Posted by mauriz on October 30, 2012, 7:19 am, in reply to "Re: Excellent find!"
--Previous Message-- : An excellent find indeed! : According to the Sotheby catalogue, the : jewels are sold by the descendants of : 'German nobleman' August von Finck, not by a : Habsburg - which could lead to one of our : most popular question in such cases: Any : chance that they might buy it back : themselves? : It's quite amazing - and something of a pity : - that Empress Marie-Luise's grand sapphire : parure is not only sold, but sold in : different lots, which could lead to it being : torn apart and scattered all over the globe : forever.
But then, the catalogue notes for the biggest of the three brooches read:
"These three brooches were once thought to have belonged to the collection of Marie Louise of Austria, Duchess of Parma, second wife of Emperor Napoleon I. Today, however, they are believed to originate from a later period and are thus more likely to have belonged to Princess Maria Luisa of Bourbon-Parma (1870 - 1899), wife of Ferdinand I of Bulgaria (1861 - 1948). Member of the House of Bourbon, the fleur de lys figured prominently on her family coat of arms. This symbol can also be seen on the tiara created for her by the Viennese jeweller Köchert, on the occasion of her marriage in 1893."
If that German nobleman was the banker August von Finck (as years of birth and death given by Sotheby's would indicate), his fortune was connected to the aryanization of banks like Dreyfus & Co in Berlin and Rothschild in Vienna.
on October 30, 2012, 7:19 am, in reply to "