I think that the Louvre's information is partly erroneous, and that they are confusing the tiaras of the two parures.
Marie-Amélie's portrait by Hersent is the one posted by Baxter. Judging from the Queen's age, and also the crown on the throne's back, without the fleurs-de-lys, the painting probably dates back to the 1830s. But certainly not 1863. As it was customary for royal portraits, there are several replicas of this portrait. For instance, the first picture is now in Chantilly, while the second picture is in Versailles:
When he wrote his book about the French Crown Jewels (Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France, 1988), Bernard Morel could get an exceptional access to the Orleans House Archives, including an inventory of Queen Marie-Amelie's jewels made in 1839. The sapphire and diamond parure described in this inventory included: 1) a big diadem, "articulated" with nine main elements (I think it means nine detachable elements) 2) a necklace of eight large sapphires surrounded by diamonds, with diamond chain drops inbetween 3) a pair of earrings with sapphire and diamond buttons and sapphire briolette drops 4) a small "Sévigné" brooch made of three sapphires, among them a "square-oval"-shaped one, surrounded with diamonds. These four elements had been bought i the late 1810s/early 1820s by Marie-Amelie's husband, King Louis-Philippe (then Duke of Orleans), from Queen Hortense, the then exiled daughter of the late Empress Josephine. The 1839 inventory mentioned three more elements, which were later additions to the sapphire parure: 5) a bracelet made of a large clear sapphire surrounded with brilliants, and six rows of a total of 198 fine pearls 6) another bracelet made of a very beautiful sapphire surrounded with brilliants with ornamented diamond chain 7) a "comb-crown" ("peigne-couronne") of 15 sapphires, 66 pearls and diamonds.
On the portrait of Queen Marie-Amelie by Hersent, as posted by Baxter and above, we can clearly identify the sapphire, pearl and diamond "comb-crown" (#7), the necklace (#2), the earrings (#3) and the small "Sévigné" brooch (#4). The tiara described in #1 is very probably worn on this portrait as the eight brooches pinned on the dress and the lowest of the corsage brooches.
Now, what were the whereabouts of this parure after 1839?
Five of the nine elements of the tiara (#1) were mounted as tiara, the form under which it was worn by the wives of all the Heads of the French Royal Family until 1985. With the necklace (#2) and the earrings (#3), they are now in the Louvre Museum.
One of the four remaining elements of the original tiara (#1) was slightly transformed, mainly with the addition of an extra pear-shaped sapphire drop at the bottom, to create a larger corsage brooch, which is now also in the Louvre Museum.
The three remaining elements of the original tiara (#1) were also slightly transformed (by jeweller Bapst in 1846, according to Bernard Morel), with additional pearl and diamond motifs, to create three large corsage brooches, which along the "comb-coronet" (#7) and another pair of sapphire, pearl and diamond earrings, formed the second parure, auctioned off by the Count of Paris in 1996. The scroll-motifs of these three brooches are indeed strikingly similar to the ones of the elements of the tiara of the Louvre's parure.
The whereabouts of the following jewels are still unclear: the small "Sévigné" brooch (#4) and the two bracelets (#5 and #6). Maybe they were dismantled to create the earrings of the second parure, or the sapphire, diamond and pearl buttons at the top of two of the three corsage brooches of the second parure?
On the other hand, the origin of the two small brooches of the Louvre's parure is unclear. The one with a rectangular shape could possibly be the "square-oval" sapphire described in the small "Sévigné" brooch (#4). Of the second parure, the origin of the large octogonal brooch, as well of the earrings, is unclear too.
on August 31, 2015, 4:05 pm, in reply to "
