Sur la poitrine de l'Impératrice - the Grand noeud de corsage of the Empress Eugénie

 

Bow-knot corsage brooch / Grand noeud de corsage, with two tassels of unequal length and five "fringes", bezel-set and en pampille, composed of some 2634 diamonds - old mine-cut, old European-cut, rose-cut - mounted in silver-topped gold, the work of François Kramer, circa 1855. The extremely virtuosic setting gives the jewel great flexibility and movement, causing the stones to throw off light with the slightest motion.

Originally, the bow-knot, apparently unaugmented, figured as the center of a belt composed of more than 4,000 stones belonging to the diamants de la couronne. Exhibited, among other haute joaillerie, most destined for the imperial court, at the Universal Exhibition of 1855, it was then worn by the Empress Eugénie. While no design or other visual documentation of this lavish and imposing belt has been found, records attest that the empress wore it at least twice: for the reception organized at the château de Versailles for the visit of Queen Victoria, on 25 August 1855, and then during the reception given at the Hôtel de Ville for the baptism of the Prince Imperial, on 14 June 1856. But by 1864, she had decided to retain only the bow-knot as a corsage ornament; the rest of the belt was, presumably, dismantled. It was at that point, it seems likely, that the tassels and "fringe" were added. 

in 1887, the French government, still somewhat insecure about its republican status, sold off most of its crown jewels, this piece among those dispersed. This rash decision cost the French eleven million dollars when, in 2008, the jewel - after spending more than a century in the collection of the Astor family - was bought back and along with other treasures - those retained and those reclaimed - is now to be seen in the Galerie d'Apollon of the Musée du Louvre. (I wrote about the sale and later repurchasings in a 2013 post, Les Diamants de la couronne de France.)

On display in preparation for their sale, the "The Diamonds of the Crown"; the bow brooch is at center right.

A page from the sale catalogue.

Water, sun, and war - "Tommies Bathing," two watercolors by John Singer Sargent, 1918

 

Sargent painted the two watercolors known as "Tommies Bathing" in the summer of 1918. He had been commissioned by the British government for a painting that would commemorate the efforts of the Americans and British in World War I, so he traveled to the front in the valley of the Somme to find a subject. During his sojourn, he painted several studies and unrelated informal watercolors, including these two evocative images. 

While the origin of the term "Tommy" is widely disputed, the most common explanation is that it derives from "Tommy Atkins," a fictitious name which is slang for a common soldier in the British Army, and which is known to have been used as early as 1743. The term "Tommy" was chosen as a generic name by the war office in 1815, becoming well established during the nineteenth century, but is particularly associated with the British soldiers of the First World War. In more recent times, the term has been used much less frequently, although the name "Tom" is occasionally still heard; private soldiers in the British Army's Parachute Regiment are still referred to as "Toms".

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Now, moving from the picturesque to the reality....

British soldiers in a farm pond near St. Eloi, Flanders, June 1917, likely after the Battle of Messines. (Two images.)

British soldiers bathing in the river at Maroeuil, near Arras, 20 May 1918.

British soldiers during a swim somewhere in the Somme region, France, 1916. (Two images.)

In fresh splendor - Doña Ana de Velasco y Téllez-Girón, Duchess of Bragança, by Juan Pantoja de La Cruz, 1603

 

Ana de Velasco y Téllez-Girón, Duchess consort of Bragança (12 March 1585, Naples – 7 November 1607, Vila Viçosa, Portugal), Spanish noblewoman and mother of João IV of Portugal, the first Portuguese king of the Braganza Dynasty. 

She was the eldest daughter of Juan Fernández de Velasco y Tovar, 5th Duke of Frías, and his cousin and first wife María Tellez-Girón y Guzmán, the daughter of Pedro Téllez-Girón y de la Cueva, 1st Duke of Osuna. She was born in Naples, as her parents had accompanied her mother's father, the Duke of Osuna, when he'd been appointed Viceroy of Naples three years earlier. 

At the age of eighteen she married Teodósio II, Duke of Braganza; he was thirty-five. She gave birth to four children in four years, three of whom - including the future King João IV - lived to adulthood. But she died after giving birth to the fourth at the age of only twenty-two.

The king's pretty box - the "coffret des pierreries" of Louis XIV

 

Jewel box of Louis XIV - previously known as "d'Anne d'Autriche” - created by the goldsmiths Jakob Blanck and Jean Pitan, 1675-76. Remarkably never having been sold, through the subsequent reigns of kings and emperors, through revolutions, the box now resides in the collection of the Musée du Louvre.

This jewel box was naïvely presumed, because of its rather feminine floral decoration, to have been the property of the king's mother, Anne of Austria - her name still clings to it - or that of his wife, Queen Marie-Thérèse/María Teresa, Infanta of Spain and Portugal. But scholarship has now credited it to the king's own collection. The chest was likely used as a store for diamond buttons, hat clips, shoe buckles, epaulettes, and the like, intended to adorn his court costumes.

The box consists of a rectangular wooden base covered with blue silk satin. It is lavishly embellished, over its entire surface, by five plates of gold openwork comprised of foliate and floral motifs; the realistic treatment of the motifs allows the viewer to clearly distinguish precise representations of anemones, tulips, buttercups, daffodils, etc. The gold decoration was created using the lost-wax casting technique, then reworked, chiseled, burnished or matted, and includes some additions of filigree. 

Chevy show-off - one car, one young man, three vintage photographs, circa 1960s

 

JC on the cover - Joan Crawford and the movie magazine (plus one)

 

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And Miss Crawford looking very chic on the March 12, 1940 cover of Look. The aquamarine and diamond jewels were her own.