Re: Trills and disappointments in Paris Archived Message
Posted by Arthur on October 23, 2014, 1:13 pm, in reply to "Re: Trills and disappointments in Paris"
Bob, in your tour of French royal and imperial jewels, I can also suggest you to come back to Paris and visit the Mineralogy Gallery of the National Museum of Natural History (Muséum national d'histoire naturelle). Here are kept several stones from the former collection of the Crown Jewels which were not auctioned in 1887 by the government of the French Republic. These are only unmounted stones, but some of them were previously part of royal or imperial parures. One of the strangest and most beautiful of these stones is a 135.80 carat rhomboedric sapphire acquired by King Louis XIV which had previously belonged to the Roman family of the Princes Ruspoli - hence the stone is called the 'Ruspoli Sapphire' or 'Louis XIV's grand Sapphire'. Until the 19th century, it was considered to be the most beautiful and purest sapphire ever found. But do not come back too early! The Mineralogy Gallery of the Museum of Natural History is currently undergoing a thorough restoration, it should reopen only in December 2014. There are also several Napoleonic jewels at the Château de Malmaison, in the city of Rueil-Malmaison, near Paris. It was Empress Joséphine's private home, where she died in 1814, and is now a museum. The jewels there are only minor jewels, though. http://www.bijoux-malmaison-compiegne.fr/html/13/selection/page_selection_vign.php?Ident=R You can also go to the southern city of Nice, near the Italian border, where this cameo tiara, which had belonged to Empress Joséphine, is displayed at the Musée Masséna:
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