The information was also mentioned in an article in a recent issue of Royalty Digest Quarterly (2/2020) by Claudia Thomé Witte. A researcher in Brazil and Portugal, she had gathered information used in a two-part series for Swedish television on the Swedish royal jewels. They had tried to make a similar series on some of the Norwegian jewels (as they had uncovered info on the Brazilian and Leuchtenberg history), but the Norwegian royal house did not want to cooperate.
The article was based on the same material, and included more info than the tv-series. She writes:
´ A diadem, earrings, a necklace and an emerald brooch that had been a wedding gift from Duchess Augusta to her daughter Amelie, when she became Empress of Brazil, also went to Josephine.´ The author speculates on the origin (a gift from Emperor Napoleon to Duchess Augusta for her wedding in 1806, then re-gifted to her own daughter Amelie on her wedding in 1829), but this part of the history has not been possible to confirm. However she has found sources (including a court painting) in Brazil picturing the young Empress Amelie wearing emeralds for her wedding in Rio in 1829. The will of Duchess Augusta also confirms she left emeralds to Amelie for her wedding, thus it is clear this is not the same emeralds as those Leuchtenberg-emeralds left to Amelie´s brother Maximilian (and later inherited through the Leuchtenbergs). The painting of Josephine by Frederic Westin in 1825, mentioned earlier in this thread, is visible on this page:
https://www.gogmsite.net/_Media/1825-josephine-of-leuchtenb-2.jpeg There are several threads on this on the RJWMB, where posters here have contributed:
https://members2.boardhost.com/royal-jewels/thread/1552029383.html https://members2.boardhost.com/royal-jewels/msg/archive/1331890224.html If the 1825 painting shows emeralds (and there are similarities between the Norwegian parure and that portrayed by Westin), the set must have been complemented with additional square-shaped emeralds at a later date. A further twist is the information that these emeralds are Russian, as it is unclear whether there were such emeralds in Russia as early as the 1820s. There are several possibilities, including these two which are pure speculation on my part:
- the parure owned by Queen Josephine of Sweden originally had both a tiara and a jeweled comb, which was common for parures made in the Napoleonic court. Queen Josephine was pictured only with thejewelled comb in 1825. The tiara may or may not have been owned by Josephine at this point.
- the present tiara in the Norwegian collection is a ´mix´, where the 1825 jewels were supplemented with emeralds owned by Empress Amelie.
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