Many thanks Helen. I appreciate your kindness in providing this information. I'll try to find the biography. Thank you Beth
--Previous Message-- : Can I recommend: : Marie-Therese – the fate of Marie : Antoinette’s daughter by Susan Nagel (2008) : : --Previous Message-- : Thank you so much for this information : Arthur. : I think most of us are aware of how royal : jewels can reflect contemporary fashions, : but I am more interested in the clues which : such jewels can give about the personality : of the wearer. If I have understood : correctly what you have written, the : Duchess' piety and austere personality : probably resulted in her not seeking to use : jewels as an adornment; rather she wore : superb, grand jewels in acknowledgement of : her role as first lady in the French court. : Possibly, she might have seen jewels and : clothes as a duty, rather than a pleasure. : It is difficult to comprehend fully the : experiences she endured. : I'll try to find a biography of the Duchess. : So often her parents and brother are written : about, or should I say such biographies are : translated into English. : : --Previous Message-- : I do not know the exact part played by the : Duchess of Angoulême in the creation of her : jewels, and how much her personal tastes : were taken into account. I guess that she : probably had her say to "validate" : the designs proposed by the jewellers, but I : am not sure - and I do not know if she : really cared a lot about that. : : The Duchess of Angoulême was a pious, : rigorous and rather austerous woman, who had : endured tremendous tragedies in her life : (her imprisonment with her family while she : was only a teenager, the execution of her : father, her mother and her aunt, the : separation from her young brother, : "raised" [or rather brainwashed] : by republican jailers in the hatred of his : family and of monarchy, the more and more : miserable condition of his brother and : ultimately his death, and finally her exile : from France, her life in an impoverished : exile during 17 years, and a childless : marriage). So the Duchess did not focus very : much on "superficial" things, such : as fashion or jewellery. : : Of course, when the Duchess of Angoulême was : France's "First Lady" from 1814 to : 1830, she was dressed with the best fabrics : and her jewels were the epitome of elegance, : because she was aware that, in her position, : she had to embody the excellence of French : creation. But she did not impulse the : fashion of the time, she merely followed it. : For instance, her jewels are of the highest : quality, but their design is very much in : line with the classical tastes and fashion : of the time (which were not very different : from the Napoleonic era). The Duchess of : Angoulême's younger and lively : sister-in-law, Marie-Caroline, Duchess of : Berry, was much more a "trend : setter" than her. : : Regarding the ruby and diamond parure of the : Crown Jewels' collection, I think that the : Duchess of Angoulême had probably little say : in the design of the parure. The parure was : made in 1816, soon after the King's return : to France after Napoleon's brief comeback in : 1815. It was made by the Crown jewellers : Ménière and Bapst, with stones from the ruby : and diamond parure made in 1810-1811 by : Nitot for Empress Marie-Louise. Ménière was : requested to make and to deliver the parure : very quickly (in only 21 days, according to : the statement made by Ménière when he : delivered the parure), therefore he was : allowed by the Royal Household to recycle : some elements of Marie-Louise's parure : directly into the new parure. We can see, : for instance, that the X-shaped motifs of : the bracelets (between the main rubies) or : the ruby and diamond pendants of the : necklace remained unaltered and were : directly reused in the new parure. The line : of diamond brilliants at the base of the : tiara was also probably unchanged. : : : --Previous Message-- : Thank you for these wonderful photos and the : information, Arthur. I find the Duchess of : Angoulême's tiaras very elegant. Although I : realise that the style is of the era, I : often wonder how much input the Duchess : would have had into the particular details : of her jewels. Her mother had great taste, : and so it is possible that the Duchess had : also, and possibly had substantial input : into the design of her jewellery. : Unfortunately, having almost no facility in : French, I am not in a position to read : archival material which might assist in such : an evaluation. : I would be delighted to know, from those who : can read French and have access to such : archival material, if the Duchess wrote to : her jewellers or others about her jewels. : : --Previous Message-- : In the edition of the magazine Connaissance : des Arts that I mentioned in the previous : thread, published in April 1962 in relation : with the forthcoming exhibition "Ten : centuries of French Jewellery" in the : Louvre Museum in Paris in May 1962, other : interesting pictures of French royal and : imperial jewels (besides the fringe tiara : which is very probably not the 'Russian : Tiara') were published: : : - this picture of the tiara of the ruby and : diamond parure of the Crown jewels, made in : 1816 by the court jeweller Ménière and his : son-in-law Bapst on King Louis XVIII's : request for Marie-Thérèse, Duchess of : Angoulême: : : : : The Duchess of Angoulême was the daughter of : King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette, : the sister of the unfortunate Louis XVII, : the niece of Louis XVIII, and the wife of : her first cousin Louis-Antoine, Duke of : Angoulême (himself the son of her other : uncle, the future King Charles X). As both : Louis XVIII and Charles X were widowed, and : Louis XVIII was childless, the Duchess of : Angoulême acted 'de facto' as France's First : Lady under the 'Restoration' (the : monarchical regime of France between 1814 : and 1830) and was allowed to use the Crown : jewels. : : The ruby parure was the first parure made : for the Duchess after the change of regime : in 1814-1815. It was slightly altered in : 1825, and was worn by the Duchess for : Charles X's coronation in Reims that year. : It then remained unchanged, and was known to : be a favourite of Empress Eugénie, who wore : the parure frequently (she wore it for the : first time for the official dinner at the : Tuileries Palace, on the evening of her : wedding day).Here is the full parure, : photographed in the 1880s: : : : : : : http://diamantsdelacouronne.free.fr/Diamants%20de%20la%20Couronne/Parure%20de%20rubis/slides/Parure%20de%20rubis.html : : Most of the elements of the parure still : exist, with the exception of the belt, which : was dismantled. The largest necklace of the : parure still exists (it appeared several : times at auctions in the last decades). The : pair of bracelets is in the Louvre Museum. : : The tiara was bought at the 1887 auction by : a certain Mr Haas, but was soon acquired by : the American millionnaire Bradley Martin. It : was given to Martin's daughter, Cornelia, : Countess of Craven. The tiara was sold at : auction in 1961, after the Countess of : Craven's death. It is rumoured to be now in : the possession of the Niarchos family, but : so far we have no conclusive element to : proove this assertion. : : Here are two more pictures, the first one : during the sale of the Countess of Craven's : estate in 1961, and the second one during : the exhibition "Ten centuries of French : jewellery" at the Louvre Museum in May : 1962 (these two pictures were not published : in Connaissance des Arts , but I think you : will not mind about that... ): : : : : : : - the edition of Connaissance des Arts of : April 1962 also published this interesting : picture of a ruby and diamond floral spray : brooch, said to have belonged to Empress : Eugénie and to be, at the time of the : publication, in a private collection. : : I have no other information about this : brooch, and I do not even know if the : attribution to Empress Eugénie is reliable. : The only sure fact is that it was not part : of the Crown Jewels. So, if it was a jewel : of Empress Eugénie, it was part of her : private collection. None of the jewels of : the exiled Empress auctioned off in 1872 in : London matches with this jewel, but of : course the Empress could have kept it : longer, possibly until her death. : Anyway, it is beautiful. I would be happy to : see this brooch again. : : : : : We can also notice that Empress Eugénie had : other ruby and diamond jewels in her private : collection: : : - there is this ruby, pearl and diamond : necklace recently seen at the Biennale des : Antiquaires in Paris (possibly a wedding : gift): : : : : : : http://members2.boardhost.com/royal-jewels/msg/1411117531.html : : - Bernard Morel publishes also this picture : of a ruby and diamond laurel tiara, made by : Bapst for Empress Eugénie: : : : : : That's all, folks! : : : : : : : : :
on October 17, 2014, 4:14 am, in reply to "