I am just saying that the Russian provenance of that pearl necklace is mentioned by Fernando Rayon in his book in which he publishes an invoice from the royal archives with the name of the king, the weight of the pearls, the date, the price paid, in 1877. Furthermore that purchase by king Alfonso happened one year before queen Isabel was forced to sell her jewels in 1878. The dates don’t match. The weight don’t match either. It is not fair, in my opinion to challenge Rayon’s research with no documents, no name, no precise date... either the historian you refer to has a name, documents, dates... either he does not. Rayon had all this, so I still believe his story.
Sorry, but I don’t agree on the topic of pearls. The documents found in the royal palace archives and published by Fernando Rayon in his book Las joyas de las Reinas de Espana, are related to : “a necklace of 41 pearls weighing 2105 grains” bought for 215 000 francs from Jean Vaillant who apparently was ŕ french jeweller established in Saint Petersburg. The date of the invoice is 25th of October 1877. The auction of queen Isabelle’s jewels was one year later in Paris and the pearl necklace sold is described in the catalogue as : “a necklace of 37 pearls weighing 1570 grains” it was much smaller than the Russian one and sold AFTER il the Russian one was bought. I know there is a rumour insisting on the fact that some of queen Isabel’s jewels were “saved” at one point for the royal family. And there would have been a “private” auction of some of her jewels organised for her family after her death in Paris, but so far I have never seen any documents proving this.
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