History of the amethysts of the French Crown jewels Archived Message
Posted by Arthur  on February 8, 2016, 7:11 pm, in reply to "Re: Améthysts of the French crownjewels "
Thank you very much, Lorenzo, for pointing out this new permanent exhibition of the Crown jewels kept by Mines Paris Tech (the former "Ecole des mines de Paris", i.e. Paris Mining School). You have given me a new target for a weekend visit! 
The history of the amethysts of the French Crown Jewels, as accounted for by Bernard Morel in his book about the French Crown Jewels (Les Joyaux de la Couronne de France, 1988) is the following:
In 1811, Emperor Napoleon I commissionned from the Crown jeweller Nitot several parures for his second wife, Empress Marie-Louise - as well as several additions to the parures he had presented to her in 1810... The amethyst parure was delivered on 7th October 1811 and included a tiara, a necklace, a hair comb, a waistband, a pair of earrings and a pair of bracelets. The whole parure included 235 amethysts and 3,630 brilliant diamonds, for a total bill of 121,308.42 francs of the time. Unfortunately, no portrait seems to depict this parure.
After the defeat of Napoleon in 1814-1815, all the parures of the Crown Collection were unmounted by request of King Louis XVIII. At the beginning of Louis XVIII's reign, a minor part of the stones of the Crown jewels were sold or presented to foreign diplomats whom the King wanted to turn more conciliating to French interests (the Duke of Wellington is supposed to have received several diamonds), but this did not concern the amethysts, as the inventory of the Crown Jewels made in 1818 still mentions 235 amethysts.
These amethysts remained unmounted throughout the Restoration period (1815-1830, under Kings Louis XVIII and Charles X) and under the so-called July Monarchy (1830-1848, under King Louis-Philippe). Queen Marie-Amélie (wife of Louis-Philippe) owned an amethyst parure (necklace, belt plaque and pair of earrings), but this parure was her personal property and was distinct from the Crown's amethysts.
In 1864, the Crown jeweller Alfred Bapst delivered for Empress Eugénie an impressive bejewelled belt, made of several coloured stones, including 10 amethysts. This belt is displayed at the front of the picture below (the two oval brooches at the front are each made with a large amethyst bordered with a diamond frame, the other 8 amethysts are set in the different elements of the belt):
Bapst also delivered in 1864 another jewel, called in French "berthe en résille" (a kind of bejewelled net covering the corsage and the shoulders of a dress), including 85 imitation pearls, 1,348 diamonds and 232 coloured stones, among which 38 amethysts provided by the Crown's treasury:
Therefore, only 187 amethysts were left unmounted in the Crown's treasury (235-10-38=187). Both the bejewelled belt and the "berthe en résille" were sold at auction by the French republican governement in 1887 and have not been seen since then (except a few minor fragments from the jewelled belt, but these fragments did not include amethysts).
The unmounted amethysts were not sold, and were given by the republican government, considering their geological interest, to the "Muséum national d'histoire naturelle" (National museum of natural history) and to the "Ecole des mines de Paris" (Paris Mining School). The numbers given by various sources are not parfectly matching:
- Bernard Morel writes that 12 amethysts were given to the "Muséum" and 177 to the "Ecole des mines", but this gives a total of 189 (two more than the 187 recorded above!)
- the website of the "Ecole des mines" mentions that 12 amethysts were given to the "Muséum" and that the "Ecole des mines"'s collection includes only 144 amethysts:
http://www.musee.mines-paristech.fr/Collections/Expo/Joyaux/
8 of the 12 amethysts given to the "Muséum" are visible below:
(all pics from Lorenzo's website: http://diamantsdelacouronne.free.fr/index.html )
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