Portugal and Bragança Royal and Noble Jewels


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I had always assumed Queen Amelia had sold her Emerald Parure that she received from her parents for her wedding when she went into exile because she needed money, but I found a picture of her wearing it in older age. I heard she left some jewels to her French Family, does anyone with whom this tiara ended up with? Most likely at an auction, if she had left it to D. Duarte Pio, this beautiful piece would be safely in the hands of the Portuguese royal family. :/
Here's the picture I spoke of:
http://img339.imageshack.us/img339/9950/06ameliail6.jpg
 
I've seen that before but have never been able to find a picture of Queen Amelie wearing it! Such a pity she didn't leave more to the Duke of Braganca! :/
 
There's been a discussion in the thread Pre-Napoleonic Tiaras about the time the Bragança Tiara was first created, with Boris providing a lot of information.
I am fortunate to participate in a Brazilian Genealogy Newsgroup in which there are several respected historians, genealogists and authors. I questioned the participants about the tiara and Paulo Rezzutti (author of the book "Titilia and Demonão" - that's how D. Pedro I and Domitila de Castro Mello, Marqueza de Santos called each other when they were lovers) brought some lights about its origin.
When D. João VI, still living in Brazil at that time, arranged his son’s (D. Pedro I) marriage to Archduchess Maria Leopoldina (daughter of Francis II, Holy Roman Emperor) in 1817, he sent the Marquis of Marialva in a most exquisite and luxurious embassy to the Austrian Court. D. João VI sent along to almost everybody in the Austrian court expensive jewels and stones from Brazil as tokens of the occasion , including some spectacular diamonds to D. Leopoldina.
After D. Leopoldina died, D. Pedro I married D. Amélia (Amélie Auguste Eugénie Napoléone de Beauharnais) in 1829 and gave her a tiara. There is a document signed by D. Pedro I in 1830 in the archives of the Imperial Museum of Petrópolis in which he recognizes he is in debt with his children by D. Leopoldina because he used the diamonds that had belonged to their mother to make the tiara he gave to D. Amélia.
The very best diamonds Brazil has ever produced were from the XVIII century and I guess some of them were probably sent to a diamantaire before being given to D. Leopoldina. That is why the research conducted in 1976 by the Swidish for an expositon of the royal jewels on the occasion of King Carl Gustav and Queen Silvia’s wedding reported that the Bragança tiara was from the XVIII century.
Anyway, the Bragança tiara and other diamond jewels left by D. Amélia do her sister Queen Josephine of Sweden seem to have been made from D. Leopoldina’s diamonds.
Mr. Rezzutti also remembers that at some point he was informed that there is a letter from D. Amélia to her mother, Duchess Augusta, in which she says she wore the diamond tiara given by D. Pedro I at the first “Beija-Mão” (a ceremony of Portuguese and Brazilian usage when the nobles kissed the hand of the King and Queen to demonstrate their obidience) in Brazil. That might be the reason why the Bragança tiara was refered previously by Queen Josephine as Coronation Tiara.
I don’t consider this issue closed, but I tend to believe that the Bragança tiara was either mounted for D. Leopoldina (as a first version, then alterered to D. Amélia) or to D. Amélia, which means it is not pre-napoleonic.
 
Dear cmbruno, thank you so much for this detailed information!
Most fascinating, probably explains a lot about the Brazilian inheritance to Queen Josefina of Sweden, and I'm quite certain that these facts are unknown to the Swedish royal family as well.
You should seriously consider writing to the Royal Palace in order to let them know about these details; Queen Silvia would certainly appreciate it - she did so before when a member of the Royal Jewels message board found a miniature of Queen Hortense of Holland, Napoléon's stepdaughter, wearing the cameo tiara from the Bernadotte collection.
You don't happen to be a member of the Royal Jewels MB, do you?
If not, I'd love to post a link there to your post above, if you don't mind.
 
Go ahead, Boris, use the information as much as you like at the Royal Jewels. As for writing to the Royal Palace in Sweden, I will suggest Mr. Rezzutti to do that, since he was the one to come up with the pivotal information about the document at the Imperial Museum of Petrópolis.
I thank you very much for the opportunity of discussing with you a subject I am most interested about and learning so much from you.
 
cmbruno said:
Go ahead, Boris, use the information as much as you like at the Royal Jewels. As for writing to the Royal Palace in Sweden, I will suggest Mr. Rezzutti to do that, since he was the one to come up with the pivotal information about the document at the Imperial Museum of Petrópolis.
.
Click to expand...

Please, it was Cláudia Thome Witte, who is a friend of Paulo Rezzutti (and of mine) who made the researches at the Imperial Museum in Petropolis as well as in Stockholm, Munich, etc!
Claudia Wtte is the one who came with the informations provided to Paulo Rezzutti. And she is writting a bio on Empress Amélia.
 
Alberto2244 said:
Please, it was Cláudia Thome Witte, who is a friend of Paulo Rezzutti (and of mine) who made the researches at the Imperial Museum in Petropolis as well as in Stockholm, Munich, etc!
Claudia Wtte is the one who came with the informations provided to Paulo Rezzutti. And she is writting a bio on Empress Amélia.
Click to expand...

Yes, Alberto. Paulo said that he was helping someone with some reasearches about this subject. I really did not know the name of the author. So I posted an information Paulo had given me in a forum and told Paulo I was posting here.
And of course I will buy Claudia's Book. Somewhere here on this group (maybe on Sweden's royal jewls) there is already a link informing about Claudia's book.
 
I am sad to see that many of these no longer work any more in terms of links :(. I went back to the beginning I'd the thread to look at photos and see jewels and noticed that I could not see most of them :(
 
bartholomeus said:
Love the way infanta Maria Francisca of Portugal wears her tiara's and neclaces..

File:Infanta Maria Francisca of Portugal.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

File:Mariafrancisca-aparicio-MHN.jpg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Click to expand...

Maria Francisca married her uncle, Infante Carlos Maria Isidro of Spain.
Maria Francisca died in 1834.
Carlos married her sister Maria Teresa.
Who got Maria Francisca's jewels: her sons, Infante Carlos, Count of Montemolin and Juan, Count of Montizon, or her sister Maria Teresa?
​

Diamond necklace of Queen Charlotte Joaquina​
 
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This Tiara D.Amelia Queen is beautiful.
 
Amazing and the Portuguese jewelry collection. I did not know many things. Natural that they have lost several pieces but at least the current Duchess has at her disposal two tiaras. Especially her wedding tiara is simply very beautiful.
 
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That tiara is pretty much a mystery. It can also be worn as a necklace and has been seen on the Duchess a few times. But of it's origin nothing is known, afaik.
 
As of recent death of Dom Henrique, Duke of Coimbra, I wonder did he inherit any jewels from his mother Infanta Maria Francisca?

I assume he did...on other board there were speculations that those jewels will be inherited by his nephews and niece.

Any other thought or information maybe?
 
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