Emeralds taking flight - the earrings and dragonfly brooch of the Countess of Rosse

Anne, Countess of Rosse wearing the Rosse emerald and diamond parure, as well as a diamond collet necklace, circa 1930s.

Anne Parsons, Countess of Rosse (née Messel, previously Armstrong-Jones; 8 February 1902, Paddington – 3 July 1992, Sussex), was an English socialite and one of the founders of The Victorian Society. She was the sister of theatrical designer Oliver Messel, and the mother of Antony Armstrong-Jones, 1st Earl of Snowdon by her first marriage, and Brendan Parsons, 7th Earl of Rosse by her second. 

The emerald and diamond dragonfly brooch, set en tremblant, was created in 1911 for the previous Countess of Rosse, Lois Parsons, later Viscountess de Vesci of Abbey Leix. Designed by her father Sir Cecil Lister-Kaye, 4th Bt., and apparently made by Garrard, the piece incorporated a pair of Colombian emerald briolette-cut drops which featured in the earrings that were part of the antique emerald and diamond parure of the Rosse family. The design of the brooch was such that the drops, estimated to weigh approximately twenty-five carats combined, could be conveniently detached from the brooch and put back into their original place in the earrings.

A composite image showing the earrings in their original configuration.

The Countess of Rosse in 1965 wearing the dragonfly brooch.

The earrings themselves remained with the family until 2020, when an altered version of the pair - with rather crudely set briolette-cut amethyst drops replacing the emeralds - was auctioned at Bonhams in London. The brooch, itself - emeralds intact - was put up for auction only three years later.

The Rosse heirloom earrings as sold.

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Anne, Countess of Rosse wearing the Rosse tiara and necklace, circa 1930s.

The more important pieces in the Rosse emerald and diamond parure were the necklace and tiara. The antique necklace - circa 1870 - was designed as a series of sixteen graduated Colombian emeralds, each surrounded by old mine cut diamonds, alternating with smaller Colombian emeralds with pear-shaped diamond drops, all mounted in silver and gold, and with a diamond-set kite-shaped emerald pendant. The tiara - circa 1885-90 - also mounted in silver and gold, in a modified Kokoshnik design, consists of eight pear-shaped emeralds - some in briolette-cut - pendent within double rows of diamonds, the whole centered on an emerald-cut and a kite-shaped emerald, both surrounded by diamonds. 

Anne, Countess of Rosse wore the full parure - including the intact earrings - at two coronations, that of George VI in 1937, and that of Elizabeth II in 1953. 

The Countess of Rosse dressed for the coronation of Elizabeth II in 1953.

The Rosse tiara and necklace were sold separately at Christie’s in the 1980s.

Randomly XXIX

 

Doppelbildnis Marées und [Franz] Lenbach, by Hans von Marées, 1863.

Orange glass jug with green cutting, by Marie Krøyer, 1884. 

 Portrait Study of a Lady, by Gerald Leslie Brockhurst, circa early 1930s.

 Portrait of a Young Man, by James Van Der Zee, circa 1931-37.

Boy Bathing - study for "Summer Morning," by Henry Scott Tuke, circa 1886.

Naturaleza muerta con Dorada, by Francisco Goya, circa 1808-12.

 Mikhail Mordkin, circa 1920s.

Five studies, by Ferdinand Küss, circa 1838.

Amos Simon Cottle, by William Palmer 1787.

L'homme couché - study for Une baignade Asnières, by Georges Seurat, 1883-84.

French language poster for "The Great Sinner," 1949.

Portrait Sketch of a Young Man, by Oliver Messel, 1930.

Bronze volute krater, from Pompeii, House of Volusius Faustus, circa end of the 1st century BC-beginning of the 1st century AD.

Stereoscopic photograph of a strongman holding Indian clubs, circa 1853-1860s.

Prince Grigori Wolkonsky at the Cardwell’s Hotel in Madeira Island, Portugal, by Vicente Gomes da Silva, 1887.

“The Intellectual Summer Holiday," by William Heath Robinson, 1925. Published in The Bystander, June 10, 1925.

Cathrine Lundbye, née Bonnevie, the artist's mother, by Johan Thomas Lundbye, 1836.

The Spanish Dancer, by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, 1888.

Alastair William Matthew Brodie (1871-1899); he died during the 2nd Boer War.

Nude study, unknown artist, circa 1900.

Buster Keaton with his sons James and Robert, 1928.

Allégorie de la victoire, by Mathieu Le Nain, circa 1635.

Head of a princess of the New Kingdom, Amarna Period - the latter half of the eighteenth Dynasty, circa 1353-1336 BC.

Painting by Matthijs Röling, 1968.

 Portrait of a young man, called Prince Rupert, by Gerrit van Honthorst, circa 1635-40.

Reclining nude, by Giulio Bargellini, circa 1900.

 An Elegant Couple Making Music in an Interior, the circle of Johann Heinrich Tischbein the Elder, circa 1780s.

 The bedroom of the duchesse de Berry in the Pavillon de Marsan, the Tuileries, by Jean-François or Auguste-Siméon Garneray, 1822.

Man in Bed, Harlem, by Aaron Siskind, 1940.

 Reclining Young Woman in Spanish Costume, by Édouard Manet, 1862-63.

Coach Fendley Collins practicing with a wrestler, Michigan State University, circa 1940s-50s.

Anna Pavlova and  Mikhail Mordkin in "Valse caprice," 1910.

 Trompe l'Oeil with a Bust of Venus, by Caesar van Everdingen, 1655.

 Still Life with Roses and Strawberries, by Otto Diderich (Didrik) Ottesen, 1843.

Female nude, by Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida, 1902.

 Icarus Fallen, by Alfred Schwarzschild, 1920.

La Chienne Rita endormi, by Frédéric Bazille, 1864.

Able Seaman of the HMS Stork with the ship's mascot "Buster," 1942.

Autoportrait au miroir de bambou, by Édouard Vuillard, circa 1890.

The Fortune Teller, by Frédéric Bazille, 1869.

American Gladiators, by Francis Luis Mora, 1908.

 Charlotte -Victoria Elisabeth Augusta Charlotte - Prinzessin von Preußen, later Duchess of Saxe-Meiningen, by Philip de László, 1899.

Czech strongman Gustav Frištenský, circa 1900.

Elisabeth Bellinghausen, by Bartholomäus Bruyn, usually called Barthel Bruyn the Elder, circa 1538-1539.

 Advertisement for Knapp Hats, original artwork by Percy Edward Anderson, circa 1920s.

 The Ziegfeld Theater, architects Joseph Urban and Thomas W. Lamb, 1927. (Demolished in 1966.)

Japan, 1950s.

La Ronde Enfantine (Beneath the Trees at Port-Bertaud / Children Dancing), by Gustave Courbet, circa 1862.

The Nile Delta, Kafr El Cheikh Khalil, by Bernard Guillot, 2004.

 Un thé à l'Hôtel Ritz, Paris, by Boris Lipnitzki, 1930.

Still Life with Melon and European Roller, by Antal Jozsef Strohmayer, circa second half of the nineteenth century.

Portrait of Kazu (Kazuyoshi Miura, Japanese soccer player), by Herb Ritts, 1995.

Portrait of a lady with a chain and shackles, Spanish School, circa second half of the seventeenth century.

 Dress, red rayon crepe with silver-gilt leather piping, Saks Fifth Avenue, 1938.

Drapery Study for a Seated Figure, by Leonardo da Vinci, circa 1470.

 Untitled, by Walter Dean Goldbeck, circa first quarter of the twentieth century.

Dancers Leonora Hughes and Maurice Mouvet, by Edward Steichen, 1924.

Self-Portrait, by Charles Fairfax Murray, circa 1860s-70s.

Stage designer and actor Albrecht Becker, by Gustav Becker, circa 1930.

Fürstin Maria Josepha Hermenegilde von Esterházy, née Liechtenstein, by Angelika Kaufmann, 1795.

Duchess Peony, by Mia Tarney, 2007.