Ninety years ago today, the British and Greek royal families gathered in London for the wedding of a prince and a princess. The Duke of Kent, the youngest surviving son of King George V and Queen Mary, wed Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark in a pair of sparkling ceremonies on November 29, 1934. In honor of the anniversary, I’ve got a closer look at some of Marina’s gorgeous wedding gift jewels—including a discussion of where some of the pieces are today.
Prince George, Duke of Kent reportedly first met Princess Marina of Greece and Denmark when she visited England with her brother-in-law and sister, Prince Paul and Princess Olga of Yugoslavia, in 1932. Prince George and Prince Paul were close friends, and when Marina made a visit to Paul and Olga’s holiday home on Lake Bohinj, Paul invited George to join the party. The playboy prince fell in love with the glamorous princess, and the two announced their engagement at the end of August 1934. George presented Marina with an elegant sapphire and diamond engagement ring to mark the occasion.
The couple were married in London three months later, on November 29, 1934. Because of their different religious backgrounds, two ceremonies were required. First was an Anglican ceremony performed by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Cosmo Lang, at Westminster Abbey. Afterward, the couple and their families returned to Buckingham Palace, where a Greek Orthodox ceremony was performed in the private chapel. Marina wore a sleek wedding gown of white silk and silver lamé brocade, made by the British designer Edward Molyneux. She accessorized with a traditional diamond fringe tiara that had belonged to her grandmother, Grand Duchess Vladimir, and an heirloom family veil. Contemporary newspapers recorded the jewel as a family piece, with one noting, “The diamond tiara which will hold her veil in position is actually a possession of her sister, Princess Elizabeth, and belonged originally to the Grand Duchess Vladimir of Russia, Princess Marina’s grandmother.” Incidentally, Marina received her own diamond fringe tiara as a wedding gift as well, a present from the City of London.
With her wedding gown, Marina also wore a diamond necklace given to her by King George V and a diamond brooch presented to her by Queen Mary. Eight bridesmaids helped her manage her bridal ensemble, including two future monarchs, 25-year-old Princess Juliana of the Netherlands and eight-year-old Princess Elizabeth of York.
Nearby at St. James’s Palace, many of Marina’s glittering wedding presents were on display. The public were allowed to see the presents a week after the wedding, and by that time more than 1,000 gifts had been sent to the couple. Among these were some splendid jewels, most of them gifts from the groom, his parents, and the bride’s parents. This photograph of several of the bejeweled presents was reprinted in newspapers across the globe, and today, I want to take a closer look at the pieces represented here. The haul includes one complete parure, a second tiara, four necklaces, two bracelets, a pair of earrings, and a magnificent brooch.
We’ll start with the complete parure of jewels that Marina received: the classic Cambridge Sapphires, an heirloom suite from Queen Mary’s family. The set included a tiara, a necklace, a corsage ornament, two bracelets, two brooches, and a pair of earrings. The jewels were made for Queen Mary’s grandmother, Princess Augusta, Duchess of Cambridge, who later gave them to her daughter, Grand Duchess Augusta of Mecklenburg-Strelitz. Mary had inherited them from her beloved Aunt Augusta after her passing in 1916.
Now, Mary decided to pass the sapphires along to her daughter-in-law. Marina posed for this moody portrait in the sapphire and diamond jewels a little over a year after her royal wedding. She wears the complete set with another sleek, trendy ’30s evening gown. It’s easy to see why Marina became a fashion icon after joining the royal family.
Marina continued to wear the sapphire parure for decades to come. Here, she wears the jewels for a return dinner hosted by President Auriol at the French Embassy in London during his state visit in 1950.
And here, in brilliant color, Marina wears the sapphires as she arrives at Buckingham Palace to attend a state banquet in honor of the President of Liberia in July 1962. After Marina’s passing in 1968, the sapphires went to her son and daughter-in-law, the present Duke and Duchess of Kent. Eventually, the tiara was sold, and it appears that the rest of the suite was quietly sold later as well.
When your new father-in-law is the King, and he gives you a beautiful diamond necklace as a wedding present, it’s only right to wear the jewel on your wedding day. Marina sensibly chose to wear the King George V Diamond Necklace with her wedding gown and then returned it to the gift display at St. James’s Palace so that members of the public could enjoy its sparkle.
Marina also wore the necklace as she posed for bridal portraits in her wedding gown, veil, and tiara ahead of the day itself. The portrait was taken by the photographer Peter North at Buckingham Palace. The image was published widely at the time of the wedding, including a full-page version in the Daily Sketch on the day after the wedding.
Here, Marina wears the necklace again three years later, for the Rose Ball benefiting Alexandra Rose Day at Grosvenor House in London in 1938. The length of the necklace is a visual match to the one she wore on her wedding day. But it can be difficult over time to identify individual diamond necklaces, as most princesses, including Marina, own more than one. There are still diamond necklaces owned and worn by Marina’s descendants today, and it’s possible that this necklace is one of them.
Some of the most magnificent presents on the table were gifts from Marina’s parents, Prince Nicholas of Greece and Denmark and Grand Duchess Elena Vladimirovna of Russia. Elena’s mother, the iconic Grand Duchess Vladimir, was the source of these two gifts: a bandeau-style tiara and a large diamond bow brooch.
The tiara has an unusual scroll design made of diamonds and pearls. Some believe that they see a snake motif in the design—certainly not an impossibility where fashionable jewelry is concerned. The tiara was in the collection of Marina’s mother, Princess Nicholas, by 1910, and some jewelry historians believe that it was likely a wedding present to Elena from her mother, Grand Duchess Vladimir. In this photograph, taken at the Royal Variety Performance in 1937, Marina wears the tiara, plus the King George V Diamond Necklace and the large bow brooch.
Marina continued to wear the diamond and pearl tiara throughout her life. Its petite size made it perfect for events where comfort was a bonus, including outings to the theater and dances. Here, she wears it with a pair of diamond necklaces (probably including the one from King George) for the premiere of the film Great Expectations in London in 1946.
And here, she wears the bandeau with diamond earrings (now worn by Princess Michael of Kent) and a diamond and pearl necklace during the celebrations of the wedding of her niece, Countess Helene of Toerring-Jettenbach, and Archduke Ferdinand Karl Max of Austria in April 1956. (Fun fact: this was the royal wedding that many European royals attended instead of going to Prince Rainier and and Grace Kelly’s nuptials in Monaco.)
Later, Marina either loaned or gave the tiara to her daughter, Princess Alexandra, who wore it for various gala occasions in the late 1960s. The tiara was sold by the family after Marina’s death to help cover estate taxes, and it now belongs to a private collector.
But the real showstopper of Nicholas and Elena’s wedding presents was the grand diamond bow brooch, which is so large that it should really be referred to as a corsage ornament. The large girandole earrings that Marina wears with the bow ornament in this 1939 portrait were also gifts from her parents. Marina continued to wear the earrings and brooch for many years, including appearances at the coronations in 1937 and 1953.
After Marina’s death in 1968, the diamond bow was also sold to cover death duties. The buyer was the American collector Jayne Wrightsman. She owned the piece until 2012, when it was sold again by Sotheby’s. Intriguingly, this time the brooch was reunited with another royal family: the Al Thanis, who are part of the larger Qatari royal family. Sheikha Amna bint Mohammed Al Thani wore the brooch in England for the funeral of Marina’s niece, Queen Elizabeth II, in September 2022. Some have wondered if we might see the brooch again in some capacity during the upcoming Qatari state visit to Britain.
While the sapphires, the diamond necklace, and the Russian tiara and bow brooch are well-documented pieces in Marina’s collection, there are also more jewels included in the photographic display that are harder to spot in photograph of the late Duchess. King George V and Queen Mary also offered their new daughter-in-law a third necklace, shown on the right side of this image. The necklace was described in one contemporary press report as “a long necklace of diamonds with a single pearl pendant.” Another report described the necklace as “a diamond sautoir with pearl and diamond drop.” I’m not sure of the whereabouts of this piece, though I suspect it’s possible that it was later reimagined, with the pearl pendant perhaps repurposed as a brooch or clasp.
Queen Mary also offered Marina an unusual brooch. The jewel is rectangular, with a curving bow design placed atop the base of the piece. It was variously described by reporters who visited the wedding gift display as a “diamond and ruby brooch from the Queen” and a “beautiful bow brooch of rubies and diamonds.” This too doesn’t seem to have been worn much by Marina—I haven’t yet managed to track down a photograph of her wearing the brooch.
There’s one more ruby and diamond gift pictured here: a bracelet offered to her by her new husband, the Duke of Kent. Marina wore several different ruby and diamond bracelets throughout her life, some of which were later seen on Princess Alexandra. The angle of this photograph makes it difficult to discern the individual details of the bracelet, though there appear to be vertical design elements used throughout.
Prince George also gave several other presents to his bride, including a long ruby and diamond necklace with a matching pair of earrings (shown at the top of this photo) and a long pearl necklace with diamond accents and a matching bracelet (shown below). The pearls were said to have been family heirlooms restrung for the new Duchess; some have connected them with Queen Mary’s mother, the Duchess of Teck. I haven’t seen a photograph of Marina wearing the ruby and diamond necklace and earrings, but she was often photographed in pearls very similar to the set shown here.
Intriguingly, press reports from the time state that George offered his wife one more sparkling wedding present: a tiara! Reporters described the jewel as “a diamond tiara with an interchangeable centre so that either a diamond or ruby centre-piece can be worn.” Over at Royal Magazin, Ursula links the description to these photographs of Marina wearing a bandeau, but it looks to me like she may have borrowed Queen Mary’s Diamond Bandeau from her mother-in-law for that occasion. No absolutely certain identification of the wedding gift tiara has been made to my knowledge—which is fine by me. I love a jewelry mystery waiting to be solved!
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