Re: The French Crown Jewels | The Imperial Comb | Hortense Diamond Archived Message
Posted by karenl on September 23, 2015, 11:40 pm, in reply to "Re: The French Crown Jewels | The Imperial Comb | Hortense Diamond"
Fascinating thread and beautiful photos of stunning historical jewels. Thank you Ursula, Vincent and Arthur. --Previous Message-- : Thank you, Ursula, for these beautiful : pictures, and the history of this diamond : comb. : : I am puzzled about how such a comb, with all : the diamonds dripping along the nape of the : neck of a lady, would look like... but : certainly, Empress Eugenie was perfectly : able to manage it successfully! : : I will add only a few comments and : corrections, relying on Bernard Morel's book : Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France , which : is the reference book about the French Crown : jewels: : : - the "Hortensia" diamond was : acquired by King Louis XIV, probably in : 1678, but it was named "Hortensia" : only under Napoleon I's reign, as a tribute : to Hortense de Beauharnais, daughter of : Empress Joséphine, and sister-in-law of : Napoleon. Due to its particular colour and : shape, it was saved from the desastrous : auction of the French Crown jewels in 1887, : and has been exhibited since then in the : Louvre Museum. : : : : : - Morel dismisses the assertion that this : pink diamond was bought by Louis XIV from : the famous explorer Tavernier. Indeed, the : largest pink diamond sold by Tavernier was : "only" 14.51 carats, whereas the : "Hortensia" weighs 21.32 carats; : according to Morel, the : "Hortensia" was probably cut by a : gem retailer named Alvarez, who was one of : Louis XIV's supplier and whose diamonds were : reputed as "the most beautiful and the : biggest ones then on the market" : : - the "Hortensia" pink diamond : must not be confounded with the "Peach : blossom" diamond (in French: diamant : "Fleur-de-Pêcher" ), which is a : different diamond. The "Peach : Blossom" diamond was first recorded in : the Crown Jewels Inventory of 1691 and had : probably been bought recently from Alvarez. : The inventory made one century later, in : 1791, adds that its colour was the one of a : peach blossom (hence the name), i.e. of pale : pink, and that the weight of the stone was : 25.53 carats. Morel describes it as "a : large trapezoidal pear-shaped diamond with : rounded corners", quite flat, whose cut : was quite remarkable. In the 1691 Inventory, : the "Peach Blossom" diamond was : mounted on a hat hook; in the later : inventories, it was always unmounted, and : could be used at will, e.g. as pendant. In : the 19th century, it was also temporarily : mounted on the crown of Charles X (as the : central petal of one of the side lilies) and : on the crown of Napoleon III (on the : bandeau). During the 1887 auction, it was : sold to Tiffany. The "Pearl : Blossom" diamond can be seen here, at : the bottom right of the picture: : : : : - according to Morel, there was only one of : the "Mazarin" diamonds in the : diamond comb with pampilles made for Empress : Eugenie in 1856: the "Mazarin : VIII", which is the third diamond of : the top row of diamonds, from the left (it : was bought in 1887 by Boucheron): : : : : - none of the "Mazarin" diamonds : was in the pampilles/fringes of Empress : Eugénie's diamond comb. But the large : marquise-shaped diamond (4th stone of the : central pampille, on the picture above) had : been bought by Louis XIV in 1678 from : Tavernier; in 1887, it was bought by : Tiffany. : : : :
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