Printed from Woolley & Wallis

Description

A PAIR OF EARLY 20TH CENTURY DIAMOND, ENAMEL AND MOTHER-OF-PEARL CUFFLINKS, each with a circular terminal, centred with the cypher 'VM' set with rose-cut diamonds and detailed respectively in red and blue enamel below a diamond-set coronet, against a fluted mother-of-pearl ground within a platinum ropetwist border and mounted in gold, linked to a gold bar back terminal, terminal diameter 1.5cm, gross weight 11.7g, case stamped Asprey

The cypher 'VM' is likely that of Princess Victoria Melita of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha (1876-1936), later Grand Duchess Victoria Feodorovna, and her second husband Grand Duke Kirill Vladimirovich of Russia (1876-1938). Though Kirill was her first love, due to his Orthodox faith Victoria was instead pushed by her family, especially her grandmother Queen Victoria, to marry Ernest Louis, Grand Duke of Hesse and by Rine (1868-1937). The match was not a happy one, and in 1901 they divorced, to the scandal of European society. In 1915, Victoria and Kirill were finally married, though without the consent of either King Edward VII or Emperor Nicholas II, which resulted in Kirill being stripped of his offices and honours, and the couple being banished from Russia. It was not until 1910 that they were pardoned by the tsar and readmitted to Russia, where they remained until the Revolution in 1917. Later, following the death of both Nicholas II and Grand Duke Michael Alexandrovich of Russia (1878-1918), Kirill would proclaim himself emperor-in-exile in 1926 as the last remaining head of the House of Romanov.