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Jewel History: Princess’s Jewels Held (1902)

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Luise, Crown Princess of Saxony (source)
“Princess’s Jewels Held”
(originally appeared in the New York Times on 30 Dec 1902)

LONDON, Dec. 29 — Facts concerning the jewels of the Crown Princess of Saxony [1], the whereabouts of which were in doubt, are told by The Times’s correspondent in Brussels. Professor Giron, former tutor of the Princess’s children and now her companion in Geneva [2], sent them to that city for safekeeping.

The packet arrived at Brussels a few days ago, addressed to Giron’s brother, who is a resident of the city. The usual advice was sent by the customs officials to the brother. As the packet was insured for 800,000 francs, and its contents carried a heavy duty, the brother refused to accept it and pay the necessary amount.

King Friedrich August III of Saxony (source)

The authorities in the ordinary course of business should have returned the parcel to the sender. This has not been done. The inference is that the German government has been apprised of the presence of the jewels in the Custom House and has taken steps to confiscate them in the interest of the Crown Prince of Saxony [3].


NOTES
1. In 1902, the Crown Princess of Saxony was Archduchess Luise of Austria (1870-1947), wife of Crown Prince Friedrich August (who would later become Saxony’s last king). She was the daughter of Grand Duke Ferdinand IV of Tuscany and his second wife, Princess Alicia of Bourbon-Parma.
2. Why were the whereabouts of Luise’s jewels unknown? Because three weeks earlier, she had fled from Germany with her “companion,” André Giron, who was her children’s French tutor. Complicating matters further was the fact that she was pregnant with her seventh child, Princess Anna; rumors understandably circulated that Giron, not Friedrich August, was the baby’s father. Luise claimed in her memoirs that she chose to leave her husband because she was afraid that her father-in-law was about to have her committed to an asylum.
3. Friedrich August (1865-1932) and Luise were granted a civil divorce in February 1903. Four years later, Luise eloped with the Italian musician Enrico Toselli; although they had a son together, that marriage also eventually ended in divorce. Friedrich August never remarried. He abdicated in 1918 at the end of World War I.

Jewel History: Egyptian Jewels in Art Museum (1919)

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Gold, carnelian, and turquoise broad bracelet of Sithathoriunet from the Met collection [1]

“Egyptian Jewels in Art Museum”
(originally appeared in the New York Times, 19 Dec 1919)
There was placed on exhibition in the Recent Accessions Room of the Metropolitan Museum of Art yesterday one of the greatest finds of Egyptian antiquities that has ever come out of that country [2] — magnificent jewelry of a princess of the Twelfth Dynasty, dating back nearly as many years B.C. as the present century is after Christ. Archaeologists have been searching for treasure of this period for many years, and this wonderful collection was found in a concealed niche in a tomb which had been robbed some hundreds of years before, and even the mummy taken from the great stone sarcophagus.
Diadem of Sithathoriunut from the Cairo Museum collection (source)

It was from the tomb of the Princess Sithathoriunut, supposed to be the daughter of King Senusret II of the Twelfth Dynasty, who reigned from 1906 to 1887 B.C. [3] and near whose pyramid at Lahun she was buried. Two wonderful pieces, a diadem and a mirror, were taken by the Cairo Museum in the customary practice with that museum of division of articles found in excavation. All the jewels are made of gold of the greatest purity, with almost no alloy, combined with stones — carnelian, turquoise, green feldspar — and two necklaces are of amethyst beads. In one of these, to clasp closely around the throat, the amethysts are combined with gold beads, and there are two lion-claw pendants of gold. The other is much longer, and the beads of both are of a deep shade of amethyst.

Both have small clasps of gold, of simple but beautiful workmanship, fastening with a slender ridge and groove, which do their work as perfectly as when the necklaces were worn by the Egyptian princess 2000 years B.C. A girdle is of gold, carnelian, and green feldspar beads of rhombic shape, with massive ornaments in the shape of cowrie shells made of rich, deep gold set at intervals between the double rows of beads. A collar is made of double lion heads, one of these halved to form the slide. There are armlets, wonderful in color scheme, made of the semi-precious stones and gold, beautifully worked; slender bracelets of the beads, with little lions in gold recumbent; and little gold bead amulets have the charm in the pendant. The most remarkable piece is a necklace of pear-shaped beads, with an elaborate pectoral or breast ornament.

Pectoral and necklace of Sithathoriunut from the Met collection [1]

In this the beads are of carnelian, lapis lazuli, and the green feldspar, while the pectoral is of finely wrought gold, the colors on the upper side being produced, as there was no enameling in those days, by an inlay of the semi-precious stones. There is in this the cartouche of Senusret II, flanked by two falcons. As the pectoral is shown in the museum, it is raised above a small mirror, which permits the beautiful workmanship in the gold of the underside to be seen.

There are other articles, including the ornaments of jewel caskets which contained the jewels, some of these of ivory, which it is hoped may be restored.

The use of cosmetics was common in the days of the Egyptian princess to whom belonged this royal collection of jewels, and there was found in the same niche her cosmetic vases of polished obsidian, black, mounted in gold, and with remnants of the color which carmined her cheeks and lips still remaining, while in a tiny pot, made of the same material, is the black with which she darkened and added lustre to her eyes. There are eight other small alabaster vases and four alabaster canopic jars, with the covers in the form of portrait heads, each bearing the name of Sithathoriunut and her title of “Royal Daughter.”

Necklace of Sithathoriunut from the Met collection [1]

Parts of the massive sarcophagus in the burial chamber of the princess showed that grave robbers of ancient days had probably opened it at one end to admit the body of one of their party, who had removed the mummy, no traces of which remained with the exception of two bands of the funerary ornaments, which were of much less value than the actual jewels worn during lifetime and which are now in the possession of the museum.

This collection will remain on exhibition in the Room of Recent Accessions for the next month. It was excavated under the direction of Professor W.M. Flinders Petrie [4].

NOTES
1. Image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art used under the institution’s Open Access for Scholarly Content intiative. More on the OASC here.
2. Note that this article pre-dates the discovery of the tomb of King Tutankhamun by three years; Howard Carter and the Earl of Carnarvon did not discover that tomb until 1922.
3. The reign of Senusret II (also rendered as Senwosret II) is dated today from 1897-1878 BC. Scholars have posited that he could be the pharoah referenced in the biblical stories of Joseph. Sithathoriunut (also spelled Sithathoryunet) may be the fifth known child of Senusret II.
4. Petrie, an English Egyptologist, excavated the tomb with Guy Brunton (Petrie’s student, who would later become assistant director of the Cairo Museum) in 1914; he sold his share of the jewels to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in 1916, and they are still in the permanent collection today.

Jewel History: Ex-Sultan’s Jewels on View in Paris (1911)

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“Ex-Sultan’s Jewels on View in Paris”
(originally appeared in the New York Times on 26 Nov 1911)

Abdul Hamid’s [1] remarkable collection of jewels, which will be sold at auction, beginning Monday, is on exhibition this afternoon in the Galerie Georges Petit for the benefit of a privileged few.

The sale, which has been entrusted by the Young Turk Government to the Paris jeweler Robert Lingeler, has attracted the attention of amateurs and dealers all over the world. The principal American, English, and German firms have sent special representatives to attend it.

Abdul Hamid II in Constantinople, ca. 1901

The experts who viewed the collection this afternoon unanimously agree that several million dollars will be realized, but none of them is ready to give an approximate estimate, as there is a general belief that amateurs and souvenir hunters are likely to compete with professionals and send prices up beyond the intrinsic value of the jewels. The sale coming at this moment, when Turkey is in the throes of war, it was thought that the Turkish government intended to employ the proceeds toward keeping up its army. It is, however, officially stated that the money will be invested in new battleships and the general improvement of the navy.


The exhibition room afforded a wonderful spectacle, ablaze with lights reflected by the wealth of diamonds and precious stones of all kinds arranged in show cases of plain pane glass. Each case was guarded by armed policemen, while other policemen in plain clothes and detectives circulated among the crowd. Although the ensemble of the 419 lots described in the catalogue might appear extravagant to modern taste owing to a touch of Oriental gaudiness, there are some fine pieces, such as only refined artists could conceive or execute.

One of the emeralds sold in the auction, today called the “Hooker Emerald” (source) [3]

Most remarkable for workmanship and beauty is the collection of so-called zarfs, or coffee-cup stands, made of brilliants and rubies mounted on invisible settings [2]. There is, too, a Cardinal-shaped tiara finished with osprey plumes with small diamonds at the points, from which hang thirteen large pear-shaped diamonds of the first water. The collection of emeralds is most gorgeous [3]. Some are as large as walnuts and a few of them are of perfect color. There is a profusion of magnificent pearls, perfect in shape and some matchless in their wonderful hues.

Among the ex-Sultan’s personal valuables, such as studs, cigarette cases, canes, etc., many articles quite modern may be observed, and even some that, in America or Europe, would not be considered in bad taste. The sale may extend for days.

NOTES
1. Abdul Hamid II (1842-1918) was the 34th Sultan of the Ottoman Empire; he was deposed in 1909 in the wake of the Young Turk Revolution. He was an autocratic, absolute ruler; his reign saw modernization in his country, but he was also complicit in the persecution of some of his own people. Just before he was deposed, Abdul Hamid sent the crown jewels to Paris, hoping that he could sell them to raise funds for his life in exile. But the agent he trusted to oversee the sale apparently funneled the payments to the Young Turks, and Abdul Hamid never saw any of the proceeds from the auction.
2. One of these zarfs was resold by Bonhams in 2004; here’s more information, including an image.
3. One of these emeralds was the Hooker Emerald, purchased at the sale by Tiffany and Co. and on display today in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. Read more at the Smithsonian’s website. The emerald’s current setting dates to the 1950s; Abdul Hamid reportedly wore the stone in a belt buckle.