The grandfather’s legacy!
In 1856 the crown jeweler Bapst created a comb for Empress Eugenie using diamonds from the French crown jewels. The head ornament had nine long diamond pendants called pampilles or aiquillettes.
At the auction of the French crown jewels in 1887, Tiffany’s bought four pampilles and sold two of them to Junius Spencer Morgan, the wealthy patriarch of the renowned merchant banking family.
He put these 2 pampilles in the safe with this order:
June 30/88
The contents of this box „2 diamond pendants from the Crown Jewels of France“ as described in the papers which accompany them are the property of my daughter Mary Ethel Burns.
They were handed to me by her Grandfather on the 29th June 20/88 to be held in Trust for her.
Walter H. Burns.
It was an exquisite and amazing present to his granddaughter May Burns.
She remounted the pampilles and the twenty-eight diamonds into a fringe necklace. It is said that the old-mine cut diamonds are I to J in colour, SI to I1 clarity in lively brilliance.
More History, the story behind the Royal and imperial Jewel
The Harcourt – Emeralds, Necklace and Tiara | Jewellery
Sketch of The Harcourt – Emeralds, Necklace and Tiara
The Hartcourt Emerald Necklace Collier from Graff
The Harcourt Tiara made by Boucheron old & new version
Harcourt Choker Bandeau with Emeralds from Boucheron
The Harcourt Diamond Tiara Crown
The Harcourt – Diamond Necklace from the French Crown Jewels
Le Collier Harcourt et les Diamants de la Couronne
Grand Peigne a Pampilles| Joyaux de Couronne France| French Crown Jewels
Large Comb with Fringes of Diamonds and the Hortense Diamond| Empress Eugenie| French Crown Jewels
The historic Dowager Viscountess Harcourt Diamond Necklace went to Tiffany & Co., on auction in October 2015, who first purchased the 28 diamonds on the necklace at the 1887 French Crown Jewels auction in Paris. US$1,548,718 / CHF 1,505,959 Source:Sotheby’s;
