Braganza Jewels – Ladies of Rio AquamarinesArchived Message
Posted by Jorge on February 6, 2014, 10:19 am
1942 was also a very special year for the Portuguese royal Family and for all the Portuguese monarchists. HRH D.Duarte Nuno, Duke of Braganza married HIRH D.Maria Francisca, Princess of Brazil at the Cathedral of Petropolis, Brazil (a very special church for the Imperial House of Brazil).
This wedding was very popular because through it the two branches of the Braganza Family, separated for more than 100 years, became united: D.Duarte was a descendent of D.Miguel I of Portugal and D.Maria Francisca was descendent of D.Pedro IV of Portugal (1st of Brazil). This means that the present Duke of Braganza is descendent of both brothers (D.Pedro and D.Miguel).
This wedding was so meaningful that Queen D.Amélia accepted to be D.Maria Francisca’s wedding Godmother and sent a reconciliation present to the couple (more on that later).
The couple received many presents but the one that stood out was an impressive aquamarine necklace, courtesy of the Ladies of Rio Carioca Society. I read somewhere that in fact it was offered an entire set composed by necklace, earrings and ring but until the moment I never saw a good picture of the last two. According to Life magazine the necklace (or the entire set?) was evaluated in 15000 dollars at the time which today would be equivalent to a small fortune I guess. D. Maria Francisca used the necklace after the wedding probably as a courtesy.
In my opinion this necklace can easily rival the reigning houses aquamarines. In the following picture we can see (some of) the presents offered to the couple which let me think: with so many boxes, how many jewels are hidden from us?
Anyone as an idea of what the other presents were?
Recently HRH D.Isabel decided to wear the necklace (set?), when TTMM the King and Queen of Sweden visited Portugal in May 2008.
Since then, as far as I know, the necklace (set) was not seen again.