The Yusupov Black Pearl Necklace
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- čas přidán 19. 06. 2024
- Okay, so it's not a tiara - but it is a jewel with a royal provenance and a story too good not to tell. That story is one of incest, revolution, robbery, and infidelity, with a guest appearance by the Titanic. Not bad!
Our story begins with Catherine the Great, who gave the black pearl necklace to her lover, Prince Grigori Potemkin. From there, it passed into the Yusupov family, where it remained until Felix Yusupov sold it after the Russian Revolution. Where did it end up? In America, with an heiress who needed some retail therapy to help her through her relationship problems. Note: If Mathilde interests you, make sure you check out the full post - there's a lot more info there about her royal connections during her single days.
Chapters
0:00 Intro
0:55 Meet the Yusupovs
3:46 The Most Expensive Game of Hide and Seek, Like, Ever
5:16 American Immigration vs. a Dude Named Felix
6:35 Meet Mathilde
7:24 A Good Man Is Hard to Find
10:31 Provenance Impossible
This video is a short version of the full post, which has a ton more information. You can check it out here: girlinthetiara.com/yusupov-bl...
You may also like the full audio post, where I read you the entire post and you get to see all the pictures from the original post: • LONG VERSION: The Yusu...
ABOUT THE GIRL IN THE TIARA
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I tell stories about tiaras and the fascinating royal women who wore them. Join me as I follow these tiaras across generations and countries, through wars and revolutions and-sometimes-into darkness and disappearance and destruction.
This isn't the kind of history your professor lectured about. Instead, think of this as conversational history, like a mash-up of Drunk History and The Crown. Yes, there's a little swearing. There's also humor and heart and a boatload of compassion for these amazing royal women.
ABOUT ME
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I never intended to start a channel or a website about tiaras and royal history. But a midlife crisis forced me to re-examine my life. I gave up fiction writing after self-publishing 9 of the 10 books I'd written and earning next to nothing.
Instead of the misery of marketing books, I turned to my first love...royal history. So here I am, a 40-something burnout, trying to start over by recapturing her love of history, royal women, and their jewels.
FIND ME ONLINE
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girlinthetiara.com/
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Gertrude Boyce never wore the pearls, she was afraid of them but she had to own them if for no other reason but as parlor gossip. She allowed other women that had the courage to wear them to borrow them if they were to wear them in public. Ealanor Hamilton had that courage and wore them on several occasions, but she never owned them. I happened to read this either in an article in an old New York newspaper or a book somewhere, I just can't remember where. I worked as an archivist at one time. I was tasked with going through very old Parish records and putting documents back together in proper order and context, then I would microfilm everything. All was recorded in archives of the Parish governmental seat library for later reference and guides. I worked with documents that were French, Spanish, in Latin, and English and other languages including some Native American and Freed Men and Women of Color. These documents went from the 1600s to the present era.
Oh, thank you so much for this information! That makes sense of how Eleanor Hamilton fits into the story. And makes it look like Gertrude believed the "curse" and bad luck that supposedly followed the pearls. Interesting that she still had to own them, though. Working as an archivist sounds fascinating. I'd probably be super slow at that job because I'd be too interested in reading and studying the material! I'm incredibly grateful to archivists for preserving history for later generations to find and research.
Excellent choice of Borodin for the background music.
Thank you - I knew someone out there would appreciate it! :)
My ultimate favorite. But I don't know name of piece anymore. Been years..... Please let me know what the piece is called. God bless you. Almost forgot my lost Love. Thanks so much.
@@sharoncowles5629 it’s his string quartet
Wow! Not only do you have diverse, well researched, fresh material, but also a soothing voice AND snarky comments! I'm subbed up!
Thank you so much - you just made my entire day. I'm so glad there's someone else out there who wants to see something out of the ordinary and talk smack about it. We are going to be friends. :)
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Snarky? Hardly. Just really low-level Gen Z commentary on a teenage level. Shame such an interesting subject was ruined by such a bad attempt to be hip. Didn't work.
@@Sutherland2 For you.
@@SarahGreen523No, it doesn't work unless you're a teenager.
I always thought Felix himself gave Irina the rock crystal tiara, not his mother. Zinaida writes in her diary on Felix and Irina's wedding day the following: "They both looked so lovely, so young, happy and she - so lovely in the little diadem which he gave her, and my veil."
Cartier also classified the rock crystal tiara as being commissioned by Felix, as far as I know.
Thanks for that - I'll have to go double-check my sources and see which one had Zinaida as the gift-giver. In Hans Nadelhoffer's Cartier book (the only one I have close at hand at the moment), he simply says Irina chose the rock crystal tiara. I'll go back and take another look...
I like your excellent way of presentation these stories.
Thank you so much - I'm so glad you liked it! :)
sent this to my mother, we know where the black peal necklace is...try a related Russian family who made it out in 1917 because they were in Paris, getting the majority of their jewelry redone at Cartier's.
John Singer Sargent 🎨 painted those portraits of her.
Tiara is a generalized word for jewelry due to the habit of royals to secure any gem or jewelry to a metal frame and wear it as a tiara. Thus, the tiara wars are not just about tiaras, they are about gems.
Elizabeth Taylor turned the black pearls into a perfume.
So *that's* where they've all been disappearing to... ;)
I wonder if it was this necklace Felix "borrowed" at 12? Apparently he and his cousin got dressed up in Zinaida's clothing and jewelry, ended up drinking in a restaurant and Felix broke a pearl necklace trying to shoot it at a customer, scattering the pearls all over the place. The next day the restaurant owner sent the pearls and the bill to Felix's father, and the boys were grounded for 10 days lol.
I have heard the story of the necklace being broken by Felix ,but of course the necklace would have been knotted,so only one or two pearls would have been possibly lost.
These videos are a pleasure to watch. The look of the video, the pace of the narration and the information provided have made me a fan of the channel.
Thank you so much! Your comment just made my day. I'm so glad I could entertain you. :)
Am really happy l strumbled on your youtube chanel with so many fascinating stories. Very beautiful comforting voice and narration
Listening to your voice and the beautiful music in the background, makes me imagine I'm sat sipping tea with a tea cup and saucer. Dressed corset Ted. Hair coiled into a style topped with a breathtaking hat.
That sounds fabulous! I keep seeing gorgeous china teacups on tv shows and thinking, "I need to get one of those." Maybe a hat and corset need to go on that shopping list, too. :)
Col. Archibald Butts did not die during the sinking of the Titanic. He died like a year lately, supposedly from the physical strain he experienced from surviving the sinking.
This story is interesting!
What does bring a little chuckle is the fact, that Calvin Coolidge is an ancestor to my husband and Franklin Roosevelt (as well as Theodore, of course) is my ancestor. They both would have looked at Sumner Welles in a totally different way, and this whole relationship!
One would have sided with Matilde's first husband and the other being friends with the second husband, would have maybe seen it so differently.
They all lived such exciting lives and yet very dangerous ones. To have so many opportunities at your fingertips and yet not be happy in life, is very sad.
Oh, wow, that would make for some interesting dinner table conversation! ;) It *is* sad that people with so many opportunities just couldn't find the right path. Money really can't buy happiness - as much as it seems that way to me sometimes since I don't have much of it!
@@TheGirlintheTiara True, to us who do not, we cannot understand it.
@@TheGirlintheTiara I don't have the book (called, "Queen Victoria's Gene") at hand to quote properly, but one sentence from it struck me- something like, "Boredom caused by excessive wealth can be just as deadly as the hemophilia gene". I think that referred to some royals who lost their lives through engaging in unnecessary dangerous pastimes. My folks don't have much money, so I don't get to be bored. Ever. At least, one small blessing. ;-)
Eleanor probably dropped them on the way down to the lifeboat. Okay. I've had my fun. Thanks VERY much for a superbly done story. I love your channel.
Thank you so much! And there's actually a debate over how many of Eleanor's jewels - including a different pearl necklace - actually made it off the Titanic. There are a couple fascinating posts about her on Encyclopedia Titanica - such a rabbit hole! www.encyclopedia-titanica.org/community/threads/2012-widener-pearls.19613/
Beautiful work. You have taken so much care. Thank you.
Your timing in this video was well done. At the end it would be good to hear something about Yusupov family. But all in all great work! Thank you for sharing us!
Thanks so much for your feedback - I appreciate it! And I'm glad I could entertain you. :)
Another wonderful video!! ♡
Dearest Ms.I.T.T., Have you considered turning your considerable research abilities to the story of Mrs. Morton Plant's famous double strand of Cartier pearls? It seems a story very suited to your talents. Please keep the great work. griffin
All right you tubers which one of y'all ended up with the black pearl necklace.Somebody inherited that thing 😁
Hahaha - I hope one of you has it! That would be the *best* ending ever! 😁 Unless, of course, the commenter who said Gertrude was buried in the necklace is right...
Nicely done!!! 😄
Thanks so much - you made my day! :)
You have a lovely voice, and I really enjoy the presentation of your subject matter. Nicely done. Hey, I’m a big fan of CHOCOLATE pearls! 😉
Oh, thank you very much! I'm not a huge fan of black pearls myself. Go figure! ;)
I love this channel 🙌🏾 I’ve subscribed ‼️🙂🙂🙂🙂🙂
Woo-hoo! Thanks so much for making my day. :)
@@TheGirlintheTiara please don't stop making videos!!🌟✨✨✨
@@tabbypanda82 I'm working on another one right this very minute. ;)
@@TheGirlintheTiara AWESOME I CAN'T WAIT TO RECEIVE THE NOTIFICATION!!!!✨✨✨✨ #PUMPED
You are Very Entertaining ,young Lady. This story is intriguing. So much of the Russian Revolution is lost to time, legend and Mystery. Also a very sad story that the Zar and his family were Not rescued early on by their UK relatives.
I look forward to More of your Fascinating Stories of the long ago 1920s affairs de' Heart!
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Really interesting. What’s so sad is that many of the jewels etc didn’t make it out of Russia. ( or , say, the original Crown Jewels that Cromwell looted) . The history that goes with them far outweighs the money they would get selling them separately. Guess they didn’t think of that. Many peasants would just think that they could feed a family for a year or more by getting rid of them. And I guess, feeding a family is a good idea. I’ve never been an admirer of pearls but they do look exquisite. Thank you 🙏🙏🙏🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺🇦🇺
You're very welcome! I totally agree - the history associated with these jewels far outweighs their price on either the open or the black market. But I also wouldn't want starving children on my conscience for the sake of a necklace...human life is worth more than an object, even a priceless one. We humans create some strange situations for ourselves, don't we?
This is like a PowerPoint presentation.
It is, actually! I started with PowerPoint and later graduated to Adobe Premiere Pro. I'm trying to get much better at this...slowly but surely. :)
Nice video. Hope the pearls turn up someday.
Thank you - I hope they turn up, too! Although one commenter said that Gertrude was buried in them. If that's the case, I guess they're gone forever, which makes me kind of sad.
@@TheGirlintheTiara many wealthy individuals sold off jewellry during the great depression. They were used fir security agaibst loans.
@@mnilsson2704 That's absolutely true! But Gertrude would have had to go through an absolute ton of money to need more during the depression. When her husband died in 1930, his estate was supposedly worth $85 to $100 million. Even if she didn't get all of it, it seems like she must have had enough to get by. Unless she had the world's worst financial manager...
I don't have any info on the necklace, but Archie Butt (the friend who went down on the Titanic) was homosexual. He shared a house in Washington with Francis David Millet, who also went down on the Titanic, and who earlier had a well documented relationship with American writer Charles Warren Stoddard. Unfortunately, there is no documentation about the precise relationship between Butt and Millet, who lived together even though Millet was married with children. Also interesting, Major Butt would rent rooms to army and navy men for a place to stay while in Washington.
Thank you for the information! Yes, I did see references to Archie's life with Francis David Millet, but as you mentioned, there's no documentation about their exact relationship. It's probably none of our business anyway. In the long version of this video (with full text from the blog post I wrote), I mention the theory that Archie's pursuit of Mathilde might have been a type of societally acceptable role play. It also might explain why he didn't try to stop her from marrying Peter. I'd be interested to know if Mathilde knew Francis David Millet. He wasn't mentioned in the sources I used for her, but that doesn't mean they didn't know each other socially.
Yeah, and a hard man is good to find.
My personal Goddess Mae West ❤️
😂😂😂😂Very funny Play on Words! A Mae West twist on a quote. ✌️😍😂
Where were the pearls originally from, Burma, Australia ? Or the South Seas like Tahitian black pearls today?
None of my sources listed an origin for the pearls - but according to jewel expert Hans Nadelhoffer, black pearls usually came from Tahiti and Panama. White pearls usually came from the Persian Gulf, Sri Lanka, and Australia.
Thanks for the information on the pearls origin. The reason I ask is that our Tahitian black pearl market is largely post Second World War using Mikimoto’s grafting technique. Before that the likelihood of obtaining such perfect and uniform black pearls here naturally is very unlikely indeed. So that’s why I asked a provenance just out of curiosity. So maybe Panama at that time? If you track down the necklace then you’ll really know for sure I guess.
Since Panama was part of the Spanish empire for about 300 years, beginning in the early 1500s, I'm guessing that's how Panamanian black pearls would have made it to Europe? Just a guess - but it's an interesting thing to look into further.
Wow that's some get up of Zinaida's where she's standing next to Felix. Never seen anything like it.
1903 Winter Palace Ball- February 11-13,1903. St Petersburg. 400 guests
@@JGumaerTesta oh that's so interesting! It's probably like a Christmas/winter holiday type outfit, I would assume. I was also wondering about it.
I love this I'm so glad I stumbled across your Channel my only complaint is I wish your uploads were longer☺️
Thank you so much! If you like longer videos, you might enjoy the versions where I read the *full* version of each blog post (this video, for example, is more like a summary of a post - because I wouldn't dream that *everyone* wants the 30-60 minute version of the story). For even more of the story, try the long versions: czcams.com/play/PLG_NZAB2atofL22wc1hvzolO3msa_zsoq.html
Have you contacted Cartier? For historical purposes I believe they know someone who would know.
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The black pearl necklace sound reminiscent of "The Pearl" by John Steinbeck. Or maybe Steinbeck took it upon himself to twist the story to his own liking since the book was not written until 1947.
Am i wrong in assuming Elizabeth Taylor's set of pearls were unconnected?
If you mean the necklace that included La Perigrina pearl; you assume correctly.
All the pearls in the Taylor necklace were white. The Yousoupv pearls were natural black pearls
@@egriffinj Yes. Thanks!
Harry Winston, a distant in-law of mine, purchased the Hope Diamond and eventually donated it to the Smithsonian. He purchased the diamond in 1949. He would be a possible purchaser for such a necklace.
Another interesting angle for a resale would have been the Duke of Windsor who purchased expensive jewellery for his duchess. That necklace would have really fit her tailored style.
At this point I think it is likely the necklace has been broken up and remade into earrings, etc.
That's fascinating - thanks so much for adding to the story. You're probably right in that it's since been broken up. I don't think it will ever make a reappearance...unless it still belongs to a descendant of Gertrude Boyce-Thompson, and it's locked up in a safety deposit box somewhere. Stranger things have happened. But I got in touch with a descendant of Gertrude's, and the story of the pearl necklace didn't ring a bell with him. The Duchess of Windsor angle would be interesting to investigate!
@@TheGirlintheTiara Boyce-Thompson. Interesting name. I have reasons to wonder if she was in some way related to Harry Winston? Maybe not. I am thinking some things I won't write.
I own some fabulous historical items that have meaning withing certain contexts. You never know what might be in private hands.
Pearls have ways of disintegrating, coming unstrung and a lot of other things. It would be interesting if Gertrude's descendants were photographed wearing black pearl earrings, pins, etc. Or possibly black pearls fell out of favour and the necklace was forgotten along the way.
That would be a very interesting connection if Gertrude were related to Harry Winston. I'll do a little digging and see if anything pops up. I spent a little time (not much) looking into Gertrude's daughter, Margaret Thompson Schulze Drexel Biddle, Jr., but didn't find any newspaper clippings or Cholly Knickerbocker articles about her in pearls. Doesn't mean they aren't out there to be found, though.
My favorite story of jewels in private hands turning up unexpectedly is the story of Archduchess Isabella's peridot parure turning up in a safe deposit box in about 2001. The family who'd bought the jewels after Isabella's death evidently put them in in a safe deposit box and forgot about them. Decades later, they were rediscovered and sold. Joan Rivers wore the necklace and earrings to the Golden Globes in 2004.
@@TheGirlintheTiara Amazingly, sometimes fabulous pieces go out of style and get recycled.
Years ago Paul Harvey, in a "Rest of the Story' segment, told how a necklace that belonged, I think to Empress Josephine, was found in Baltimore or somewhere similar. I saw your segment on Betsy Bonaparte and am trying to be very careful in what I remember. As I recall, each gem stone bead was engraved, I think to Josephine. There may be a connection to Betsy and Jerome but I don't think that was part of the tale.
@@annalisette5897 I found the transcript of that Paul Harvey segment on his archive website - I used to love listening to those years ago! In his story, a couple bought an amber necklace from a shop in California. It was labeled as a "genuine imitation." Years later, when the wife had it restrung, the jeweler offered her $1,000 for it. When shown to another jeweler in NY, that one offered her $3,000. When asked why, the jeweler said that each bead was carved amber, with an inscription from Napoleon to Josephine.
I found a blogger who mentioned the Paul Harvey version and found a similar NYT article from 1921. I looked up that article, which debunks the story that Americans bought an amber necklace Napoleon had given to Josephine (in this version, it had supposedly been stolen from the Louvre). The NYT article says that French authorities looked into it, but neither the Louvre nor the Malmaison curator knew anything about such an amber necklace. ("Josephine's Stolen Necklace a Myth," Thursday, June 16, 1921)
There might be a grain of truth in there somewhere that got garbled over time.
Mathilde sounds like a golddigger I'm sorry, after that the timing was way off, too oh, by the way, Rasputin warned the Czarina if his death was at the hands of her family they would not survive if his death was at the hands of the revolution they would be fine guess who was at fault. Oh, I just learned this, why would you call anyone a homewrecker when someone left the back door unlocked.
Mathilde was a great heiress in her own right
These are the Cowdray Pearls, mystery solved, do I win a prize? Most recently sold by Christie's in 2015.
They were purchased by barbara hutton
Wow, thanks for adding to the story! Is there any documentation on her ownership? When I was looking in jewel forums, I saw Barbara Hutton as well as Nina Dyer mentioned as possibilities for next owners, but never found any paper trail on either of them.
Did you ever think that the infamous Yusupov Black Pearls may have end up with Margaret Thatcher or Barbara Bush or even Kamala Harris? Who else are the famous pearls lover?
Oh I should have also mentioned Wallis Simpson the Duchess of Windsor?
Felix was stupid. He should have buried the stuff out in the country. Didn't it take the family 2 MONTHS to even visit all the property?
yoo
Pochumpkin?
When I looked up the pronunciation of "Potemkin," that's what I came up with. In Russian, it's not pronounced the way it's spelled in English. I still might not have it quite right, but I gave it my best shot. :)
@@TheGirlintheTiara I check pronunciations with an online translator. I was interested in your pronunciation of Zinaida, a name I have used professionally. This name got national attention when Casey Anthony claimed Zanny (Zinaida) the Nanny had absconded with her child Caylee. Casey used a Spanish pronunciation. So far as I know the Slavic pronunciation is different.
I found that pronunciation of Zinaida on a thread in the popular Russian history forum, the Alexander Palace Time Machine. There was a discussion where native Russian speakers chimed in, and I went with the phonetic pronunciation they offered.
Transvestite is a derogatory term.
Thank you for this. It's a reminder for me that the vocabulary in older sources really needs to be double-checked. I'm embarrassed to have missed this.
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then what does the T in LGBT stand for? Seems to me they owned it.
While true and we shouldn't use that word today, it's hard to choose the correct word for people in history given the lack of vocabulary and social pressures in their time. If someone describes themselves with a slur or inappropriate word, unless we can ask them about it, we need to acknowledge their views of themselves.
@@TheGirlintheTiara Felix Yusupov was alleged to have been a cross dresser -- is that the appropriate term? -- and bisexual. That need not be a slur though in his time it was. He and his associates murdered Rasputin and he admitted it. IMO this aided the coming revolution. Felix Yusupov is no hero in my opinion.
What an elegant commentary..
Not!
(Yawning)...
The annoying flip script and narration of the present (millenial?) generation is disgusting! She is talking abou REAL PEOPLE a distinction these children don't recognize! I would end with SHAME!, but that is and emotion egoist can't feel!