The Cardross Necklace is fake. Georgette Heyer (the one and only romance
writer, as far as I'm concerned) made it up for her novel April Lady.
She describes it as a (hideous to her main character) gold and emerald
necklace, with flowers set on little coils of gold so it quivers.
{I
looked all over the internet and didn't find anything that reminded me
of it, surprisingly, and I maybe have a new business idea of
manufacturing jewelry and clothing described in my favorite books. Yep,
pretty sure there's a BOOMING market for that.}
These are the best hideous emerald concoctions I found from the early nineteenth century. That's a stomacher brooch on the bottom.
And here's an emerald, ruby, diamond, and gold giardinetti neckace, circa 1760. Now, THIS one I'd wear in a heartbeat!
Of course, now I know writers cheat all the time. But there's still something enchanting about imagining something gorgeously spectacular and bringing it to life on the page with nothing but words. Sometimes if I can't figure out what something would look like--like 1920s spats, for example, which confused me for YEARS--I look at pictures, but I usually find my imagination is better than anything google spits up.
Except for that 1760 necklace. Maybe it will make a cameo appearance in my next manuscript.
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