The huge emerald bow brooch story Archived Message
Posted by Cristina  on June 27, 2012, 4:21 am, in reply to "to Cristina : Hohenzollern Sigmaringen emerald tiara"
Thank you for your research Radama. Yes, that is the tiara I've mentioned on a previous thread below as the one I believe is the same worn by Pss Brigitta. The tiara would have been part of the jewels inherited from her mother, Queen Maria II, by Infanta Antónia of Portugal, who married Prince Leopold of Hohenzollern Siegmarigen and is an ancestor of Pss Brigitta's husband.
I have no list of jewels inherited by Antónia,or of her wedding gifts, that would help clear this mistery, I'm still searching it.
As to the emerald big bow brooch, I can tell you I've seen it live, some years ago in a unique exibition of the crown jewels in the Ajuda Palace, and it is indeed fabulous!
The emeralds are huge and have a wonderful deep green colour. They are considered to be top quality.
The design of the piece is a bit more controversial and I've read several versions of it.
The stones seem to be part of the portuguese jewels since mid XVIIIth century, but the present design dates from mid 1950's.
As I wrote in previous posts, Queen Maria Pia (wife of King Luís I and daughter in law of Queen Maria II) decided to dismantle completely some of the past portuguese royal jewels and reset them at her own taste. Sadly the first version of this fabulous bow brooch was among those jewels that wore dismantled... the Queen had the stones reseted in a (very ugly imo) parure of small crescent diamond moons inbetween the emeralds. In Ajuda palace there is a portrait of her wearing this set. The parure had at least a small tiara, necklace and earrings.
I believe the emerald stones are part of the crown jewels and escaped the big auction of the Queen's jewels that took place after the revolution (she had many, many debts). I read that in the mid 1950's the governement wanted to change the jewels back to it's original design but they had no exact records on how it looked, so they had to research on old portraits of the XVIIIth century royal ladies. They eventually found one portrait of Infanta Maria Benedita, sister of Queen Maria I, wearing a huge emerald corsage bow brooch. And so it was decided to try to recreat that design.
Some authors state that such a magnificent piece was not from the Infanta but from her mother, Queen Maria Ana Victoria, and that the emerald corsage on the portrait was not the original one for these stones...
I don't know if you can read portuguese,but I can tell of some recent books that have some information on this jewel. I don't have the titles here but can send them later.
--Previous Message--
: Searching in my old files, I came across some
: portuguese royal jewels and found a better
: picture of Queen Maria II of Portugal
: with her emerald tiara, with matching brooch
: and bracelet. It then appears more clearly
: that the tiara has at least three
: substantial emeralds.
:
:
:
: Through her daughter Infante Antonia the
: tiara ended up to the
: Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen princely House and
: was seen on Pcess Birgitta
: of Sweden at the 1967 danish royal wedding :
:
:
: I would like to add another royal emerald
: jewel from Queens of Portugal :
: a huge bow brooch which belonged to Queen
: Marie Anne and is showed off in one Lisboa
: 's Palace.
: Do you know more about it ?
:
:
: Scanned from "Point de Vue"
:
|
|
