Police have revived the search for two men who allegedly stole more than $2million worth of jewellery in a ‘well planned’ armed robbery. Investigators have released CCTV footage of the silver Toyota Camry they believe was used by the men as a getaway car as well as computer generated portraits of them. The men were wearing tradie vests at the time of the alleged robbery and fled the scene in the worker’s car before switching to a silver Toyota Camry. Police described both men as being ‘very strong’. The first man is described as being Caucasian in appearance and about 165cm tall with a skinny build. He was wearing gloves, a dark coloured cap, black sunglasses, a blue face mask, orange shirt and pants. The men allegedly entered through the shop’s back door and assaulted a worker before forcing him to open the store’s safe at knife point. Detective Sergeant Craig West said the worker was not seriously injured in the attack but is still ‘traumatised’. Once the safe was opened, the men allegedly bound the worker with cable ties and gagged his mouth, the Herald Sun reports. It’s understood the men made off with 21-carat gold – www.backtoglamour.com – necklaces, bracelets, pendants, rings and cash valued anywhere between $2-2.5million. It was very well planned, they were quick and efficient and got away without anyone noticing them,’ he said. He was wearing gloves, a green fluoro top, brown work pants, sunglasses and a balaclava at the time of the alleged robbery.
Sterling Silver Ring Box
Edward’s mother, Queen Mary, and his grandmother, Queen Alexandra, were famous for their gems – and jewellery ran, as it were, in the family. Were all the gifts entirely proper – did the future Duke of Windsor give her jewels that he had inherited as Prince of Wales, but should probably have given up on his abdication? Edward frequently gave charms as presents, more often than not inscribed with the date alongside an intimate message. Ernest was unable to go and the prince was seen to have followed Wallis around like a puppy. Edward’s visits soon became more frequent. Did he believe that Wallis would one day be his Queen Consort and was therefore entitled to the most magnificent collection imaginable? It wasn’t until a year later in early 1932 that the Simpsons first entertained Prince Edward at their apartment at Bryanston Court in Marylebone. She would have been grateful. He would stay up until the early hours chatting with Wallis while Ernest went back to his papers and then to bed. But by Easter 1934, the prince had ended his relationship with another American, Thelma Furness (sister of Gloria Vanderbilt), and Wallis had started to receive jewellery and money to buy luxuries and clothes. One particularly recognisable piece of jewellery is the Cartier bracelet carrying nine of such charms which came up for auction in 1987 – the first time that the inscriptions could be examined in public. The 1987 catalogue also listed a slim chain necklace with three crosses suspended, matching the bracelet which recently came up again for auction at Sotheby’s 2010. This had belonged to the Prince. An emerald and diamond bracelet presented to Mrs Simpson, as she then was, by Edward, the Prince of Wales. Wallis was struggling to keep up appearances (so necessary to stay socially acceptable) as shipping business was still suffering after the depression of the 1920s. Money was becoming a major worry. In her biography, The American Duchess, Anna Pasternak suggests that the prince couldn’t stand the ‘stuffy court life’ and found the conversation at the Simpson’s flat ‘witty and crackling with new ideas’. The Prince of Wales met Mr and Mrs Simpson at a weekend house party in early 1931. The prince was there with his current mistress, Thelma (Viscountess) Furness. Was it a testament simply to the depth of his love or, also, to the extraordinary hold she had over him? In August 1936, while Edward and Wallis were on the Dalmatian Coast – more than six months after his accession – photographs appeared in the International press of the couple wearing their Latin cross jewels, indicating to the world the depth of their relationship. In July 1934, Edward (known as David to his family) invited Wallis and her aunt to Biarritz, along with several other friends. Nevertheless over the years, countless questions have been asked: why did he spend quite so much money on Wallis?
In February, he bought two diamond and emerald dress clips.
Daily Telegraph reported that in early 1935, George V heard from his courtiers that his son had recently spent £110,000 on jewellery for a mystery woman. And Wallis realised. They were staying at St Austell Bay Hotel over Easter 1935, when a box with a magnificent bracelet was delivered to the Simpson’s suite, along with a letter which, once again, declared the prince’s feelings. Then in October of that year, he gave her a spectacular diamond and emerald two-strand riviére necklace. The Simpsons’ money problems grew, however Edwards gifts – including money – became not merely gratifying but necessary. She wrote letters to her aunt, Bessie Merryman, that Edward’s attentions were becoming tiresome and more than once she disappeared to go shopping in Paris (with his money no doubt) to escape the pressure of being at his beck and call. George V immediately requested that his prime minister, Stanley Baldwin, discover who this woman was. This was only six weeks after the Simpsons attended a sumptuous state reception at Buckingham Palace for the wedding of Edward’s favourite brother Prince George (the Duke of Kent, who would die in a plane crash in 1942) to Princess Marina of Greece at which Wallis borrowed a tiara from Cartier and wore jewels given to her by the Prince of Wales . At the same time, she was sure that the infatuation would one day end and that the prince would find a younger model. Wallis did not always appreciate his turning up unannounced at the Simpsons’ apartment for cocktails and dinner. He was worried that his son was being blackmailed – and, thanks to the secret services, a spying operation commenced. It seems extraordinary to me that King George needed to go this far – after all, ‘everyone’ seemed to know that the Prince of Wales had spent £50,000 on jewels for Wallis’s Christmas presents, and then another £60,000 for New Year. Although, early on, Ernest was extraordinarily accepting of this affair (he was always reverential of the monarchy), by spring 1935 he was growing increasingly fed up of his role as cuckold. Receiving such a gift while sitting with her husband was not at all comfortable and led Wallis to beg the prince for some consideration. In February, he bought two diamond and emerald dress clips. It is generally accepted that, while Wallis loved the attention she was receiving from the most eligible man in the world, she was not in love with Edward – not in the early days, at least. She was still married of course.
Sterling Silver Jade 18k Ring
Anne Sebba author of a biography entitled That Woman describes how, as Wallis pulled back from the relationship, he gave her more and more – both jewels and money. In 1935 came one of the boldest statements of his desire to marry her. On the clasp was engraved W- 25. XII. He gave Wallis an emerald and diamond bracelet, probably by Van Cleef and Arpels, as it almost matched the exquisite emerald and diamond necklace of October. The feathers of the brooch are covered in circular pavé-set diamonds, gathered together by an 18k diamond set crown, their quills accented with baguette-cut diamonds. Prince Edward commissioned a platinum brooch designed as a plume of three ostrich feathers and a coronet, first drawn for Prince Edward the Black Prince. The Prince Edward piece was bought by Elizabeth Taylor in the 1987 auction. According to Sebba’s biography, Sir Lionel Halsey (effectively the prince’s accountant) informed George V that his son was providing Mrs Simpson with a ‘handsome income’ as much as £6000, or some £500,000 in today’s money. And the jewels would change, too: the pieces he bought in the next 11 months were not merely expensive but magnificent, gems more suited to those belonging to a Queen – the Queen he so desperately wanted Wallis to be. It was a dramatic change of life for Edward and and also for Wallis. Less than a month later, his father, George V, died and Edward became King of the United Kingdom and the Dominions of the British Empire and Emperor of India. This piece of jewellery far outsized the piece in the Royal Collection called The Prince of Wales Feathers Brooch, made for his grandmother Princess Alexandra of Denmark when she married the Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) in 1863, and which has subsequently been worn by Diana and Kate. Christmas 1935 was Edward’s last as Prince of Wales. Since the 1700s, it had been the heraldic symbol of the Prince of Wales.
Daphna, 58, walked the carpert in a silver sleeveless gown with plunging neckline.
