The Manchester Tiara, fit for a duchess

Readers of this blog know already that I love big jewelry or bling. My admiration for the Manchester Tiara was therefore endless. The Tiara is on display at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. But what is the history of this wonderful bling?

Fit for a duchess

The Manchester Tiara once belonged to Consuelo Montagu, Duchess of Manchester. 

The Duchess was a celebrated society figure, belonging to the intimate circle of Edward VII of the United Kingdom, formerly the Prince of Wales. 

Shortly before her death, she entertained King Edward and Nicholas II, the Tsar of Russia, while the Tsar was on a visit to England. However she wasn't born to become such an important woman. Or

perhaps she was.

Birth

Consuelo Yznaga was born in 1853, in New York City, as the second of four children of diplomat Antonio Modesto Yznaga del Valle and wife Ellen Maria Clement of Ravenswood Plantation.

Her father was from an old Cuban family that owned a large plantation and sugar mills in the vicinity of Trinidad, Cuba; they had connections to several Spanish aristocratic families.

She grew up at Ravenswood Plantation in Concordia Parish, Louisiana, which she inherited when her parents died. Her parents acquired properties in New York and in Newport, Rhode Island, while retaining the plantations in Cuba and Louisiana.

Source pictures: Wikipedia

Family

Her sister, María de la Natividad "Natica" Yznaga, married Sir John Lister-Kaye, 3rd Baronet (1853–1924) on 5 December 1881. 

Her brother, Fernando Yznaga (1850–1901), was married to Mary Virginia "Jennie" Smith, sister of Alva Smith Vanderbilt Belmont, Consuelo's childhood best friend. Vanderbilt's daughter Consuelo Vanderbilt was her god-daughter and named after her.

Love and Marriage

In the autumn of 1875, she met George Montagu, Viscount Mandeville (1853–1892), at her father's country home in Morristown, New Jersey.  On 22 May 1876, at Grace Church, Manhattan, New York, New York County, New York, she married Viscount Mandeville. 

Her dowry was $6 million (in 2018 rate). After their marriage, they settled on the Duke of Manchester's estate centered on Tandragee Castle in County Armagh in Ulster, Ireland.

Children

They had one son and twin daughters:

* William Montagu, 9th Duke of Manchester (1877–1947), who married, firstly, Helena Zimmerman, in 1900, and had children. They divorced in 1931, and later that same year, he married Kathleen Dawes (d. 1966), on 17 December 1931.

* Lady Jacqueline Mary Alva Montagu, known as "May" (1879–1895), who, although not diagnosed before she died, is commonly believed to have died of consumption (tuberculosis).

* Lady Alice Eleanor Louise Montagu, known as "Nell" (1879–1900), who died of consumption.

Source picture: Wikipedia

Death

The Duchess died of neuritis in Westminster on 20 November 1909. At her bedside upon her death were her sisters, Lady Lister-Kaye and Emily Yznaga.  Her estate, valued at $2,493,131 (an approximate value of $69 million in 2017 rates), was left to her various family members.

On her death in 1909, the Duchess bequeathed a ruby and diamond bracelet to her friend Queen Alexandra.

The Manchester Tiara

The Manchester Tiara, created for the Duchess by Cartier in 1903, is now in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. In 2007 the Manchester Tiara was accepted by the British government in lieu of inheritance tax following the death of the 12th Duke. Her diamond and emerald necklace, originally bequeathed to her grandson Viscount Mandeville, was auctioned by Sotheby's in 2015.

I was able to see this wonderful Tiara in the summer of 2023. Then I  took these pictures.