An imperial parure: the Louvre has achieved a remarkable coup by purchasing—for the highest price ever paid by a museum for items of jewellery—the necklace and earrings which formed part of the emerald parure commissioned by Napoleon for the Empress Marie Louise in 1810. Diana Scarisbrick explains their significance

Apollo, Sept, 2004 by Diana Scarisbrick

The Amis du Louvre have recently acquired a necklace and pair of emerald and diamond earrings that were part of a parure given by Napoleon I to the Empress Marie Louise at the time of their marriage, in March 1810 (Fig. 1). Since the price--3.7 million euros--is the highest ever paid by an institution for items of jewellery, one might well ask what is so special about these two pieces, which were acquired from Humphrey Butler and S.J. Phillips of London, and from Thomas Faerber of Geneva. (1)

The answer is that the combination of the intrinsic value of the stones, the artistry of the setting and the imperial provenance justifies the kind of price which is more usually paid for paintings and sculpture. The magnificent quality illustrates how Napoleon, perhaps the last great patron of the arts, used jewellery to assert by peaceful means the absolute political authority he had won by his sword. To this end he insisted that the court ceremonies of the Empire take place in an atmosphere of the utmost splendour and brilliance, obtainable by grandiose displays of precious stones. This reached an apogee at the time of his marriage to the Habsburg Archduchess Marie Louise. Then, as Balzac describes in La Paix du Menage, 'Diamonds glittered everywhere, so much so that it seemed as if the wealth of the whole world was concentrated on Paris ... never had the diamond been so sought after, never had it cost so much.'

At the same time, Napoleon wished tore-establish the preeminence of Paris as the creative centre for luxury and fashion, a status it had lost in the period of anarchy which followed the Revolution. The scale of his patronage and that of the dignitaries of the Empire was such that by 1807, the Chambre de Commerce reported that there were 400 jewellers, employing 800 men and 2000 women in business in the city. (2) It was one of these, Marie Etienne Nitot, whom Napoleon, with his sure judgment, appointed as his court jeweller.

Trained to the exacting standards of the ancien regime, Nitot was already known for his collaboration with Aubert, supplier to Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette. Following Marie Etienne's death in 1809, he was succeeded by his son Francois Regnault, an ardent Bonapartist. (3) As expert gemologists, both father and son were employed by Napoleon from the Consulate onwards to repatriate the stones dispersed from the Tresor de la Couronne (4) and to acquire stones for the stately parures--sets of ornaments, tiara, comb, earrings, necklace, belt clasps and bracelets, matching in design and stones--which were de rigueur at great events such as marriages, coronations, state visits and court balls.

Since the collection of emeralds in the Tresor de la Couronne was limited' Francois Regault Nitot was obliged to make new acquisitions of the following square and briolette-cut stones, weighing 290 carats in total, for the Empress Marie Louise's parure:

   Tiara: 79 emeralds (22 large,
   57 small), 1002 brilliants, 264
   rose diamonds

   Necklace: 30 emeralds, 864
   brilliants and 264 rose diamonds
   Earrings: 6 emeralds, 66 brilliants
   and 48 rose diamonds
   Comb: 23 emeralds, 226 brilliants,
   54 rose diamonds
   Belt clasp: 5 emeralds,
   107 brilliants (6)

To assemble a collection of emeralds of such superb colour must have presented him with a great challenge, for, according to Thomas Faerber, whereas stones in jewellery of this date are usually flawed, all those in the necklace and earrings 'are of exceptional quality, almost loupe clean', coming as they do from the famous Colombian mines of Muzo, 150 km north-west of Bogota. The intensity of the rich velvety green colour is deepened by the contrast with the surrounding diamonds.

The design is strongly classical in character, in accordance with the style devised for the Empire by the architects Charles Percier and Pierre Fontaine, with diamonds clearly outlining the symmetrical arrangement of the alternate lozenge and oval shapes, hung with drops placed between palmettes derived from Greek and Roman art. Although she never aspired to the elegance of the Empress Josephine, the Empress Marie Louise, with her height, porcelain complexion, blonde hair and blue eyes, had sufficient presence to sustain her role at all official occasions. Then she might wear the emeralds with one of the grand habits made for her by Leroy, perhaps of white gauze embroidered in gold with the Imperial bees, or alternatively with a tulle ball gown embroidered with silver poppies.

As a grand gesture to mark his union with a daughter of the great Habsburg dynasty, Napoleon gave the Empress this parure for her private collection and it was therefore never state property. This meant that after the fall of the Empire it remained intact in her possession and was thus spared the fate of the crown jewels, which she returned. Those were almost all remodelled during the Restoration and the Second Empire, and were finally dispersed at the disastrous sale of the Bijoux de la Couronne by the Third Republic in1887.