Vincent Meylan’s book “Queens Jewels” has been, according to his introduction, more difficult to research than his books on famous jewellery houses and their masterpieces. Whilst those houses let him check their archives and gave him their confidence, the royal houses were not interested in giving a statement. But being an accomplished French journalist on royal questions, and an avid supervisor of auctions, he made the book a beautiful experience anyway.
Vincent Meylan writes about the queens and noble ladies of Russia, France, Spain, Sweden, Great Britain, Italy, Iran, Austria, Belgium, and the Balkans. Of course, only glimpses of the jewellery of the actual and former queens of those countries are possible. The examples are well chosen and the book brims with wonderful colour pictures of the jewellery and the women. The stories behind some of the jewels are told in more detail than others, depending on publicly available knowledge. He does not try to list everything – selectiveness is more than appropriate.
To pick two examples, the front cover shows a Belgian princess who became the Queen of Italy, Marie-Jose, famous for her beauty. She married the Italian Crown Prince Umberto in 1930. To her misfortune, she was Queen of Italy only for 1 month before the family had to leave for their exile in Portugal. The tiara in the picture stayed with the exiled royals, as did most of their personal jewellery. The King and Queen separated, he stayed in Portugal, she and her 4 children moved to Switzerland. To support a certain lifestyle costs money, and many of the jewels have been auctioned by Marie-Jose’s children and grandchildren. The Italian Crown Jewels are supposed to be still in the Italian Central Bank, but they are not open to display.
The back cover shows a sumptuous necklace that was worn by the Iranian Empress Farah Diba at her coronation in 1967. Contrary to the Italian Crown Jewels, the Iranian ones always stayed in the Central Bank in Teheran and can be seen there by the public. It is not only necklaces and tiaras, but also the ancient Peacock Throne and other works of art. To go there and see them is on my bucket list – they are stupendous from what one can derive from the pictures shown in magazines and books. What is in the Central Bank only constitute the official Crown Jewels – the private collection of the Iranian imperial family was huge and incredibly beautiful. The last Shah and Shahbanou of Iran had to leave the country in 1979 after the Islamic Revolution. Till then their private jewels were worn and photographed. Whilst the Crown Jewels stayed in Iran, the personal collection went with the various family members. Not much had been auctioned, apart from the jewels of the second wife of the Shah, Soraya Esfandiari, who went to live in France after her divorce in 1959.
As “Queens’ Jewels” is the 2nd book in a row written by Vincent Meylan that is presented here in the blog, it is time to honour the author as well. There are only a few peers to Vincent Meylan, who stayed with the subject of jewellery over the years and produced one beautiful book after the other. Such peers are Stefano Papi, Caroline Childers, and John Loring, who come immediately to my mind. They will be featured in the blog as well. Most other authors gave us one great book and then sadly disappeared to work on other topics.
Vincent Meylan, in his day job as journalist for the French magazine ‘Point de Vue’ and at times also as a TV commentator on things royal, has the perfect basis to be writing books about jewellery and those owning the jewels. ‘Point de Vue’ magazine focusses on royalty and aristocratic society and is published twice a month. It seems Vincent Meylan made his hobby his profession, and is successful with it. What he accomplished is the most difficult challenge in life and one can only congratulate him. With 62 years of age there are more books to come, and all of us jewellery lovers wait eagerly for his next book.
In an interview with Tatler Asia (simply google his name and Tatler Asia) Vincent Meylan was asked what he wished that people derived from his books. His answer sums it all up perfectly:
“A dream, a moment out of time or, simply, pleasure”
All rights to the book belong to:
Meylan, Vincent: Queens’ Jewels, 2008, published by Assouline Publishing, Inc, 601 West 26th Street, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001 USA, printed in China, ISBN: 2-84323-364-X