The Property of
A NOBLEMAN
AN IMPORTANT ANTIQUE PEARL AND DIAMOND FRINGE NECKLACE
Details
AN IMPORTANT ANTIQUE PEARL AND DIAMOND FRINGE NECKLACE
The graduated pearl two-row necklace suspending seven detachable pearl pendent drops with diamond cupola mounts to a cushion-cut diamond clasp, 38.0cm. long, circa 1820, in fitted case with original personal inventory card
Provenance: Queen Josephine Maximilienne Eugénie Napoléone (1807-1876) married King Oscar I, King of Sweden and Norway, in Stockholm 19 June 1823
Queen Josephina brought to her marriage with Oscar Bernadotte important jewels made in Paris during the First Empire. They were inherited from her father, Eugène de Beauharnais, duc de Leuchtenberg (1781-1824) son of the Empress Josephine (1763-1814). Some are still in the Swedish Royal collection, and include two parures, one of sapphires, the other of amethysts, both mounted with diamonds, cf. Liz Granlund, Smycken For Drottningar (Stockholm 1976) and a cameo and pearl tiara.
This tiara, which Queen Josephina wears in the portrait illustrated is also depicted in a miniature of the Empress Josephine, cf. G. Reynolds, Catalogue of the Miniatures in the Wallace Collection (1980) no. 235, signed and dated F. Qualia 1814. It is not so easy to establish the provenance of Queen Josephina's pearls since there are no detailed descriptions in her grandmother's posthumous inventory, cf. Serge Grandjean, Inventiare après le deces de l'Imperatrice Josephine à Malmaison (1964) nos. 49-62, and in any case, there may have been pearls among the many gifts which the Empress made to her son and his wife during her lifetime. The girdandole earrings which Queen Josephina wears in the portrait could be those delivered to the Empress in Plombières by F. R. Nitot, Imperial jeweller, in 1809, composed of "6 perles poires dont les deux plus fortes sont vierges et tres belles plus de huit perles rondes," cf. Victoria and Albert Museum, MS MM 40.47.2677. What is certain is that the rose diamond silver caps to a pair of drop-shaped pearl earrings, now in the Louvre, cf. B. Morel, The French Crown Jewels (1988) p. 263, from the Empress's personal collection, and that of the duc de Leuchtenberg, Christie's, December 17, 1934, lot no. 119, are by the same hand as the mounts to the seven pear pearls fringing the necklace.
A portrait of Queen Josephina shows her wearing these drops as an alternative to the sapphires on her diamond tiara, cf. Granlund, op. cit., p. 11. In the circumstances it would seem most unlikely that the pearls in the necklace came from a source other than the Empress Josephine, and it was in allusion to her Napoleonic pedigree that the young Queen chose to be portrayed wearing them.
The graduated pearl two-row necklace suspending seven detachable pearl pendent drops with diamond cupola mounts to a cushion-cut diamond clasp, 38.0cm. long, circa 1820, in fitted case with original personal inventory card
Provenance: Queen Josephine Maximilienne Eugénie Napoléone (1807-1876) married King Oscar I, King of Sweden and Norway, in Stockholm 19 June 1823
Queen Josephina brought to her marriage with Oscar Bernadotte important jewels made in Paris during the First Empire. They were inherited from her father, Eugène de Beauharnais, duc de Leuchtenberg (1781-1824) son of the Empress Josephine (1763-1814). Some are still in the Swedish Royal collection, and include two parures, one of sapphires, the other of amethysts, both mounted with diamonds, cf. Liz Granlund, Smycken For Drottningar (Stockholm 1976) and a cameo and pearl tiara.
This tiara, which Queen Josephina wears in the portrait illustrated is also depicted in a miniature of the Empress Josephine, cf. G. Reynolds, Catalogue of the Miniatures in the Wallace Collection (1980) no. 235, signed and dated F. Qualia 1814. It is not so easy to establish the provenance of Queen Josephina's pearls since there are no detailed descriptions in her grandmother's posthumous inventory, cf. Serge Grandjean, Inventiare après le deces de l'Imperatrice Josephine à Malmaison (1964) nos. 49-62, and in any case, there may have been pearls among the many gifts which the Empress made to her son and his wife during her lifetime. The girdandole earrings which Queen Josephina wears in the portrait could be those delivered to the Empress in Plombières by F. R. Nitot, Imperial jeweller, in 1809, composed of "6 perles poires dont les deux plus fortes sont vierges et tres belles plus de huit perles rondes," cf. Victoria and Albert Museum, MS MM 40.47.2677. What is certain is that the rose diamond silver caps to a pair of drop-shaped pearl earrings, now in the Louvre, cf. B. Morel, The French Crown Jewels (1988) p. 263, from the Empress's personal collection, and that of the duc de Leuchtenberg, Christie's, December 17, 1934, lot no. 119, are by the same hand as the mounts to the seven pear pearls fringing the necklace.
A portrait of Queen Josephina shows her wearing these drops as an alternative to the sapphires on her diamond tiara, cf. Granlund, op. cit., p. 11. In the circumstances it would seem most unlikely that the pearls in the necklace came from a source other than the Empress Josephine, and it was in allusion to her Napoleonic pedigree that the young Queen chose to be portrayed wearing them.
Further details
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