Michel, Prince of Greece

When I started watching the Crown on Netflix, I was intrigued by the flash and sparkled of the crown jewels. I purchased 3 books - [Crown Jewels: The Official Illustrated History] which showed all of Great Britain's crown jewels, [The Jewels of Queen Elizabeth II: Her Personal Collection], and this book. I wanted to see how the British collection stood up to the rest of Europe. Europe lost. Some of the pieces from the Danish, Swedish, and Belgian were gorgeous, and the pictures in this book were so much better - more close up so that you could see the details - however, the variety and volume of Queen Elizabeth II's collection as well as the British Crown Jewels made this collection far superior to any other. I'm not sure why, maybe because of the extent of the British empire of Queen Victoria (who received much of the collection) or the acquisitions of the Russian Tsar's family jewels my Queen Mary.

Whatever the reason, if you want to see some really sparkly jewels, Great Britain has them hands down.… (more)

This collection of mostly informal photographs of Russia's last royal family is pretty astonishing. Apparently most of these are snapshots taken by members of the family, and are revelatory on several levels. As always, the camera loves the Grand Duchesses, but the real star here is Czar Nicholas himself. We see him riding piggyback on some of his royal relatives, get a good look at his tongue, and, astonishingly, he's even nude, as is his son Alexei. His daughters usually play it a little closer to the vest, but family clown Anastasia also shows off her tongue, and pretends to levitate and be a weightlifter. An introduction and the captions, by a distant royal relative, are informative both as to the people in the photos and as photography criticism; for once in a photography book, they don't get in the way at all.… (more)