Portugal and Bragança Royal and Noble Jewels


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Elsa M.

Elsa M.

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The house of Bragança had been the owner of some impressive jewels.
Some were incorporated in the collections of other European royal houses (like the famous Bragança tiara, which was left to Queen Josefina of Sweden, by her sister, Amélie de Beauharnais, Empress of Brazil), while 15 other pieces were robbed in November 2004, from an exhibition that was held in the Museon of Haia (Netherlands). Among these were a cane engraved with 387 diamonds (which belonged to Queen D.ª Maria Pia) and a diamond of 135 carats.

Few pieces remained with the family and are displayed, once in a while, by the current Duchess of Bragança.


Here are a few:

D.ª Isabel wearing a diamond tiara, on her wedding to the Duke of Bragança, in 1995 (photos scanned from Olá Semanário)
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=114387&d=1111597948
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=114417&d=1111601225

D.ª Isabel wearing a diamond set of necklace and earings, in Stockholm 2006:
http://www.seegerpress-online.de/se...review&ID=1146391284&string=Schweden+Portugal

D.ª Isabel wearing a diamond tiara and a set of necklace and earings, in Stockholm 2006:
http://www.seegerpress-online.de/se...review&ID=1146443592&string=Schweden+Portugal

D.ª Isabel wearing a bandeau-type diamond tiara, which may be a convertable necklace. (The photo was taken at the Danish Royal Wedding, in May 2004. (Photo by Getty Images)
http://www.theroyalforums.com/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=105676&d=1110387166

At the GD Couple's Silver Wedding Celebrations in Luxembourg, in 2006 (Photo by SeegerPress and Getty):
http://img157.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=45194_pre_SEEGER00162762_218lo.jpg
http://img151.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=45208_71350082_279lo.jpg

At the wedding of Prince Felipe and Letizia of Spain, in May 2004:
http://org21.zorpia.com/0/2671/17099969.a6c886.jpg
 
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The following information was posted by Boris here:

Besides the Bragaça tiara, Empress Amelie left to her sister a series of diamonds:
all of them called by Josefina 'The Brazilian Parure'. Among them were this brooch, worn here with the Braganca tiara:
Förhandsvisning av ' tr2430.jpg ' - Sjöberg bild +46 (0) 940 360 14 *|*registrera dig eller e-posta
and the diamonds in these earrings, which were created by Queen Silvia by using the old stones (note the size of the lower single diamond!):
IBL Bildbyrå | 0435 44 07 65
The Norwegian emerald parure again dates back to Empress Josephine, were given to Empress Amelie and later found their way first into the Swedish and then the Norwegian Royal Family.
Click to expand...

[/QUOTE]
 
Elsa M. said:
Another diamond necklace, pared with the same tiara she used on her wedding day
Click to expand...
Can it be used as tiara?
I just found it

Maria Pia
Maria Pia Portugal 2 pictures from fashion photos on webshots
Maria Pia Portugal 3 pictures from fashion photos on webshots
Any ideas about these tiaras?

And once again Maria Amelia
Rainha Amélia d'Orléans pictures from fashion photos on webshots
This is the same tiara which Duchess of Braganca had wore on her wedding.

And here much more opened I think: Queen Amelie
Queen Amelie of Portugal pictures from fashion photos on webshots
 
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I really like Dona Isabel's wedding tiara, it is very beautiful. What is the provenance of the piece?

Does the Duke own all these pieces himself or are they part of a foundation (or maybe even a loan).

--
On another note, I got to see the stolen jewels in the Hague just a few days before they were stolen. I believe they were displayed in the Museon. As I was in my early teens I wasn't too impressed by them, so I can not remember how they looked.
 
Marengo said:
I really like Dona Isabel's wedding tiara, it is very beautiful. What is the provenance of the piece?

Does the Duke own all these pieces himself or are they part of a foundation (or maybe even a loan).
Click to expand...
The royal jewels (along with all the other family estates) were nationalized with the Proclamation of the Republic in 1910, and the most significant part of those jewels was stolen from the Haia Museon in 2004... Maybe you didn't get very impressed by them, but the collection included some valious pieces and the prize-money given by the insurance was of 6.200.000 €.

So I believe that the jewels owned by the current Duchess of Bragança are not inherited from the Portuguese kings, but from D. Duarte's brazilian mother, D.ª Maria Francisca de Orleans e Bragança (who was a great graddaughter of Emperor Pedro II of Brazil).
I suppose that's the provenance of the jewels used by D.ª Isabel. Here, for example, we can see the late Duchess of Bragança wearing the same necklace:
http://img178.imageshack.us/img178/7009/mariafranciscanp0.jpg
http://img142.imagevenue.com/img.php?image=76542_16177408_47b19e_122_1080lo.jpg

On the other hand this one seems to be the same tiara used by Isabel on her wedding day. And the necklace in this other seems to be the same piece used as a tiara here...


...I don't know why aren't these owned by the State...
 
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Thank you for posting a close-up of Isabel's wedding tiara. I've always thougt it was beautiful but have never seen it close-up. :flowers:
 
SASSY said:
Thank you for posting a close-up of Isabel's wedding tiara. I've always thougt it was beautiful
Click to expand...
It is indeed a beautiful piece. I was trying to know something more about it, but all I know is that the tiara was already with the Portuguese royal family, when King D. Carlos married Princess Amélie d'Orléans (May 22nd 1886). The following sketch was taken from the book Amélia, Rainha de Portugal. It says that these jewels were a wedding gift of D. Carlos to his wife:
http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/8239/ameliand4.jpg


le soleil said:
anymore pics of the stolen jewels???
Click to expand...
Here are photos of the stolen jewels: an uncut 135-carat diamond, a cane handle of gold and precious stones, a ring of gold and precious stones, a diamond
necklace and two diamond brooches. All the pieces were lent by the National Palace of Ajuda to the Museon (science museum in The Hague, The Netherlands):

Polícia Judiciária - Obras de Arte Furtadas
 
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King D. João IV was the last king to be coronated in Portugal. On December 15th 1640, the king placed his crown on the statue of Our Lady of Conception (Nossa Senhora da Conceição) and no subsequent monarch dared to use again the crown that was offered to the Virgin. Ever since, each accession was just celebrated with an "acclamation" and an oath.

When the royal family left Portugal to settle the Court in Brazil (just before Napoleon's invasion), King D. João VI decided to order a new crown and scepter, made of Brazilian unadorned gold, and featured the new regalia on his coronation (February 6th 1818). When the royal family returned to Portugal, in 1821, he took the regalia with him and these were used on the coronations of his successors, up to the last King, D. Manuel II (in 1908).

This crown and scepter may be seen in the National Palace of Ajuda (in Lisbon):

http://img158.imageshack.us/img158/1307/coroazd0.gif
 
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The Cadaval Diamond Tiara

From the wedding of HRH Prince Charles-Philippe d'Orléans, duc d'Anjou and Diana, Duchess of Cadaval, in Portugal June 2008.
Pics courtesy of Elsa M.

 
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WOW...! The Cadaval tiara is magnificent. It seem to be understated and simple, yet showcases stones (diamonds and pearls, I believe) perfectly.
 
The Royal House of Bragança had an impressive personal collection of jewels.But, at least, since king D.Manuel I (1495-1521) the Portuguese Royal House had a magnificent jewels collection. The most impressive gemstones was heritage from Charles the Bold (1433-1477), duke of Burgundy, after is Nancy defeat and death, because his mother was the portuguese infanta D.Isabel de Portugal. During D.Manuel’s reign, thousands of gems arrived from Orient, and the king gave fabulous presents to all other European royal families, showing the newly acquired riches from the Portuguese trade Empire.

After the death of Henry, the Cardinal-King of Portugal, in 1580, the last male heir from the Aviz dynasty, Felipe II of Spain claimed the throne has grandchildren of D.Manuel (his mother was the infanta D.Isabel, immortalized in the precious Tizian portrait). But other claimant to the throne, D.António (also grandchildren of D.Manuel, but through a bastard line, an illegitimate son of the infante D.Luis, Duke of Beja) proclaimed himself King and was defeated by the Duke of Alba’s army, sent by the Spanish king to claim Portugal by force.
In his flee, D.António token almost all the crown jewels, including many valuable diamonds:
1) The Portuguese Mirror, given to queen Elizabeth, later bought by Mazarin, and then sold in Turkey in 1795, after the French revolution;
2) The Portuguese Diamond, also named The Blue Ocean (Now in Smithsonian);
3) And the famous Sancy, not purchased in Constantinople by Nicholas Harlai, Seigneur de Sancy, but to D.António (Now in Louvre).
The remain Portuguese crown jewels ware taken to Madrid.

After the Revolution, in 1640, the new king D.João IV (1640-1656), former Duke of Bragança, sold many gemstones to pay the war against Spain. When the infanta Catarina married Charles II, in 1662, the queen mother Luisa decided to sell the remain of the royal jewels to be able to pay the large dowry that the infanta brought to England.
Later, in the end of the 17th century, the newly found gold and diamond mines in Brazil gave an impressive splendor to crown (recent studies says that D.João V (1706-1750) earned 108 thousands of millions reais!). In Lisbon's earthquake (1755) many royal jewels disappeared, including the new Portuguese crown, a copy of the french one, ordered by D.João V in Paris.
The famous cane engraved with 387 diamonds (the main one have 24,32 carats), robbed in Haia, or the ring with a diamond having 37,50 carats, belonged to D.José (1750-1777), D.João V son, and not to D.Maria Pia. This king provide the royal house with exclusive jewels, like the fabulous tobacco box, work of the French Jean Ducrollay, in gold, with 853 diamonds and 204 emeralds or the infanta D.Mariana (1736-1813) splendid corset in gold and silver, with 216 diamonds and 31 huge emeralds (some with 47.91 carats).
 
Those jewels are beautiful! I like the little opera glasses at the top, too
 
:previous::previous: I've wondered the same thing for a long time! King Manuel did leave everything he owned to the Portuguese state in his will, so I do hope after she died it went back to Portugal to be with the rest of the royal family Jewels left there, that way one day if there is a restoration of the monarchy, the queen will have that tiara! (yes I'm hopeful for a restoration lol!):)
 
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