The remarkable pink topaz and diamond demi-parure originates with Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach (1786–1859), who had been born a Russian Grand Duchess as the daughter of Emperor Paul I of Russia and Empress Maria Feodorovna (born Princess Sophie Dorothea of Württemberg).
The jewel was created by the St. Petersburg court jeweller Jean-François Duval and formed part of a gift presented to Maria Pavlovna by her Mother, Dowager Empress Maria Feodorovna of Russia, on the occasion of the birth of Maria Pavlovna’s second daughter Princess Augusta Louisa Katherina of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, the future German Empress Augusta.
The pink topaz was for the Russias a symbol of "happy days spent together. This sentimetal gift reminded the yong grandd duchess of her childhood in beloved Mother Russia. It wass certainly an appropriate choice for the birth of a new member of the family.
Princess Augusta Marie Luise Katharina of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach was born on 30 September 1811 at Weimar. She would later become Queen of Prussia and German Empress as the wife of Emperor Wilhelm I.
Shortly before the birth, the Russian court jeweller delivered the jewel:
on 13 September 1811, Jean-François Duval completed and supplied the pink topaz parure.
The demi-parure consists of:
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a necklace
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a brooch - fermoir (ehemals Schliesse)
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a stomacher- -In the girandole style corsage ornamet - originally having three pendant drops, two of wich in modern times have been reworked ass earrings- see picture above) is an element of the Emire style. the large triangular dimond with branches of laurel in diamonds on either side, reminiscent of Roman chaplets.
Altogether, the set contains 17 pink topazes, accompanied by diamonds with a combined weight of approximately 100 carats.The pink topazes are not uniform in color or cut but this diversity only adds to its overall interes. It was typical in St Petersburg for gemstone not to be dogmatiically calibratet. The central drop shaped topaz of the necklace is fashioned as a briolette, with small facets across the entire ssuface of the stone.
The stones are mounted in refined millegrain settings, in which the girdle of each gemstone is secured in a collet setting by a delicate row of minute adjacent beads—tiny grains of metal that create the characteristic millegrain texture- lending an extra air of elegance.
For many years it was believed that the topazes originated from the famous Sanarka River deposits near Orenburg in the southern Ural Mountains, mines to which the Russian imperial family held exclusive rights.
However, research carried out by the Fersman Mineralogical Institute in Moscow demonstrated that the stones are in fact Brazilian topazes.
At the beginning of the 19th century, such stones were often referred to as “Brazilian rubies”, which explains why earlier sources described the gems variously as:
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rubis balais
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pink beryls
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pale pink rubies
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or even spinels
The pink topaz demi-parure appears in the inventory of jewels inherited in 1923 by Queen Victoria of Sweden (1862–1930) from her mother Dowager Grand Duchess Luise of Baden.
Grand Duchess Luise of Baden (1838–1923) was the daughter of Empress Augusta of Germany, whose mother had been the aforementioned Grand Duchess Maria Pavlovna of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach. Through this lineage the jewel passed from the Russian imperial family into the German and ultimately the Swedish royal collections.
In 1924, Queen Victoria incorporated the demi-parure into the King Gustaf V and Queen Victoria Foundation (Kung Gustaf V:s och Drottning Victorias Stiftelse), a royal foundation comprising artworks, furniture, jewels and other objects intended to pass from one monarch to the next.
The jewel continued to be worn frequently within the Swedish royal family.
Source:Sara_Friberg_Kungl_Hovstaterna;Smycken fran det kejserliga st Petersburg,Helsinki;
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