Tsaria.  It reminds me a little of the Delihi Durbar tiara, and probably is about the same sort of scale, but it has a lightness about it that is truly French.

Earlier in the thread GDElla very kindly posted a photo of Consuelo wearing this tiara, some time in the 1900's, which clearly shows the scale of this jewel.  Unfortunately, by the time os this photo, the duchess no longer had the looks of her youth, and in the photograph the tiara looks off-centre, which gives her a slightly comical look! 

[Leuchtenberg]

Some more about Daisy (Marguerite):


Marguerite arrived in Tucson in the late 20's and spent the winters here. Why she chose Tucson is not known. She suffered from arthritis in her back later in her life, which could have been one of the reasons. She built a house in 1936. It was the first air-conditioned home in Tucson. She called it Forest Lodge. It is today the Immaculate Heart Convent and the land surrounding it is the Suffolk Hills Community.

Daisy Suffolk's Tuscon home as built in the late 30s.   (If you're using Firefox, click on "view image" and a larger picture will show up in a new window.)

[NoirFemme]

I love Lady Randolph Churchill. I own her autobiography and have read all biographies written about her many times over. But while Gladys(Glay-dus) Marlborough was mentioned, no one mentioned Consuelo Vanderbilt, the first 9th Duchess of Marlborough--the epitome of an American heiress.



In 1895 Consuelo Vanderbilt, then one of the richest heiresses in America, was forced into a loveless marriage with the 8th Duke of Marlborough by her social-climbing vulture of a mom. Though the Duke (a singularly phlegmatic man, ineptly nicknamed "Sunny") didn't much care for Americans, their $2.5 million dowry was ok by him. The Duchess later poured millions more into the restoration of Blenheim, a decrepit heap at the time of her marriage; it is still one of the great showplaces of Britain today. She was an early and ardent feminist, and devoted her time and money to worthy causes. In 1907 she was separated from her husband; they were divorced in 1921. A very happy second marriage followed, to famous French aviator Jacques Balsan. Consuelo Vanderbilt was one of the great beauties of her age; her elegance and glamor are celebrated in almost every contemporary mention of her name. She was a compassionate and intelligent woman whose memoir, The Glitter and the Gold, provides an absorbing, if somewhat sober, portrait of the Gilded Age.

[TampaBay]

She was also six foot tall and towered over her husband height wise.

TampaBay

[grandduchessella]

We just hadn't gotten to her yet.  I've been gathering some photos to post and will try to get them up.

[CountessKate]

Consuelo was a favorite subject of the great Edwardian 'swagger' portraitists - Sargent, Boldini, Helleu - but I love these two portraits of her at Blenheim, one painted about 1903 or 1904, the other just before WWI, probably around 1912 or so, judging by the costumes.

[CountessKate]

Here she is again, in the well-known portrait by Sargent, with her husband and sons (her husband was posed on the lower step, to disguise the fact that she was taller than he:

[CountessKate]

And here she is in the Boldini painting with her son Lord Ivor Spencer Churchill.

[gogm]

Consuelo was a favorite subject of the great Edwardian 'swagger' portraitists - Sargent, Boldini, Helleu - but I love these two portraits of her at Blenheim, one painted about 1903 or 1904, the other just before WWI, probably around 1912 or so, judging by the costumes.

Here are some more -
Dressed for 1911 coronation of King George V:


Close up from same picture:


1899 portrait:


Another shot from 1911:


From 1896:


Undated striking photograph:


1911 coronation:


Posing on a portico as a grande dame:


Well-known portrait (subject to rapid deletion):


Consuelo and her son Ivor in 1899:


Consuelo and Winston Churchill in 1902:


Winston was the product of one of the first Dollar Princess marriages between Jennie Jerome and Lord Randolph Churchill.

[Mari]

I don't know a lot about Consuelo Vanderbilt....guess I'll have to do some reading...but She certainly has an interesting look. I'll bet the Parisian Designers fought over her.

[gogm]

Close up from same picture:

This picture has significant detail differences. I'm not sure when it was taken. Maybe for Edward VII's coronation?

[grandduchessella]

Lafayette (at the V&A website) marks this one as for the Coronation of King George V, 23 June 1911. Maybe the other is for the previous coronation? It could be a matter of untouched vs retouched photos but she looks older in the detail above (from 1911).

A fuller version, with her sons:

[grandduchessella]

Consuelo and Winston Churchill in 1902:

Even after her marriage to his uncle was annulled, she remained in close contact with Winston. He was a frequent visitor in the 1920s & 1930s to her chateau in France, the St. George Motel, where she lived after her 2nd marriage to Jacques Balsan. He would often paint during these visits.

[grandduchessella]

Her marriage to the Duke of Marlborough



(From the book Consuelo and Alva Vanderbilt: "The bride was 20 minutes late to her own wedding. It was noon of Nov. 6, 1895, the hour set for the marriage of one of America's wealthiest heiresses, Consuelo Vanderbilt, to the ninth Duke of Marlborough (le tout New York in attendance, Walter Damrosch's 60-man orchestra completing their Wagner and Tchaikovsky, platoons of policemen keeping hordes of curious citizens out of St. Thomas Episcopal Church). But the bride, greatly infatuated with an American socialite, was still at home, weeping uncontrollably in the arms of her father, William K. Vanderbilt, pleading with him to rescue her from a marriage enforced against her will by her notoriously dominating mother, Alva. As much as "William K.," grandson of Commodore Vanderbilt and heir to much of his fortune, had come to dislike his former wife, he managed to calm his pale, willowy 18-year-old daughter and led her to the altar. So after a long, wretched honeymoon, Consuelo, Duchess of Marlborough, assumed her duties as mistress of the 170-room Blenheim Palace, soon becoming the leading beauty of the Edwardian Age and, less predictably, one of its most committed philanthropists.")



And as a paper doll bride:



And you could also buy her peeress robes: