Empress Joséphine’s Diamond Tiara

Today marks the 210th Anniversary of the Death of Empress Joséphine of the French, who passed away on this day in 1814! The legendary French Empress had a spectacular Jewellery Collection, and while it is unlikely that anything more than a portion of this Diamond Tiara was worn by the legendary Empress Joséphine for her Coronation, it was loaned by Van Cleef & Arpels to several Royal Ladies in recent decades!

Empress Joséphine’s Diamond Tiara | Leuchtenberg Sapphire Parure | Diamond Tiara | Swedish Cameo Parure | Emerald Parure

A spectacular 1040-diamond tiara mounted on yellow gold, and totalling 260 carats, the exact origin of this Diamond Tiara is unknown, but historian Vincent Meylan believes that some portions of the Tiara may be a partially dismantled Diamond Tiara mentioned in Empress Joséphine’s inventory in 1814, joined by a more rental central element, as described:

It seems that the diamonds are set in two very different techniques. All the big classical motives in the form of feuillages and rinceaux are set very elegantly in a early XIXth century manner very close to the technique used in other jewels from the same period. The central motives and the pointy part at the the bottom of the tiara are set in a much more simple technique and possibly by a jeweller who was not very talented. It seems someone tried to patch up the missing part of an old tiara.

Without any proof, it has long been claimed that this Diamond Tiara was the one worn by Empress Joséphine when she was crowned by Emperor Napoleon during their Coronation at the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris in 1804, as immortalised by Jacques-Louis David.

Following her death in 1814, the partially dismantled Diamond Tiara mentioned in her inventory was inherited by Empress Joséphine’s only daughter, Queen Hortense of Holland, and then by her son, Emperor Napoleon III of the French. The partially dismantled Diamond Tiara was among the jewels sold by Empress Eugenie at Christie’s in London in 1872.

Empress Joséphine’s Diamond Tiara was acquired by the banking heiress Angela Burdett-Coutts, 1st Baroness Burdett-Coutts, who had the central portion created to complete the Tiara, as described by Meylan:

The central motives and the pointy part at the the bottom of the tiara are set in a much more simple technique and possibly by a jeweller who was not very talented. It seems someone tried to patch up the missing part of an old tiara.

After Baroness Burdett-Coutts’ death in 1906, Empress Joséphine’s Diamond Tiara was acquired by chemist Sir Robert Mond and worn by Lady Mond for a portrait created in the 1920s.

In 1935, Empress Joséphine’s Diamond Tiara was worn by Mrs Oswald Birley for the Empire Ball at Grosvenor House, and around 1949, the Tiara was sold by Lady Mond to Van Cleef & Arpels.

Soon afterwards, Van Cleef & Arpels loaned Empress Joséphine’s Diamond Tiara to her great-great-great-great-great-great-granddaughter, Duchess Maria Magdalene of Leuchtenberg, for her Wedding to Joseph de Pasquale in August 1949.

From the 1950s, Van Cleef & Arpels frequently marketed the Tiara as not only having belonged to Empress Joséphine, but also it being the same Tiara worn by her to the Coronation of Napoleon in 1804.

Van Cleef & Arpels loaned Empress Joséphine’s Diamond Tiara to Princess Grace of Monaco for the spectacular Ball celebrating the Centenary of the Monte-Carlo Opera in 1966. 

Over the years, the Diamond Tiara was frequently loaned to numerous socialites, including Rose Kennedy, Jill Corey, Nancy Berg, and Jane Anderson Dudley.

In 1969, the Tiara was displayed at the ‘Napoleon’ Exhibition at the Grand Palais. Jacques Arpels stating that

You see the diadem in the vitrine behind me, I bought it at the end of World War II from an aristocratic English lady. It’s the one that Empress Josephine wore on the day of her coronation. It was passed to the Empress Eugenie, who sold it when she was in exile after the fall of the Second Empire in 1870. It was bought by an English lady who knew the Empress Eugenie. Subsequently it was left to the lady I bought it from”

In 1988, Empress Joséphine’s Diamond Tiara was worn by the Countess of Paris for the Wedding Ball of her granddaughter, Duchess Mathilde of Württemberg, and Hereditary Count Erich of Waldburg zu Zeil and Trauchburg at Schloss Altshausen.

Soon afterwards, Bernard Morel, author of ‘The French Crown Jewels’ commented:

Van Cleef & Arpels owns a 1040-diamond tiara mounted on yellow gold, and totaling 260 carats, which is reputed to have belonged to Empress Josephine and which was displayed at the Grand Palais from June to December 1969 at the exhibition “Napoleon”. This tiara would have been presented by Napoleon to the Empress, who would have bequeathed it to her daughter Queen Hortense. It would then have gone by inheritance to Napoleon III and would have been sold in London in 1872 by Empress Eugenie at the beginning of her exile.
Yet it is certain that this tiara did not exist in the inventory [of Josephine’s private jewels] made in 1804, nor in the one made in 1814, in which the only diamond tiara was partly dismantled and included briolettes, which is not the case of this tiara. It can not either be the diamond tiara delivered by [Crown jeweller] Nitot in 1807, which was made of 2882 diamonds. Of course, it could have been acquired and given away by the Empress between 1804 and 1814, but despite all our researches we could not find any proof of this supposal, nor any proof of the sale of this tiara by Empress Eugenie in 1872. Besides, Mr Serge Grandjean, head curator of the department of artefacts of the Louvre Museum, told us his doubts about the attribution of this tiara to Josephine: his doubts were based on the shape of the frontal part of the tiara, with a downward spike which looked to him incompatible with the style of the Napoleonic time, opinion which I fully share.

Soon afterwards, Van Cleef & Arpels quietly sold Empress Joséphine’s Diamond Tiara and it has not been seen since, but remains very much in the public imagination, so much so, that Vincent Meylan finally cleared up its origins in 2019.

That diamond tiara has been a mystery for a very long time. When it appeared in Paris in the 1960s in the Van Cleef & Arpels boutique, it was presented as the Empress Josephine Diamond tiara. Jacques Arpels explained during an interview on french TV that he had bought it from a rich lady who was a good friend of his family. He added that this tiara belonging to empress Josephine (photo 2, but wearing a different tiara) napoleon ‘s first wife, had been inherited by her grandson emperor Napoleon the 3rd and then sold by his widow empress Eugenie in 1872 at Christie’s in order to raise some money during her exile in England. One thing is sure : that tiara is made of two parts. It seems that the diamonds are set in two very different techniques. All the big classical motives in the form of feuillages and rinceaux are set very elegantly in a early XIXth century manner very close to the technique used in other jewels from the same period. The central motives and the pointy part at the the bottom of the tiara are set in a much more simple technique and possibly by a jeweller who was not very talented. It seems someone tried to patch up the missing part of an old tiara. In the inventory of empress Josephine jewels, established after her death in 1814, which anyone can read in the Archives Nationales in Paris, is indeed mentioned a « Big diamond tiara with many parts missing ». A similar diamond tiara with many missing elements is also mentioned in the list of the jewels sold at Christiés by Empress Eugenie in 1872. That tiara ( the one on the picture) is mentioned in the inventory of the jewels of baroness Burdett Coutts (photo 3) one the richest woman of Victorian England. It is also photographed , in It’s complete form, suggesting that the patching up occurred at the end of the XIX th century,( yes, I have seen the inventory). After the death of Angela Burdett Coutts, it was sold to lady Mond ( photo 4, wearing the tiara) . She was french, a kind of courtesan who married one of her very wealthy lovers, Walter Mond. Lady Mond died in 1949, in France and she is the lady from whom the Arpels family purchased the tiara.

More recently, a recreation of Empress Joséphine’s Diamond Tiara was worn by Vanessa Kirby portraying Empress Joséphine in Ridley Scott’s ‘Napoleon’, thus perpetuating the legend created by Van Cleef & Arpels’ marketing.

Empress Joséphine’s Diamond Tiara | Leuchtenberg Sapphire Parure | Diamond Tiara | Swedish Cameo Parure | Emerald Parure

The Beau Monde  | Vincent Meylan

Empress Joséphine’s Diamond Tiara

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