The tiaras of the Duchess of Angoulême, Marie-Antoinette's daughter, are discussed,
HERE and
HERE. To quote:
The Duchess' emerald tiara, a gift from her husband Louis Antoine, Duke
of Angoulême, was made in 1819-1820 by Evrard and Frederic Bapst and was
designed specifically to use unmounted stones from the crown jewels.
There are 40 emeralds in total, all set in gold and totaling about 77
carats all together; 14 of those were the largest emeralds available
from the crown stash and the rest were added to match. They were joined
by 1,031 diamonds (176 carats in all) set in silver. The diamonds, all
set on a curved base, form a pattern of scrolling foliage which surround
and incorporate the various shapes of emeralds available.
Though made for the Duchess, the tiara was part of the crown jewels and
was not her personal property. Before she departed for exile in 1830,
following the abdication of her father-in-law Charles X and (20 minutes
later) the abdication of her own husband from the French throne, she
returned the tiara to the treasury. It remained a part of the French
crown jewels through various changes of power; in particular, it was
said to have been a favorite of Empress Eugénie, who had a special
preference for emeralds and used the tiara during the reign of her
husband Napoleon III (1853-1870)....Along with the rest of the crown
jewels, it was displayed at the third Paris World's Fair in 1878 and at
the Louvre in 1884. In 1887, it was sold at auction by the Third
Republic along with most of the crown collection. (Read entire post.)
The Duchess also had a ruby parure:
Once he reclaimed the throne, Louis XVIII had the crown jewels redone in
the Restoration style instead of the Empire style. In 1816, the ruby
parure was remade to suit the Duchess of Angoulême by Pierre-Nicholas
Menière. The design came from Menière's son-in-law, Evrard Bapst, and
kept some of the features of the original Nitot parure. The new parure
was just as extensive as the old, including both a larger tiara (shown
in color above) of rubies set in scrolling diamond foliage and a smaller
comb/tiara. (Read more.)
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The Duchess of Angoulême |
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