aigrette

Iranian-style jewelry studded with jade and other precious stones were popular during the Ottoman period, and Joyce may have applied his newfound skills to crafting rings, earrings, necklaces, and intricate jeweled turban aigrettes.

In the finished portrait, he stands draped in pearls with a diamond aigrette twinkling from his turban, every inch the maharajah — except, of course, for the Koh-i-Noor.

Who else but Loulou—tomboy daughter of a French marquis and an Anglo-Irish fashion model—would have adopted mock-maharaja garb for her own wedding, complete with a turban and an aigrette?

Other intriguing pieces included Chaumet’s narrow diamond tiara with a central opal, with an upstanding aigrette of white feathers rising from sapphire branches.

From the Grand Signor, a diamond aigrette and rich pelisse, valued at £3,000.