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    Re: Queen Marie-Amélie's sapphire and pearl tiara Archived Message

    Posted by Arthur on August 30, 2015, 5:42 pm, in reply to "Queen Marie-Amélie's sapphire and pearl tiara"

    Thank you, Baxter, for this beautiful picture of this gorgeous tiara! I fully understand that it is your favorite tiara!



    http://www.gettyimages.ae/detail/news-photo/isabelle-de-france-countess-of-paris-at-home-la-comtesse-de-news-photo/160729299

    In a special jewellery edition of Images du monde (the trimestrial supplement of Point de vue), published in November 2009, Vincent Meylan has given a thorough account of the story of this sapphire and pearl parure:

    - in 1864, Queen Marie-Amélie (then widowed and exiled in Britain) decided to give her sapphire and diamond parure (bought in the late 1810s by the Duke of Orléans, later King Louis-Philippe, from Queen Hortense of Beauharnais, daughter of Empress Joséphine) to her grand-children Louis-Philippe, 1st Count of Paris (son of Ferdinand, Duke of Orléans, himself the eldest son of King Louis-Philippe and Queen Marie-Amélie) and Infanta Isabelle of Orléans-Bourbon (daughter of Antoine, Duke of Montpensier, himself the youngest son of King Louis-Philippe and Marie-Amélie), on the occasion of their wedding. This parure included the necklace and earrings visible on the portrait of Marie-Amélie posted by Baxter, as well as a tiara made with the detachable elements pinned on Marie-Amélie's dress, a large corsage brooch and two smaller brooches. This parure was later inherited by each head of the French Royal Family. In 1985, the (second) Count of Paris sold it to the Louvre Museum, where it still can be seen today.

    - Queen Marie-Amélie retained with her the sapphire, pearl and diamond tiara visible on the portrait posted by Baxter, as well as three brooches, which were slightly transformed to add pearl elements to match the tiara. A pair of earrings was also added to this "second" parure. This other parure was bequeathed by Queen Marie-Amélie, at her death in 1866, to her youngest son Antoine, Duke of Montpensier (and Infante of Spain through his marriage to Infanta Louisa-Ferdinanda). The Duke of Montpensier bequeathed the parure to his daughter... Isabella, wife of the first Count of Paris! Therefore, the two parures, which had been divided, were reunited again, in the possession of the successive heads of the Royal Family, until 1985.

    Quite strangely, the second Countess of Paris (1911-2003, also named Isabelle!) wore very often the "first" parure, but almost never the "second" one. The only occasion I have seen pictures of her wearing the tiara (without the rest of the "second" parure) was in 1955, for the pre-wedding ball of Princess Maria-Pia of Italy and Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia:



    The "second" parure was later given (or loaned) by the Count and Countess of Paris to their daughter-in-law, Marie-Thérèse of Wurttemberg, Countess of Clermont (now Duchess of Montpensier), who wore it frequently in the 1960s:



    The sapphire, pearl and diamond parure remained in the possession of the (second) Count of Paris until 1996, when it was sold at auction, at Sotheby's. According to Vincent Meylan in the aforementioned article, it was bought by a Saudi businessman, but was never paid, as the buyer had some financial difficulties. It would have been sold a few weeks later in Britain.

    As I had mentioned on this board a few months ago, a young woman called LouLou Stoffel (of whom I know nothing) was pictured in March 2005 wearing a pair of earrings which looks strikingly like the pair of earrings of the "second" parure:


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