The Josephine Fabergé Tiara ~ a royal diadem that links Napoleon to the Romanovs

The Josephine Fabergé Tiara ~ a royal diadem that links Napoleon to the Romanovs

This 200-year-old tiara, has survived Napoleonic France and the Russian Revolution ~ and is now on permanent display in the Houston Museum of Natural Science.

The tiara features sparkling graduating pavé diamond arches each suspending a single briolette.

These are divided by a diamond coronet, mounted on a leaf scroll band in silver and gold.

It is only 13.2 cm wide, so not a huge piece, and the frame bears the mark of August Holmström, master craftsman at Fabergé.

So how did this exquisite tiara come to be?

At the start of the 19th century, Napoleon I of France and Alexander I of Russia were friends and allies.

The friendship began to waiver when, among other political disagreements, Napoleon asked to marry Alexander’s 15-year-old sister Grand Duchess Anna Pavlovna.
Napoleon was refused.

Alexander did, however, continue to visit Napoleon’s first wife Empress Josephine at Chateau de Malmaison
On one occasion Alexander gifted her a collection of magnificent briolette diamonds.

After Josephine’s death, her younger son Eugene inherited the diamonds.
Eugene became Duke of Leuchtenberg through marriage to Princess Augusta of Bavaria in 1806.

Their son Prince Maximilian then inherited his grandmother’s diamonds.
Maximilian married Grand Duchess Maria Nikolaevna, the daughter of Tsar Nicholas I.

The two Imperial lines were reunited once more ~ and Josephine’s briolette diamonds were back with their Romanov roots.

Maximilian and Maria had seven children.
Their son George married Princess Anastasia of Montenegro in 1889 ~ it was around this time that the well-travelled diamonds were included in the making of the Josephine tiara, by the house of Fabergé.

Fabergé became the go-to jeweller for the Tsars of Russia over the next few decades, famously designing 50 Imperial Easter Eggs for the family.

After the Revolution, The House of Fabergé was nationalised and looted by the Bolsheviks.

Peter Carl Fabergé fled Russia never to return, dying in Switzerland in 1920.
The Fabergé name passed through various owners, but has more recently been reunited with descendants of the family.

The Josephine Tiara survived the revolution ~ only to be sold by the Dukes of Leuchtenberg after World War I.
It was bought by King Albert I of Belgium, and inherited by his second son Prince Charles Theodore.

Prince Charles Theodore then gave it to his sister Queen Maria José, the last Queen of Italy.

In 2007 the tiara went up for auction at Christie’s in London, fetching over £1 million.

It was bought by Fabergé super-collectors, the McFerrin family, and is on permanent loan to the museum, along with 600 other Fabergé treasures.

The Empress Josephine Tiara.
Fine Art Images / Heritage Images