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Empress Menen Asfaw of Ethiopia's Brooch
Posted by Tiara Mania on May 13, 2021, 3:56 am
I was looking for something else and I think I've found a brooch that belonged to Empress Menen Asfaw. Here she is wearing the brooch on three occasions but I don't have dates for any of them.
And then what I think is the same brooch by Georges Fouquet. It was sold through 1stDibs in 2013. "Magnificent Art Nouveau brooch in 18ct yellow gold symmetrically designed with a central aquamarine panel suspending a large aquamarine drop inbetween two green tourmalines within enamelled oval forms with diamond detailing Georges Fouquet, Paris circa 1901" Then the Albion Art Institute posted about the brooch as part of their collection in 2016 and 2019. It's not currently on their website's virtual museum but I don't think they keep the whole collection on there or it could have been sold since then.
Normally I wouldn't be very confident about matching a piece of jewelry without better quality photos but the shape is so unique. Has anyone else seen anything similar to this?
It makes the question of what happened to the Ethiopian royal jewels more complicated. They had quite a few tiaras and plenty of other major jewelry. I assume that the jewelry was confiscated by the Derg regime when they imprisoned the family in 1974 and was broken up and sold. Empress Menen Asfaw died in 1962 so it's possible this brooch was not in Ethiopia in 1974 and was safe from the Derg or they may have sold it intact. I wish I could find more information about their jewelry collection.
How fascinating and so beautiful! I rarely like jewels with different colour stones but this is just lovely.
Thank you for sharing. I am loving your recent posts on your website recently about the Savoy collection of tiaras.
Previous Message
I was looking for something else and I think I've found a brooch that belonged to Empress Menen Asfaw. Here she is wearing the brooch on three occasions but I don't have dates for any of them.
And then what I think is the same brooch by Georges Fouquet. It was sold through 1stDibs in 2013. "Magnificent Art Nouveau brooch in 18ct yellow gold symmetrically designed with a central aquamarine panel suspending a large aquamarine drop inbetween two green tourmalines within enamelled oval forms with diamond detailing Georges Fouquet, Paris circa 1901" Then the Albion Art Institute posted about the brooch as part of their collection in 2016 and 2019. It's not currently on their website's virtual museum but I don't think they keep the whole collection on there or it could have been sold since then.
Normally I wouldn't be very confident about matching a piece of jewelry without better quality photos but the shape is so unique. Has anyone else seen anything similar to this?
It makes the question of what happened to the Ethiopian royal jewels more complicated. They had quite a few tiaras and plenty of other major jewelry. I assume that the jewelry was confiscated by the Derg regime when they imprisoned the family in 1974 and was broken up and sold. Empress Menen Asfaw died in 1962 so it's possible this brooch was not in Ethiopia in 1974 and was safe from the Derg or they may have sold it intact. I wish I could find more information about their jewelry collection.
1stDibs - FOUQUET Gold, Aquamarine, Diamond & Enamel Brooch Albion Art's Facebook Page - Art Nouveau Aquamarine Stomacher Brooch