Thank you to our community member Royal Warren(t), who has generously shared memories and photos of her recent visit to the Exposition Chaumet en Majesté at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco. All photos are property of the author.
My day with Chaumet!
During my visit to Monaco I had the good fortune of visiting and spending a glorious afternoon with jewels possessing a rich, tragic, and love-filled history. I had the feeling of entering a treasure vault and it was so exciting.
The Grimaldi Forum is a great venue to host events such as this and the hall was dimmed to almost a pitch-black degree (which was wonderful to observe the jewels but presented challenges for anyone taking pictures with an iPhone). Numerous times I mumbled to myself wishing that I had a more professional digital camera, but I did the best I could given the constraints of lighting and amateur photographic equipment.
There were so many instances when I said to myself “oh, I can’t wait to share this photo with my fellow blog followers” or “wouldn’t Princess Astrid love this aigrette” – everything was fabulous!
Then I saw the Leuchtenberg double-strand pearl necklace I was thrilled beyond words to see a luscious strand of pearls with such an amazing history. I could not believe I was standing in front of it, gazing through the glass panel at this iconic necklace.
The next big surprise was the Luxembourg emerald cabochon tiara, which many of our fellow bloggers either love or hate. I have always liked it. My opinion, now that I’ve seen it face-to-face, is that I love it. It possesses such simplicity – the most phenomenal 45 carat emerald, dead center in all its glory. There is nothing like it. When I see photos of a lady from the Grand Ducal Family of Luxembourg wearing this in the future, I will appreciate it even more. Photos don’t let us appreciate its splendor.
How do I begin to describe the sensation of turning the corner and looking up and seeing the von Donnersmark Emerald Tiara (those green lollipops!)? I knew I’d see great jewels, but I had no idea that I’d view this world-famous tiara. It is mind boggling!
The brilliance of the diamonds, emeralds, rubies was breath-taking, and I was enthralled with the history of all the pieces that were on display. The skill and craftsmanship of Chaumet’s designers and craftsmen is worthy of our admiration.
A lingering memory is Napoleon’s love letter to Josephine. There are no glittering jewels to see but there are words of love from a man to a woman. Unfortunately, history gave these two people an unhappy ending. The jewels we have all loved discussing here at lilibetshandbag and at the “mothership” (The Royal Order of Sartorial Splendor) are mostly gifts of love and this is what makes them special – to see what brides were given on their wedding day, for anniversaries and births left me in awe of the panorama before me.
My sincere thanks to the Hofdames for their patience while I prepared this post and I hope everyone enjoys these photos. For more photos, please check out the photo page for this post!