The Napoleon Diamond Necklace is a diamond necklace commissioned by Napoleon I of France c. 1811–1812 from the Parisian jeweler Marie-Étienne Nitot. It is now in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C.
Description The Napoleon Diamond Necklace is somewhat atypical of other contemporary works produced by Marie-Étienne Nitot. Other pieces commissioned from him by Emperor Napoleon, such as the two parures celebrating the Emperor's marriage to Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, the Marie Louise Diadem, the wedding jewels for Empress Joséphine, etc., all demonstrate a predilection for highly decorative flourishes in the framework. These range from silver scrollwork and floral motifs to complex interwoven curves. In contrast, the Napoleon Diamond Necklace is relatively simple and elegant. It consists of a single silver thread, with gold settings containing 28 mine-cut diamonds. Coming off of the central thread is a fringe of alternating pendeloque cut and briolette-cut diamonds. The five pear-shaped pendeloques are each mounted below a small brilliant cut diamond. The four oval pendeloques are mounted above designs which incorporate 23 brilliant cut diamonds each. Each briolette mounting is set with 12 rose cut diamonds, bringing the total number of diamonds mounted in the necklace to 234. While the gems of the Napoleon Diamond Necklace have never been professionally graded or weighed by a lapidary (as they have never been removed from their mountings), infrared spectroscopic analysis of the diamonds has shown that they are primarily colourless Type Ia. A smaller number—13 of the 52 largest diamonds—are of the rare Type IIa variety. A number of the Type Ia diamonds show indications of sulfide crystal imperfections. The total weight of the diamonds is estimated at 263 carats (52.6 g), and the weight of the largest diamond alone is estimated to be about 10.4 carats (2.08 g).
Provenance
Habsburgs
In 1810, Napoleon divorced the Empress Joséphine, as she proved to be incapable of producing an heir. He re-married two months later to Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria. Within a year, Marie Louise bore a son, Napoleon II. To celebrate, in June 1811 Napoleon I commissioned two parures (one of which included the Marie Louise Diadem) and the Napoleon Diamond Necklace from Marie-Étienne Nitot, his official court jeweler. He ordered that "all the leading jewelers of the world" be assembled to contribute the necessary number of diamonds. The necklace was designed by Nitot himself, and produced by his company in Paris, The House of Chaumet. Nitot had been commissioned to create several other pieces for the Emperor in the past, including Napoleon's papal tiara, his coronation crown, his ceremonial sword and the wedding jewels of his first wife, Josephine de Beauharnais. The profligate use of diamonds in the piece—an incredibly rare gemstone given that modern sources such as South Africa and Siberia had yet to be tapped—was a deliberate display of extravagance on Napoleon's part. To emphasise this, he had the value of the completed necklace assessed by a separate jeweler, Ernst Paltscho of Vienna. Paltscho presented his assessment, 376,274 French francs, to the Imperial court the same year. This sum was the equivalent of the Empress's entire annual household budget. There are several contemporary portraits of Marie Louise wearing the Napoleon Diamond Necklace, including a number by the artists François Gérard and Giovan Battista Borghesi. Several years later, in 1815, Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena. As the necklace was part of her personal belongings, rather than state property like the Crown Jewels, Marie Louise took it with her when she left the country herself. She eventually settled in Parma, and continued to wear the necklace on public occasions for the rest of her life. With her son having pre-deceased her, the death of Marie Louise in 1847 saw her estate split between her remaining Habsburg relatives. The Napoleon Diamond Necklace passed to Archduchess Sophie of Austria, the wife of Marie Louise's brother, Archduke Franz Karl of Austria. Two diamonds were removed from the necklace to shorten it, at the request of Princess Sophie. These diamonds were fitted to a pair of earrings, whose location is now unknown. When Sophie died in 1872, the necklace was jointly inherited by her three surviving sons, Archdukes Karl Ludwig, Ludwig Viktor, and Franz Joseph of Austria. Karl Ludwig later acquired his brothers' stakes in the necklace, and upon his death in 1896 passed it to his third wife, Maria Theresa of Portugal. As an exquisite and fashionable piece of jewelry with an insterestingly-storied history, Maria Theresa took every opportunity to wear the necklace to state events, including the coronation of Tsar Alexander III in 1883, where it proved popular enough among the guests that the Tsar requested it be displayed under guard to guests for several hours each day for the following week.
Theft and Sale
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