Description
BRACELET WITH SEMI-RIGID BODY COMPOSED OF SIX LINKS IN YELLOW GOLD presenting in the center a circular concave medallion, decorated on the circumference of a Greek frieze, surmounted in relief by a blue enamelled medallion enriched with the crowned imperial eagle, encircled on the circumference. The whole paved with rose-cut diamonds. The rim is richly decorated with a series of twenty gold bees set with small rose-cut diamonds, on a blue enamel background, bordered on both sides by Greek friezes. Caged bottom under glass engraved with an "N" containing hair of Emperor Napoleon III. (small accidents to the enamel) Diameter : 63,5 mm x 55,3 mm. Gross weight : 90 g. Work attributed to the House of Mellerio. By family tradition, this bracelet would contain the hair of the Emperor Napoleon I contrary to what was indicated in the catalog of the sale of 1904. Provenance : - Collection of Princess Mathilde Bonaparte - Sale from May 26 to June 4, 1904, "Jewels of H.I.H. Madame la Princesse Mathilde", Galerie Georges Petit, Maître Paul Chevallier, auctioneer and André Falize, expert, n°141. - Acquisition of Prince Victor Napoleon and Princess Clementine of Belgium. - Then collection of the descendants of Princess Marie-Clotilde Napoleon. Biography : H.I.H. Princess Mathilde. Mathilde Bonaparte Wilhelmine Bonaparte. (Trieste 27 May 1820, Paris 2 January 1904). Daughter of King Jerome and niece of Napoleon I, Mathilde Bonaparte leaves in history the wake of great witnesses. She embodied the family clan with spirit. The Second Empire and the first twenty-five years of the Third Republic owe her parties, dinners and meetings with all that mattered in literature, painting, sculpture, music, journalism and politics, because she was intelligent, cultured and mocked conventions with morgue. At one time engaged to her cousin Louis-Napoleon, the future Napoleon III, she remained very close to the emperor of the French. The rivalry between the unofficial court of the princess and the Tuileries of the Empress Eugenie spiced up the imperial chronicle. She was barely twenty years old when she was married to a rich Russian prince, Anatole Demidoff. This union was so stormy that the tsar himself, Nicholas I, had to settle their separation. At the beginning of the Second Empire, she began a long and official affair with the Count of Nieuwerkerque, Superintendent of Fine Arts. Liberal and generous in spirit, the princess devoted herself until her death to her salon, where the Gotha of thought, talent and ideas gathered: Guy de Maupassant, Marcel Proust, Pierre Loti, Hippolyte Taine, Ernest Renan, Anatole France..., but also political opponents. On May 25, 1904, the newspaper "La Presse" published this article: "the Gallery Georges Petit. A beautiful collection. The exhibition, before the sale of the jewels of Princess Mathilde, had attracted this afternoon, at the Galerie Georges Petit, an audience as numerous as it was elegant, in the middle of which were great ladies and actresses, amateurs and antique dealers. It was difficult to see a more beautiful and varied collection than the one that Mr. Chevalier will disperse tomorrow: necklaces of white and black pearls, round and oval, of unusual size and purity, rivers of brilliants, diadems and bracelets, brooches and earrings, emeralds and rubies, topaz and garnets, all sparkling under the admiring eyes of the visitors, who were only reluctant to leave. Many of these jewels have a history. Some shone on sovereign or illustrious shoulders, at the Tuileries festivities under Napoleon I and Napoleon III; others have known the splendor of foreign courts before coming to the Rue de Saxe, a new stage in their adventurous existence. Of particular note is a magnificent necklace composed of seven strands of pearls, once given by Emperor Napoleon III to the Queen of Westphalia; two necklaces, one of fifty-one, the other of thirty-one large white and round oriental pearls, from Queen Sophie of Holland; a fourth made up of thirty-three black pearls, extremely rare, from the Queen of Westphalia. A brooch adorned with brilliants, a gift from Napoleon III to Princess Mathilde; a gold bracelet enriched with sapphires, a gift from Victor-Emmanuel II; another containing hair from Napoleon III. To quote still a delicious clock of voyage or bronzed chiselled, executed
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BRACELET WITH SEMI-RIGID BODY COMPOSED OF SIX LINKS IN YELLOW GOLD presenting in the center a circular concave medallion, decorated on the circumference of a Greek frieze, surmounted in relief by a blue enamelled medallion enriched with the crowned imperial eagle, encircled on the circumference. The whole paved with rose-cut diamonds. The rim is richly decorated with a series of twenty gold bees set with small rose-cut diamonds, on a blue enamel background, bordered on both sides by Greek friezes. Caged bottom under glass engraved with an "N" containing hair of Emperor Napoleon III. (small accidents to the enamel) Diameter : 63,5 mm x 55,3 mm. Gross weight : 90 g. Work attributed to the House of Mellerio. By family tradition, this bracelet would contain the hair of the Emperor Napoleon I contrary to what was indicated in the catalog of the sale of 1904. Provenance : - Collection of Princess Mathilde Bonaparte - Sale from May 26 to June 4, 1904, "Jewels of H.I.H. Madame la Princesse Mathilde", Galerie Georges Petit, Maître Paul Chevallier, auctioneer and André Falize, expert, n°141. - Acquisition of Prince Victor Napoleon and Princess Clementine of Belgium. - Then collection of the descendants of Princess Marie-Clotilde Napoleon. Biography : H.I.H. Princess Mathilde. Mathilde Bonaparte Wilhelmine Bonaparte. (Trieste 27 May 1820, Paris 2 January 1904). Daughter of King Jerome and niece of Napoleon I, Mathilde Bonaparte leaves in history the wake of great witnesses. She embodied the family clan with spirit. The Second Empire and the first twenty-five years of the Third Republic owe her parties, dinners and meetings with all that mattered in literature, painting, sculpture, music, journalism and politics, because she was intelligent, cultured and mocked conventions with morgue. At one time engaged to her cousin Louis-Napoleon, the future Napoleon III, she remained very close to the emperor of the French. The rivalry between the unofficial court of the princess and the Tuileries of the Empress Eugenie spiced up the imperial chronicle. She was barely twenty years old when she was married to a rich Russian prince, Anatole Demidoff. This union was so stormy that the tsar himself, Nicholas I, had to settle their separation. At the beginning of the Second Empire, she began a long and official affair with the Count of Nieuwerkerque, Superintendent of Fine Arts. Liberal and generous in spirit, the princess devoted herself until her death to her salon, where the Gotha of thought, talent and ideas gathered: Guy de Maupassant, Marcel Proust, Pierre Loti, Hippolyte Taine, Ernest Renan, Anatole France..., but also political opponents. On May 25, 1904, the newspaper "La Presse" published this article: "the Gallery Georges Petit. A beautiful collection. The exhibition, before the sale of the jewels of Princess Mathilde, had attracted this afternoon, at the Galerie Georges Petit, an audience as numerous as it was elegant, in the middle of which were great ladies and actresses, amateurs and antique dealers. It was difficult to see a more beautiful and varied collection than the one that Mr. Chevalier will disperse tomorrow: necklaces of white and black pearls, round and oval, of unusual size and purity, rivers of brilliants, diadems and bracelets, brooches and earrings, emeralds and rubies, topaz and garnets, all sparkling under the admiring eyes of the visitors, who were only reluctant to leave. Many of these jewels have a history. Some shone on sovereign or illustrious shoulders, at the Tuileries festivities under Napoleon I and Napoleon III; others have known the splendor of foreign courts before coming to the Rue de Saxe, a new stage in their adventurous existence. Of particular note is a magnificent necklace composed of seven strands of pearls, once given by Emperor Napoleon III to the Queen of Westphalia; two necklaces, one of fifty-one, the other of thirty-one large white and round oriental pearls, from Queen Sophie of Holland; a fourth made up of thirty-three black pearls, extremely rare, from the Queen of Westphalia. A brooch adorned with brilliants, a gift from Napoleon III to Princess Mathilde; a gold bracelet enriched with sapphires, a gift from Victor-Emmanuel II; another containing hair from Napoleon III. To quote still a delicious clock of voyage or bronzed chiselled, executed
