Christie's to Auction Jewels Once Owned by Napoleon's Adoptive Daughter

A collection of sapphire and diamond jewelry once owned by Stephanie de Beauharnais, the adopted daughter of Napoleon Bonaparte who married Prince Charles of Baden in 1806, will be offered at Christie's Magnificent Jewels auction in Geneva on May 12 Stephanie de Beauharnais, who became the Grand Duchess of Baden, was the niece of Josephine de Beauharnais, who married Napoleon Bonaparte in 1796 A month before her own wedding, Stephanie was adopted by Napoleon and became Her Imperial Highness Princess Stephanie Napoleon, which made it possible for her to marry Prince Charles of Baden.

The provenance of the sapphire and diamond jewelry is equally interesting: A record in writing, found between the boxes of jewels, states that they were given to Stephanie by her cousin Hortense de Beauharnais, a known jewelry lover who was immortalized in paintings wearing "Precious belts," according to a statement from Christie's Reads the statement, "Hortense's financial papers, which are kept in the Napoleon archive in Paris, give evidence of her fortune between 1817 and 1837, the year she passed away They show that she left Paris in 1816 with little money, but a lot of jewelry" After Stephanie's death in 1860, the sapphire parure was passed to her second daughter, Josephine, Princess of Hohenzollern Sigmaringen.

The present-day tiara was probably once a belt; in Napoleon's court, women wore belts high up, directly under their bust. . Source