Re: The troubled fate of the French Crown jewels during the 1848 revolution Archived Message
Posted by Torkel  on January 18, 2017, 5:25 am, in reply to "The troubled fate of the French Crown jewels during the 1848 revolution"
I just now had the opportunity to read this. Thank you very much for translating this account of the events for us, very interesting!
--Previous Message--
: As mentioned by Lorenzo in one of his posts
: above, the history of the French Crown
: jewels during the troubled days of the
: revolution of February 1848, which caused
: the sudden collapse of Louis-Philippe's
: regime, is worth a novel full of suspense
: and drama. Bernard Morel's Les Joyaux de la
: Couronne de France (pages 331-333) gives a
: thrilling account of these days (the
: additional information in italic and between
: brackets are by myself):
:
: "On 24th of February, 1848, around
: noon, the government was more and more
: unable to resist the riots. Troops stationed
: near the Tuileries [the royal palace] and
: the Palais-Royal [the Parisian palace of
: the Orleans family] gathered within the
: Carrousel courtyard [the Tuileries Palace's
: main courtyard, facing the Louvre] , whose
: gates were closed. M. de Verbois [the
: treasurer of the Civil List service, whose
: offices and personal apartment were in a
: wing perpendicularly adjacent to the
: Tuileries Palace; the Crown jewels were
: stored in a strongbox hidden inside a brick
: wall of the Civil List service's offices] ,
: left without instructions, took the
: initiative, helped by his wife and by a
: maid, to take the assets in banknotes and
: coins deposited by the Royal family and kept
: by the Civil List service, and to bring them
: to one of his friend's home, who lived in
: the nearby Rue des Pyramides. Then, while
: unsuccessfully looking for General
: Jacqueminot [general officer commanding the
: National Guard] to ask him for a platoon of
: guards to protect the treasure of the Civil
: List, Verbois saw the rioters entering the
: Carrousel courtyard, forcing the troops
: backwards. Verbois went back to his friend's
: home Rue des Pyramides. The mob then entered
: the apartments and the underground floors of
: the Palace.
:
: Around 2.00 PM, a groop of rioters began
: shooting to the door of the underground
: cellar situated just below the treasure's
: cashier desks, which were not kept by
: soldiers. A workman of the Civil List
: service, named Nô, came downstairs to the
: cellar, told the rioters he would help them,
: and opened the door. The overexcited men
: demanded only wine, and Nô showed them the
: place where Verbois' wine bottles were
: stored. But as there were only few bottles,
: Nô feared they might threaten to go upstairs
: where the treasure was kept. Nô claimed that
: a platoon of soldiers was upstairs and
: convinced the rioters to withdraw and led
: them instead to the cellars of General
: Jacqueminot. There, in the kitchen, they ate
: a lunch which had been prepared for the
: General, and rushed onto his 10,000 bottles
: of wine! All this resulted in a violent
: orgy, and the day after, twelve lifeless
: bodies were found on the wine-soaked
: floor...
:
: Meanwhile, taking advantage from this
: distraction, Nô managed to reach the
: Tuileries in order to look for a platoon of
: guards. He came back with Sergeant Bex and
: six grenadiers, whom he helped to enter into
: the Treasure's offices, where they formed a
: small protection platoon with a few
: employees and workmen of the service. Yet,
: around 7.00 PM, because of the general
: confusion, some people succeeded to enter
: the office in which were kept the registers
: recording the gifts, subsidies and
: gratifications granted by Louis-Philippe. A
: lot of files were possibly embarrassing for
: several members of the former opposition,
: now at the head of the new revolutionary
: regime... The files were torn off or
: lacerated, and burnt. This resulted in the
: beginning of a blaze, prompting the soldiers
: and firemen to arrive; the soldiers
: exchanged a few gunshots with the occupants
: and ousted them from the offices.
:
: While the orgy in the cellars was still
: going on, a clerk went to Schefer, central
: cashier, to prevent him of what was
: happening in the Treasure's offices. Schefer
: was sick, but gave a key to his son, who
: came and opened one of the boxes of the
: Civil List, witnessed by several attendants.
: He withdrew 331,000 Francs in banknotes and
: 34,000 Francs in coins. Someone took two
: purses of coins into his bag, committing the
: other people present to do the same, in
: order to transport the money safely to the
: Banque de France; but he was never seen
: again... The rest of the money, including
: the 331,000 Francs in banknotes shoved by a
: grenadier into his bearskin cap, arrived
: safely to the Banque de France. But the
: Crown jewels were still in the Treasure's
: offices, hidden in the wall, as well as the
: jewels of the Princess of Joinville [one of
: Louis-Philippe's daughters-in-law] and
: various assets worth 3 to 4 million Francs.
:
: Verbois, from his friend's home Rue des
: Pyramides, had seen the blaze in the
: subsidies office of the Civil List service.
: He then came back to the office with his
: son-in-law, Harenbourg, and Baron Fain. They
: held a quick meeting in presence of Sergeant
: Bex, and decided to bring the Princess of
: Joinville's jewels and the assets to the
: Finance ministry on the next day [the
: Finance ministry was located, at the time of
: these events, between Rue du Mont-Thabor and
: Rue de Rivoli, on the North side of the
: Tuileries gardens, so not very far from the
: Palace] . This was done in the morning of
: the 25th February, with the jewels and
: assets placed onto a barrow, covered with
: thick blankets. But the Crown jewels still
: remained in their strongbox hidden in the
: wall, because it was necessary to bring the
: three keys together to remove it...
:
: Still on the 25th February, Verbois, holder
: of one of the three keys, went and met at
: 4.00 PM chief-of-staff Guinard and the
: Inspector General. They decided to summon
: for the next day at 10.00 AM the other two
: holders of the keys in order to open the
: Crown jewels strongbox, in the presence of
: Goudchaux, the Finance minister.
:
: On 26th February, at 10.00 AM, the holders
: of the three keys, Verbois, Maréchal and
: Crown jeweller Constant Bapst, were there at
: the time scheduled, but the Finance minister
: had still not arrived at noon. At the same
: time, General Courtais [commanding officer
: of the National Guard, newly appointed by
: the republican revolutionary authorities] ,
: popped up and declared that, considering the
: situation, the jewels had to be transported
: immediately to the headquarters of the
: National Guard. The strongbox containing the
: jewels was then taken from the wall in which
: it had been kept hidden for more than 15
: years, and opened. General Courtais put into
: his jacket the records and inventories which
: were in the strongbox, while the jewel
: caskets were taken from the strongbox and
: laid onto the table, or even onto the
: ground. This careless handling of the jewels
: raised sharp protests from Constant Bapst,
: who demanded a strict responsibility for
: everyone and a descriptive record of the
: jewels taken from the strongbox. But General
: Courtais refused. Bapst bitterly declared
: that such careless handling made the
: stealing of jewels very easy and possible,
: and that he would rather have thrown his key
: into the Seine river if he had known that
: things would go this way. But General
: Courtais took absolutely no regard of the
: former Crown jeweller’s critics and ordered
: the persons and a few national guards
: present in the room to take the many jewel
: boxes and to follow him. Courtais himself
: gave the example, taking in his hands the
: box containing the crown of Charles X. Some
: of the smallest boxes were shoved into the
: pockets, prompting renewed vain yells from
: Constant Bapst: " Nothing in the
: pockets! ". But everything went so
: quickly and in such a confusion that any
: serious supervising turned out impossible.
: About twelve persons carried the various
: jewel boxes: General Courtais, Carson and
: Lacour (employees of the Civil List’s
: Treasury), Laurin and Barvin (cashdesk
: clerks), Pessar (office clerk), Nô
: (workman), Allary (postal clerk) and a few
: national guards. Verbois and Bapst both
: refused to carry any box.
:
: Following General Courtais, still holding
: the royal crown, the small group went to the
: office of chief-of-staff Guinard through a
: dark underground corridor, stumbling at each
: step because of the empty bottles with which
: the floor of the corridor was covered.
: Courtais ordered the people carrying the
: jewel boxes to lay them down in a corner of
: Guinard’s office; the boxes were covered
: with a blanket and remained them until 4.00
: PM under the supervision of the employees of
: the Civil List and several national guards.
: A finance inspector, de Codrosy, then
: arrived and had immediately a document drawn
: up, recording the number of jewel boxes
: present in the room; he then had the boxes
: put into five bags, which were sealed and
: loaded into a carriage usually used for
: house moves. An escort led by Colonel
: Degousée accompanied the carriage, which
: arrived at 5.00 PM to the Finance ministry.
: The five bags were delivered to de Colmont,
: Secretary General of the ministry, Thomas,
: central cashier, and Levasseur, General
: Comptroller, who affixed new seals onto the
: bags.
:
: On 9th March, 1848, the republican provisory
: government issued a new decree, after which,
: " considering that the Diamonds of the
: Crown belonged to the Nation, and that the
: circulation of currency was insufficient
: ", the Finance minister was allowed to
: sell the jewels at prices which were to be
: determined by experts.
:
: On 12th March, the new Finance minister
: Garnier-Pagès had a thorough verification of
: the Crown jewels realized, witnessed by
: several persons, including Constant Bapst
: and Verbois. It was then noted that what
: Bapst had feared had happened: one of the
: boxes was missing! This box contained a hat
: button in diamonds (whose main stone was the
: "2nd Mazarin", a 25.37 carat
: diamond of an exceptional beauty, which was
: part of the 18 diamonds bequeathed in 1661
: by Cardinal Mazarin to King Louis XIV,
: surrounded by 20 brilliant diamonds
: totalizing 4 carats) and two diamond
: pendeloques of two rose-diamonds each (the
: two largest roses weighted 13.49 and 12.07
: carats). These jewels represented a value,
: according to the last inventory made in
: 1832, of 293,112.50 Francs. During the
: verification, Garnier-Pagès, dazzled by the
: diamond-encrusted royal crown made for
: Charles X, noticed the "Regent"
: diamond mounted at the top of the crown, and
: asked Bapst about its value. " Twelve
: millions ", Bapst replied. " Well
: , the minister replied, we will sell it to
: the Tsar of Russia! "
:
: The following day, Constant Bapst, who
: assured he had seen the box containing the
: missing jewels on the table when the
: strongbox had been opened, and Verbois
: checked back the underground corridor
: through which the transport of the jewels
: had been processed. After all, the box,
: which was of rather small dimensions, could
: have slipped from a pocket while everyone
: was stumbling. Unfortunately, they found
: nothing. The jewels had really been stolen!
: And the stealing had certainly happened
: during the transport of the jewels, as the
: jewels had been under constant supervision
: the rest of the time. The police
: investigated, but without result. Constant
: Bapst wrote to all the main gem-cutters and
: gem-retailers of Europe to urge them to
: retain any suspicious stone, but to no
: avail, except a reply from a London
: jeweller. The former Crown jeweller hence
: travelled to London, but unfortunately the
: jewel noticed by the jeweller was not the
: right one. None of the missing stones was
: ever found again.
:
: Finance minister Garnier-Pagès’ remark
: almost became a reality. As mentioned
: earlier, a decree dated 9th March, 1848, had
: opened the way to the sale of the Crown
: jewels. On 2nd June, 1848, a commission
: composed of Guillemarden, finance general
: inspector, Thomas, finance general
: treasurer, and former Crown jeweller
: Constant Bapst, checked all the parures,
: comparing them with the inventory made in
: 1832. Fortunately, the decree of 9th March,
: 1848, had no further consequence.
: Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, nephew of Napoleon
: Ist, was soon elected member of Parliament,
: and eventually President of the Republic on
: 10th December, 1848. He already had the
: secret intention to restore the imperial
: regime, and he consequently blocked the sale
: of a jewel collection of which he intended
: to have sooner or later a good use..."
:
:
: To help you locate the various places
: mentioned above, here is a cropped version
: of a plan of Paris made in 1842, centrered
: on the Tuileries Palace ("Palais des
: Tuileries"). The Civil List service was
: in the wing perpendicular at the north
: extremity of the Tuileries Palace, along the
: Rue de Rivoli (both the Palace itself and
: this adjacent wing are drawn darker). The
: Rue des Pyramides is the short street right
: in the axis of the Tuileries palace at the
: north, between the Rue de Rivoli and the Rue
: St Honoré. The Finance ministry is in the
: upper left corner of the picture
: ("Minist. des Finances") and is
: drawn in a darker shade too.
:
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