Re: Jewels from Princess Charlotte of Wales later in King Leopold I's Belgian descendancy Archived Message
Posted by Beth  on January 8, 2017, 6:31 pm, in reply to "Jewels from Princess Charlotte of Wales later in King Leopold I's Belgian descendancy"
What intriguing information! Thank you Arthur.
When Parliament was arranging for a one off grant to Princess Charlotte and Prince Leopold to establish their home etc, a contemporary newspaper noted that 10,000 pounds would be used for jewels. No other information was given; however, it is possible at least some of the money allocated was used for the diamond necklace and earrings mentioned by the press.
Apart from the reference to the turquoise cross in the press at the time of Princess Sophie of Germany's marriage, I found another reference in the Royal Collection to a jewel which may have belonged to Princess Charlotte. RCIN 43881. http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/search#/1/collection/43881/bracelet-with-miniature-of-princess-charlotte-1796-1817-as-an-infant The RC says that Prince Leopold gave the jewel to Queen Victoria in 1848.
Some of the images in the Royal Collection (based on a 1813 portrait by Charlotte Jones) show Princess Charlotte wearing emeralds. See RCIN 421866 for example. http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/search#/1/collection/421866/princess-charlotte-of-wales-1796-1817
And RCIN 421470 http://www.royalcollection.org.uk/collection/search#/1/collection/421470/princess-charlotte-1796-1817
So it is possible that the Princess also owned some emeralds as well as the rubies mentioned in the history of the Belgian jewels.
I personally doubt if Princess Charlotte owned any of Queen Charlotte's celebrated pearls as the Queen was still alive when the Princess died and, although the Queen would have given her granddaughter jewels commensurate with her status as a wedding gift, I suspect that they would not have included jewels closely associated with the Queen's status as Queen Consort
Apologies for not posting images. Photobucket is still being temperamental.
--Previous Message--
: In his book about the jewels of the Belgian
: Queens ( Bijoux des Reines et Princesses de
: Belgique , 2004), Christophe Vachaudez
: includes (pages 180-182 of the French
: edition) excerpts from Queen Louise's will
: (Queen Louise was King Leopold I's second
: wife). The will is dated 28th March, 1842,
: and was completed or altered by two
: codicils, respectively dated 8th October,
: 1842 and 2nd April, 1850 (the Queen died on
: 11th October, 1850):
:
: " Article 12 - I bequeathe to my
: daughter the brooch which belonged to
: Princess Charlotte and which the King my
: husband gave me as one of the most precious
: items I have ever owned and of which I can
: dispose of ".
: Unfortunately, no other more explicit
: description of this brooch is given.
:
: Queen Louise's will also mentions several
: jewels presented to her by her husband King
: Leopold, but without mentioning that they
: might have comme from Princess Charlotte of
: Wales. The majority of Queen Louise's
: jewels, though, seems to have come from her
: own family, either as wedding gifts or as
: later gifts.
:
: Vachaudez also writes, in the chapter
: dedicated to Queen Louise: " If
: Louise-Marie of Orleans brings as dowry many
: jewels, her spouse King Leopold I has
: already the disposal of the jewels from
: Princess Charlotte, his first wife. A
: diamond and ruby parure which he had
: presented to her as wedding gift, a few
: brooches, bracelets and a diamond riviere...
: quite little actually! The other pieces,
: considered as Crown's property, had had to
: be handed back to the treasury as soon as
: possible " (pages 11-13).
: Actually, the mentioned diamond and ruby
: parure was a Saxe-Coburg family heirloom,
: and Queen Louise explicitely mentioned in
: her will that this parure " belonged to
: the King my husband and to my children
: " and that she only had the usufruct of
: it.
:
: Page 19: " When the future Leopold II
: was born, the King presented to the happy
: mother a brooch which had belonged to
: Princess Charlotte, his first wife. The
: Queen writes to her mother [Marie-Amélie of
: Boubon-Sicilies, Queen of the French] :
: "I have vividly appreciated all what
: this token encloses, and I have been more
: moved than I could express it" ".
: It could possibly be the same brooch as the
: one mentioned in Queen Louise's will, quoted
: above.
:
: In the chapter dedicated to Princess
: Charlotte of Belgium, the ill-fated Empress
: of Mexico, Vachaudez mentiones that, at the
: time of Charlotte's wedding to Archduke
: Maximilian in 1857, " King Leopold I
: [father of the bride] has had nut-sized
: brilliants resetted, which had belonged to
: his first wife. (...) It resulted in a
: splendid riviere of 34 collets valued at
: 200,000 Francs ".
:
: Unfortunately, as you probably know, the
: whereabouts of Empress Charlotte's jewels
: has remained very unclear, to say the least.
:
: In the chapter dedicated to Queen
: Marie-Henriette, Vachaudez mentions (page
: 39) that, at the time of Marie-Henriette's
: wedding to the Duke of Brabant (later King
: Leopold II) in 1853, King Leopold I "
: puts at the future Queen of the Belgians'
: disposal the ruby parure which had been worn
: by Queen Louise and a few other jewels from
: Princess Charlotte, his first wife ".
: It seems that the ruby parure was inherited
: by Leopold II and Marie-Henriette's youngest
: daughter, Clementine, Princess Napoleon. But
: its current whereabouts are unknown.
:
:
:
|
|
