Empress Josephine Bonaparte's tiaras to be auctioned in London next month: Report
Two tiaras believed to have belonged to Joséphine Bonaparte, Napoleon's first wife, are up for sale after being in private hands for more than a century.
- World News
- 3 min read
After being kept for more than a century and a half in private hands, two tiaras believed to have belonged to Joséphine Bonaparte, Napoleon's first wife, are up for sale. They are likely to fetch up to £500,000 ($682,000) when they will be put to Sotheby's auction house in London next month, reported CNN. The report further stated that one of the tiaras is made of gold with blue enamel accents and bright red carnelian engravings of ancient portraiture. The diadem comes with matching earrings, a belt decoration, and a comb as part of a jewellery set.
The second gold and enamel tiara has agate and jasper cameo depictions of the ancient Greek gods Zeus, Dionysus, Medusa, Pan, and Gaia. The piece was "possibly a present from Napoleon's sister Caroline Murat," according to the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, which earlier held the item on loan, reported the outlet. The empress, also known as Joséphine de Beauharnais following her first marriage to the aristocrat and army general Alexandre de Beauharnais, has piqued public interest in recent decades. Napoleon's passionate love letters to her are legendary, and she has been portrayed as a cunning seductress who eventually abandoned her marriage when she and the emperor were unable to produce an heir together.
'Both tiaras belong to 19th-century parures'
It is significant to mention here that both tiaras belong to 19th-century parures, or jewellery sets, that are representative of neoclassical design, which flourished during Napoleon's rule. According to Sotheby's, the emperor judiciously invoked ancient Roman customs, styles, and design following the upheaval of the French Revolution in order to associate his power with an ancient lineage. This association can be noticed in the tiaras' smallest elements, such as the cameo and intaglio pictures of classical deities and ancient figures worn by Napoleon and Joséphine, including on the former's coronation crown. Centuries before, Roman rulers wore semiprecious jewels etched with similar symbols of power, reported CNN.
In a press statement, Kristian Spofforth, the head of Sotheby's jewels department in London, claimed that Empress Joséphine was much more than just an antiquities collector. "She developed a totally new trend based on neoclassical shapes by being the first to incorporate these cameos and intaglios into her garment, wearing them side by side with pearls and diamonds," he stated adding that she created a completely new fashion that swept not only Paris but the entire world. Despite her status as a tastemaker empress, Joséphine came from a perilous background as the eldest daughter of an aristocratic French family who had built and lost their sugar cane wealth on Martinique's colonised island, reported the outlet.