I recently finished re-reading a book,
The Sphinx: The Life of Gladys Deacon - Duchess of Marlborough and thought she'd feel right at home here. By all accounts Gladys was a beautiful girl, and grew up to be a beautiful woman.
But she had some *issues* and hated her nose. She had wanted to be the Duchess of Marlborough since she was a child, and finally achieved in 1921 (Gladys is 40 by this time) after being the Duke's mistress for years. (The previous Duchess was Consuelo Vanderbilt of
The Glitter and the Gold fame) I won't go deep into Gladys's story; that's not what this thread is about. But in 1903 she had paraffin wax injected into her nose to "straighten" it [I should point out this was to give the classical "Greek" profile. ie. no dip or dent from the forehead to nose, just a straight, clean line), and into her jawline. Days later the wax slipped and as you might expect left large lumps in her chin. Its hard to see on a lot of photos, being as old as they are. But you'll also notice a lot of Gladys's photos around this time have her covering her neck (if you've ever followed Chantal you'll recognize this trick as one she used pre-hijab to cover her quadtruple chin). Stories circulated that Gladys would sit by the fire and try to heat the wax enough to move it around. She ended her days as a recluse.
Without further ado, let us meet Gladys.

As young girl
1901
Boldini
1918 Drawings of Gladys by
Boldini

John Singer Sargent drawing
Pre Wax Injections:
Post-Injection:
Wedding day
Doing the infamous Chinny-Pose
1910s:
1920s "selfies" wearing one of the tiaras that belonged to the Romanovs (
Marie Feodorovna's pearl drop tiara to be specific). This one really shows the chin.
Gladys, despite it all was known to have beautiful blue eyes. They are captured in the ceilings of Blenheim Palace.

She is also the face of some sphinxs in the Blenheim gardens...
Finally... the reported final picture of Gladys (but not, I think of her in old age. she died at 96) with some of her dogs, the Blenheim variety King Cavalier Spaniel breed she was known to have loved.
