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 25, 2015, 5:39 pm, in reply to "
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