Great WorkArthur and thanks for sharing. On which part of the Museum are the jewels ? Galerie d' Apollon ?
--Previous Message-- : This thread gives me a good opportunity to : share with you the pictures I took this : afternoon in the Louvre - my first visit : there since the Museum bought the pearl and : diamond brooch of the Crown jewels. Of : course, the window in which the jewels are : displayed was the first place in the Museum : I went straight to! : : So here is the Louvre's new treasure, which : has found its way back "home" : : : : : And as a bonus for you, a few pictures of : the other jewels displayed in the same : window (all of them made for Empress : Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III): : : - first, a general view of the display : window: : : : : - the pearl and diamond tiara - made by the : jeweller Gabriel Lemonnier in 1853 (soon : after the imperial wedding), bought at the : 1887 auction by Mr Jacoby, later in the : possession of the Princes of : Thurn-und-Taxis. Sold by Princess Gloria von : Thurn-und-Taxis in 1992, it was bought back : by the 'Société des Amis du Louvre', which : gave it to the Louvre Museum: : : : : : I have already complained on this board : about the yellowish glow of the pearls of : the tiara, for which I held the unsuccessful : lightning of the display window responsible. : But when I saw today the tiara and the : brooch next to each other (or rather : above/below each other), the pearls of both : jewels looked very different: the pearls of : the brooch are very white and bright, : whereas the pearls of the tiara look : yellowish and dull; the diamonds of the : tiara also lack sparkle, when compared to : the other jewels displayed. Therefore, I : wonder if the yellowish glow of the pearls : of the tiara (in the Louvre since 23 years) : could be a matter of cleaning rather than of : lightning... : : : : - the diamond bow brooch with tassels, made : in 1855 as the centrepiece of a jewelled : belt by the jeweller François Kramer, then : turned into a corsage brooch in 1864. Sold : in 1887 to Mr Schlessinger, then in the : Astor and Esmerian collections. Bought in : 2008 by the 'Société des Amis du Louvre'. It : is absolutely beautiful... and quite : sparkling too! : : : : - the "Reliquary brooch" - an : unofficial name for a diamond corsage brooch : made in 1855 by the Crown jewellers Alfred : and Frédéric Bapst, using very old stones : from the Crown's treasury, dating back to : the 17th century, among them notably the : 17th and 18th 'Mazarins' (two diamonds from : a collection of 18 diamonds bequeathed to : King Louis XIV in 1661 by his godfather and : Prime minister, Cardinal Jules Mazarin - : hence the name of these 18 diamonds). : Several of the diamonds are slightly or : frankly coloured, and several of them have : very original shapes (heart-shaped, : almond-shaped, lozenge-shaped, : pentagonal...). The 17th and 18th 'Mazarins' : are 22 carats each, and are the two : heart-shaped diamonds in the middle of the : brooch. At the time of the auction of the : Crown jewels in 1887, the experts appointed : by the republican government objected to the : sale of this brooch, considering this : precious historical background. Therefore, : this brooch was saved from the auction and : was given to the Louvre as soon as 1887! : : : : - and finally Empress Eugénie's crown. It is : not a large crown worn around the head, but : a small crown, worn on the top of the head : (its diameter is only 15 cms at the widest, : i.e. at the curve of the arches, but only 10 : cms at the base!). It was made in 1855 by : the jeweller Gabriel Lemonnier, mixing : stones provided by the Crown's treasury and : stones provided by the Emperor's private : purse. Therefore, after the downfall of the : imperial regime in 1870, there were : questions about the rightful owner of this : crown: either the Crown (i.e. the State, : then the IIIrd Republic) or the widowed and : exiled ex-Empress? Finally, as Napoleon III : had paid from his private purse several : stones included in other jewels retained by : the Crown, a fair deal was concluded, with : Eugénie's crown being given back to the : Empress. Eugénie bequeathed this crown to : her cousin Princess Marie-Clotilde Napoleon, : Countess de Witt (1912-1996). It was later : in the possession of an art collector, : Roberto Polo, who decided to give it to the : Louvre in 1988. : : : : : : : :
on April 26, 2015, 6:58 am, in reply to "