Today marks the 75th Anniversary of the death of Queen Amélie of Portugal, who passed away on this day in 1951! The exiled Orléans Princess who married the Portuguese King, witnessed the assassination of her husband and son, and was then exiled for the remaining four decades of her life, today, we are revisiting Queen Amélie’s Emerald Parure!
Diamond Tiara | Emerald Parure | Diamond Star Tiara | Diamond Choker | Portuguese Crown Sapphires | Diamond Fleur-de-Lys Brooch
When Princess Amélie of Orléans married Crown Prince Carlos of Portugal in 1886, she received a magnificent array of wedding gifts from relatives, family friends, and institutions, which included a Diamond Tiara from her father-in-law, the King, and this magnificent Emerald and Diamond Parure from her parents, the Count and Countess of Paris, which consisted of a tiara, a necklace, and three square brooches, often attributed to Bapst or Laurent, both important French jewellers, and beloved to be earlier family heirlooms. She also received a magnificent Emerald Corsage Brooch from Prince Henri d’Orléans, Duke of Aumale.
The bride’s wedding gifts included a highly important Emerald and Diamond Parure, likely mounted by the former French Crown jeweller Bapst, comprising a tiara, a necklace, a devant-de-corsage and a set of smaller shoulder brooches which were given by the bride’s parents and her paternal great-uncle, the Duke of Aumale.
Crown Princess Amélie started wearing her Emerald Parure right after her arrival in Portugal, debuting it at one of the galas held on the occasion of the marriage. She was photographed and portrayed wearing the emeralds on several occasions, both as Duchess of Bragança and later as Queen Consort.
Queen Amélie often paired the Emerald Parure with other jewels from her jewellery collection, such as the Duke of Aumale’s Emerald Brooch, as well as pieces from the Royal Treasury, namely the Diamond Rivières and Queen Maria Pia Star Tiara.
After the fall of the Portuguese Monarchy in 1910, the Royal Family left most of their possessions behind, which were later returned by the republican government to the Queen, who remarked, “everything was returned, not even a small pin was missing”. In exile, Queen Amélie wore her Emerald Parure on several occasions.
When the Queen died in 1951, her jewels were inherited by several members of her French family and personal friends and staff, namely her three sisters, the Duchess of Aosta, the Duchess of Guise and Infanta Luisa of Spain, as well as her godson, Dom Duarte of Bragança, and some of her many nieces and nephews, like the Count of Paris, who as the head of the Orléans family, inherited the Emerald Parure.
The Count of Paris soon sold off his aunt’s Emerald Parure at auction in the late 1950s. From the only photograph available from the sale, we can see that the necklace had been altered, as the large central square emerald was removed, and a pair of earrings was created. The fate of the Parure remains unknown, some claim that it was, for some time, the property of a South American billionaire, who bought it somewhere in the 1950s and that it remains intact to this day in a ‘mysterious’ bank box.
The important Emerald Parure, attributed to Bapst, she willed to Henri, Count of Paris (1908-1999), the head of the House of Orléans, since these emeralds were wedding gifts of her parents and great-uncle and presumably had been in the Orléans family before their time. The Count of Paris sold the suite at auction in London in 1959, at that point the large central square emerald had already been removed from the necklace which now appeared as a graduated fringe of pear-shaped stones.
The Duke of Aumale’s Emerald Brooch was divided between her nieces, Doña María de las Mercedes, Countess of Barcelona and Princess Esperanza of Orléans and Braganza, the latter of whom also inherited some other Emerald Jewels, which included a Bangle, Brooch, and Pendant.
Princess Esperanza frequently wore the Emerald Brooches before passing them along with her Diamond Tiara to her daughter, Princess Maria da Gloria, the then Crown Princess of Yugoslavia, who sold them at Auction at Sotheby’s in 1981.
Her cabochon emerald bangle and brooch as well as the emerald devant-de-corsage which she wore with her historical emerald set she bequeathed to her niece and goddaughter Princess Esperanza of Bourbon-Orléans (1914-2005), who in turn gave them as wedding presents to her daughter Princess Maria da Gloria of Orléans-Braganza when she married Crown Prince Alexander of Yugoslavia in 1972. The Princess parted with the three emerald pieces at Sotheby’s New York in 1981 where all three were acquired by Gabriele Murdoch.
Queen Amélie’s Emerald Brooches and Bangle were acquired by socialite Gabriele Murdoch, who sadly passed away four years later. All three pieces were auctioned off again at Sotheby’s in 1999, with the upper portion of the Duke of Aumale’s Emerald Brooch reappearing at Sotheby’s in Hong Kong in 2016.
Mrs Murdoch acquired three emerald jewels formerly in the collection of Queen Amélie of Portugal at Sotheby’s in 1981, including the emerald and diamond bangle and brooch. With characteristic flair, Mrs Murdoch had the brooch altered to become an interchangeable clasp to be worn from a cultured pearl necklace.
Now, Queen Amélie’s Emerald Brooch and Bangle are again on Auction in the Royal and Noble Jewels Sale at Sotheby’s in Geneva next month, with estimates ranging between 70,000 – 100,000 CHF each.
The Countess of Barcelona created a Brooch from the Pendants of the Duke of Aumale’s Emerald Brooch, which was her granddaughter, Infanta Cristina, and is the only portion of Queen Amélie’s Emerald Jewels still within the family.
