Georgiana Canvendish, Duchess of Devonshire, even the very sound of her name fires the imagination. Yes, Sean and I have just watched "The Duchess".
She was a fine example of a colourful character, I must add. I have drawn so many similarities between her and Queen Marie Antoinette of France (strange enough the two of them lived in the same period as well.) Both ladies were of nobility, they loved gambling, partying and fashion. Looking at both their lives, it is obvious that the French Queen's life is more tragic. By the way, they both died in an ugly fashion (no pun intended). The Queen had been executed and the Duchess had lost an eyeball to an infection, her complexion was coarse and her neck immense (she had an illness) by the time she had passed on.
Anyway I did enjoy looking at the cameo jewellery that was featured in the movie. Georgiana had quite a few of them. Antique cameo jewellery were often made from shells or stones. Good ones are those with painstaking effort to include details into them instead of a mere silhouette.
A painting of the Duchess by Thomas Gainsborough, 1787 (she was 30 then).
Keira Knightley as the Duchess in the same hat as the painting.
A Cameo Brooch.
An Antique Cameo Pendant.
Another Cameo Brooch (not antique though).
1 comment:
nice work, however, i'm afraid your post on the 6.25ct sapphire ring is a bit misinformed. princess diana's sapphire ring was of course amazing, however it certainly was not an 18 carat sapphire. that would have been huge! it was 18 karat gold however. her sapphire was only about 7 to 9 carats..depending on depth. the myth about it being an 18 carat stone only began when garrard's referred to it as 'an 18kt white gold sapphire and diamond ring'..somewhere along the line people left out the 'white gold' part and put the '18kt' beside the word sapphire and voila, you have the myth of 18 ct sapphire ring...not even mentioning the gold..it is not and never will be an 18 carat stone though. only about 7 to 9 carats at most.
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