Belle Epoque Diamond 'Meander' Tiara by Ansorena

One tiara, three jewels

The tiara is built as a single diadem in two tiers. The upper band runs a meandering Greek key, the motif that gives the piece its name, threaded with forget-me-not flowers and trailing laurel leaves, symbols of true love and the triumph of love. The lower band is a delicate lattice like lace, with a handkerchief motif at its center. The whole is set with old brilliant-, single- and rose-cut diamonds, about 33.50 carats in total, finished with millegrain edges and fine knife-wire tracery, and mounted in platinum.

It is also a kit. The two bands detach to form two separate diadems, and the lower one can be taken off its frame and worn as a choker.

It is cataloged as unsigned. The design is recorded in Ansorena's own archives, and the tiara was exhibited in Madrid in 1995 and published as number 4 in the catalog for the firm's 150th anniversary.

Ansorena, jewelers to the Spanish crown

Ansorena's story begins in 1845, when Celestino Ansorena opened a jeweler's workshop in Madrid. In 1860 he was named jeweler and diamond merchant to the Royal Household, and the firm's tie to the crown only grew.

When King Alfonso XIII married Princess Victoria Eugenie of Battenberg, known as Ena, on May 31, 1906, his wedding gifts to her from Ansorena included a diamond collar of chatons and a diamond tiara with the dynastic fleur-de-lis. Victoria Eugenie later left that tiara among eight jewels to be passed down to future queens of Spain, and it remains one of the central pieces of the Spanish royal jewels.

The firm marked its 150th anniversary in 1995 with a major exhibition at the National Museum of Decorative Arts in Madrid and a book, 'Ansorena 150 Years of Madrid Jewelry.' The meander tiara was shown in that exhibition and appears as number 4 in its catalog. In 2010 an Ansorena exhibition, 'Tiaras since 1845,' brought together the house's iconic tiaras.

Platinum and the Belle Epoque

The Belle Epoque, the 'beautiful era' of peace and prosperity from the late 19th century to 1914, was the great age of the tiara. It marked rank and was required at court and state occasions; later it became part of a society lady's wardrobe for dinners, balls and the opera. Brides often received tiaras as wedding gifts.

This tiara shows the new technology of its moment. Its lightness and lace-like openwork depend on platinum, a metal as light as it is strong. Jewelers only learned to exploit platinum fully from about 1900, which is why the note in Ansorena's archives that the design was conceived as early as 1890 caught the catalogers' attention.

The design itself looks backward. Its wreaths, flowers and garlands follow the elegant Louis XVI manner, which the catalogers called a 'garland style,' made fresh by a metal fine enough to render it like lace.

The Countess of Villagonzalo

The tiara belonged to Esperanza Chavarri Aldecoa (1893-1982), Countess of Villagonzalo, wife of Fernando Maldonado Salabert, the 8th Count of Villagonzalo. She was a lady-in-waiting to Queen Victoria Eugenie. The published sources do not say how the tiara first came to her family; its design predates her birth in 1893, and it was made when she was a small child.

A photograph from about 1920 shows the Countess in gala dress at the Royal Palace in Madrid, wearing the tiara low over her brow in the manner of an Art Deco bandeau, with a diamond tassel at its center. The tassel has since been lost; refitting a valuable tiara to follow fashion was common.

A descendant said the tiara 'was much loved by the Countess and was worn at the many important royal and glamorous events she attended both in Europe and further afield.' It stayed in the family for more than 110 years, and before the sale it was previewed in Hong Kong, Geneva, New York and London.

On September 26, 2018, at auction in London, it sold for GBP 162,500 including premium, above its GBP 80,000 to 120,000 estimate. It was the first time the tiara had ever been offered at auction. A Spanish report of the sale gave the price in euros, once as 184,420 and once as 182,420 in the same article; no source found states a realized price in US dollars, so none is listed here.

The numbers

Carat weight

About 33.50 carats of diamonds in total

Color and clarity

Not graded in the catalog

Cuts

Old brilliant, single and rose cut

Origin mine

Not disclosed

Cutter

Not recorded; made by Ansorena, Madrid (unsigned)

Metal

Platinum

Timeline

1. 1845

   Celestino Ansorena opens his jeweler's workshop in Madrid.

2. 1860

   Ansorena is named jeweler and diamond merchant to the Spanish Royal Household.

3. 1890

   Ansorena's archives record the meander tiara design as conceived as early as this year.

4. 1893

   Esperanza Chavarri Aldecoa, future Countess of Villagonzalo, is born.

5. 1900

   Approximate date of the tiara as cataloged.

6. May 31, 1906

   Alfonso XIII marries Victoria Eugenie; his gifts include Ansorena's fleur-de-lis tiara.

7. 1920

   About this year, the Countess is photographed at the Royal Palace in Madrid wearing the tiara as a low bandeau with a diamond tassel.

8. 1982

   The Countess dies; the tiara passes by descent.

9. 1995

   The tiara is exhibited at the National Museum of Decorative Arts, Madrid, for Ansorena's 150th anniversary, catalog no. 4.

10. Sep 2018

    The tiara is previewed in Hong Kong, Geneva and New York before its London sale.

11. Sep 26, 2018

    Sold at auction in London for GBP 162,500 including premium, against a GBP 80,000-120,000 estimate; its first time at auction.

The world in 1900

• Jan 14, 1900

  Puccini's opera Tosca premieres in Rome.

• Apr 14, 1900

  The Exposition Universelle, a world's fair, opens in Paris.

• May 14, 1900

  The second Olympic Games open in Paris as part of the world's fair.

• Jul 19, 1900

  The first line of the Paris Metro opens.

• Jul 29, 1900

  King Umberto I of Italy is assassinated at Monza.

• 1900

  Max Planck formulates his law of black-body radiation, the birth of quantum theory.

Price record

A realized auction price is what a buyer actually paid on the date shown, including the buyer's premium where the sale reported it. It is the strongest kind of reference price, and it is a record of one sale of one object on one day, not a promise of what the next example will bring.

By reference price, Belle Epoque Diamond 'Meander' Tiara by Ansorena is number 39 of 100 in the jewelry entries of the FLOAT 100. 44 of those 100 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (38 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.

Did you know

• The tiara converts into two separate diadems, and the lower one can also be worn as a choker.
• The Countess wore it low on her forehead like a 1920s bandeau, a reminder that owners restyled tiaras as fashions changed.
• A diamond tassel that once hung at the center of the tiara has been lost.
• Ansorena's archives date the design to as early as 1890, a decade before jewelers fully mastered platinum.
• The forget-me-nots and laurel in the upper band stand for true love and the triumph of love.
• Ansorena also made the fleur-de-lis tiara Alfonso XIII gave his bride in 1906, still among Spain's royal jewels.