PERLEN TIARA

Die historischen Perlen aus dem französischen Kronschatz

Eugénie, Kaiserin der Franzosen erlangte geradezu legendäre Berühmtheit als Perlenliebhaberin. Auf dem 1855 von Winterhalter gemalten Bild oben, trägt die Gattin von Napoleon III. unter anderem ein 4-reihiges Collier mit 408 Perlen von 6,461 Grains, die aus dem Kronschatz stammen und mit dem stolzen Wert von FF 326.400 beschrieben wurden. Eugénie besaß eine Reihe weiterer Perlenschmuckstücke, wie das Diadem das später der Fürstin von Thurn und Taxis gehörte, die ebanfalls von Gabriel Lemonnier und anderen Pariser Juwelieren passend umgearbeitet worden waren. Die Perlen dazu waren aus dem früheren Besitz von Marie-Louise, der zweiten Gemahlin Napoleons. Nach dem Fall des zweiten Reiches, wurden die Kronjuwelen von der Regierung verkauft. Thurn und Taxis Schmuck - Diadem - Brosche     The historical pearls of the French Imperial treasure - the Tiara The origin of this tiara lies in the immense order of pearls, which Napoléon I. has given to François Nitot, the French crown jeweller who has delivered the vast order between 1810 and 1811. The final parure consisted of: a large tiara, a magnificent comb, a pair of bracelets and matching earrings as well, a three row pearl necklace, a one row pearl necklace and five individual strands, which could be twisted into the hair-style or was for the use as decoration of the robes. The absolute high point of the parure was an enormous sautoir made of 408 absolutely regular(above left) and totally equal pearls in size of together 6,461 grains and the sayful sum of FF 326.400. These pearls were assigned to the “Diamants de la Couronne”, in whose existence they remained until 1887 but have been for free disposal of Napoléons second wife the Empress Marie Marie-Louise. The trace of the original appearance of the parure is lost already in 1818, when the pearl parure was completely broken up and reworked for the Duchess of Angoulême by the courtjeweller Babst Menière. During the reign of Louis Philipp (1830-1848) the pearls remained untouched with the other crownjewels because Queen Marie Amelie has worn exclusively her personal jewellery. In 1853, on the occasion of the wedding Napoléons III. with Eugénie de Montijo, the crownjewellers François Kramer and Gabriel Lemonnier got the order to create a complete new pearl parure with the napoléonique pearls. Lemonnier supplied the large stomacher, a couronette and the new tiara, - like to be seen in its present form above. In the tiara are united again, - up to the “Perle Napoléon”, all of the large pearl drops of Marie-Louise, as well as the large half-pearls, who originally were all set in the comb and the tiara of the Empress. The earlier use of the countless smaller pearls cannot be reconstructed any more but they might have been on strings because all of the pearls are drilled. A characteristic of the tiara of Lemonnier was the decoration of tiny diamonds, which were all still executed in the modern brilliant-cut and have just an average of 0,03 ct. In recent times a stone of this size could be polished only as a rose-cut diamond. Lemonnier did perfectly without the use of larger diamonds and set now on the new effect of the brilliance of the 1,998 small brilliants with a total weight of just 63.30 ct. The diamonds are overcrusting the filigree silver-gilt, Style Louis XVI. mount and is giving the effect of the pearls the absolute priority. The archives of Lemonnier register a total weight of the 212 pearls of 2.520 grains. The tiara measures 7 cm at the highest point and has a length of 39 cm. With the sale of the crownjewels in the year 1887 the tiara was estimated of FF 100,000 but was sold however for FF 78,100 at M. Julius Jacobi. Prince Albert von Thurn & Taxis acquired the tiara three years later as a wedding gift for his wife, the Archeduchess Margarete of Austria, who received it on 15 July 1890. The tiara remained in the family of Thurn & Taxis up to the year 1992 when it was sold as part of the princly jewel collection. The tiara fetched the price of DM 935,000. Buyer was in 1992 the society "Amis de Louvre", who made it possible that the imperial tiara can be shown now again in the "Galerie d'Apollon" of the Paris Louvre. Thanks again to Uwe Ripka for his great support! source: Kunz Book of pearl More of the Diamants De La Couronne