Two tiaras by Joséphine Bonaparte, Napoleon’s wife, will be auctioned

Two tiaras believed to have been the property of Joséphine Bonaparte, the first wife of the French Emperor Napoleon, are on sale after a century and a half in private collections.

Together, they should raise up to £500,000 (approximately R$3.8 million) at Sotheby’s auction house in London next month.

One of the tiaras is gilded, with blue enamel details and vivid red carnelian engravings with classic portraits. The diadem is being offered as part of a jewelry set, alongside matching earrings, a belt ornament and a comb.

The second gold and enamel tiara features portraits of the ancient Greek deities Zeus, Dionysus, Medusa, Pan and ​​Gaia in agate and jasper. London’s Victoria & Albert Museum, which previously contained the item on loan, noted that “it was probably a gift from Napoleon’s sister Caroline Murat.”

The empress, also known as Joséphine de Beauharnais after her first marriage to the nobleman and army general Alexandre de Beauharnais, has been the object of constant fascination in recent decades.

Napoleon’s passionate letters to her are famous for their intensity, and she has been portrayed as a seductive and intelligent woman who ended up renouncing her marriage when she and the emperor failed to produce an heir together.

Tiaras are part of 19th-century parures (jewel sets) that are emblematic of neoclassical design, a style that flourished during Napoleon’s reign.

After the turmoil of the French Revolution, the emperor judiciously evoked ancient Roman traditions, styles and designs in order to associate his government with an ancient lineage, according to Sotheby’s.

This association is present in the small details of both tiaras – as in the portraits and carvings of classical deities and ancient figures that Napoleon and Joséphine used to wear, including in the coronation crown of the former. Centuries earlier, Roman emperors wore similar symbols of power carved into semi-precious jewelry.

Empress Joséphine was much more than just an antiques collector. By being the first to incorporate these portraits and carvings into her dress, wearing them side by side with pearls and diamonds, she created a whole new fashion that swept Paris and the world, based on neoclassical forms.”

Kristian Spofforth, Head of Sotheby’s Jewelry Department in London

Despite Joséphine’s position as a trendsetter empress, she came from a poor background, being the eldest daughter of an aristocratic French family that had made and lost its wealth to sugar cane on the colonized island of Martinique.

She married de Beauharnais as a teenager, although they separated after two children and an unhappy marriage in Paris.

Her husband was later guillotined during the Revolution. Although also imprisoned, Joséphine escaped the same fate and rose through the social ladder before meeting the young army officer who would become her emperor.

The jewelry industry suffered from the political turmoil, economic depression and hostility to luxury that marked the French Revolution and its aftermath.

However, rather than promoting a style less opulent than the ill-fated Marie Antoinette, Joséphine also tended towards luxury.

Sotheby’s said in a press release that, in a period of just six years, the empress “spent an impressive amount of over 25 million francs on jewelry and clothing, far exceeding her designated allowance.”

As Spofforth noted, the jewels were often dismantled and remodeled according to changing tastes, making the survival of the two parts “truly exceptional”.

The tiaras, along with the accompanying jewelry, will be displayed at the Mandarin Oriental in Geneva prior to sale.

Translated text. Read the original in English.