Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Josephine's Jewels

I'm celebrating Josephine Bonaparte's birthday over at Risky Regencies today, talking about her famous sense of style! To go along with that, here's a glimpse of some of her gorgeous jewels...






2 comments:

Starry Diadem said...
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Starry Diadem said...

Third one down is nothing to do with Josephine. This is the Poltimore Tiara, originally made by Garrard for Florence, Lady Poltimore, wife of the second Baron Poltimore, in the 1870s, of diamonds set in gold and silver. Bought in 1959 for Princess Margaret, who wore it at her wedding.

Fourth one down is a tiara made by Faberge. Josephine died in 1814, Faberge was born in 1846, this tiara was made in his workshops in 1890 – so I'm afraid that whoever attributed the tiara to her wasn't correct. The briolette diamond drops *did* once belong to her, given to her by Tsar Alexander probably in payment for some paintings he bought from her. The diamonds descended through her family to her grandson who married a daughter of Tsar Nicolas 1 – explaining why the diamonds ended up back in Russia to be used by Faberge's workmen to make this tiara.

Bottom tiara is very similar to the one Josephine wore to her coronation, but is a much later one (1830 not 1804) and isn't quite the same.