Princess Armand d’Arenberg’s Diamond Earrings

Later today, Princess Armand d’Arenbeg will be buried at the Parish Church near the Family Seat at the Château de Gerbéviller. The Princess, who passed away earlier this month at the age of 101, was the eldest of the three daughters of Charles de Lambertye-Gerbéviller, Marquis de Gerbéviller and Lorena Sancho-Mata y Contreras, and married Prince Armand-Louis Hélie d’Arenberg in 1941, having two children, with the Princess having a special friendship with Prince Paul of Yugoslavia. The couple inherited the Château from her father and it remains the Family Home, though these spectacular Diamond Earrings that we are featuring today are no longer in their possession!

Each suspending a fringe of nine old mine-cut diamonds, surmounted by scrolling lines of graduated single-cut diamonds, further topped by two old mine-cut diamonds, and detachable pendants, these earrings date from 1780 are are likely Heirlooms of the House of Arenberg, who were the wealthiest and most influential noble family of the Habsburg Netherlands.

Princess Armand began wearing these Diamond Earrings soon after her marriage, being photographed wearing them at a Ball in Paris in 1949, and at another Ball the following year, with her sister, Princess Charles de Ligne, and Madame Bertrand de la Haye Jousselin.

By the mid-2010s, the Diamond Earrings were no longer in the collection of Princess Armand and currently belong to FD Gallery in New York, who have often featured the earrings on their Instagram, and they were also included in a Sotheby’s Exhibition in 2019, with an estimate of $375,000, though the earrings have remained with FD Gallery.

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Euro History Journal 

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