Fifteen-piece parure in leather case

Unknown

ca. 1810 · Cut steel; red moroccan leather, gilt stamped · European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

This matching jewelry set, or parure, consists of seventeen different elements including a tiara, a necklace, two pairs of bracelets, a lorgnette, and a pair of earrings. The pieces are decorated with multifaceted and polished nails or studs that reflect the light, mimicking the appearance of sparkling diamonds. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, cut steel was a fashionable but not necessarily less-expensive substitute for precious metals and gemstones in jewelry. Napoleon presented a cut-steel parure to his second wife, Archduchess Marie Louise of Austria, and King Louis XVIII acquired a similar set at the Paris Exposition des Produits de l’Industrie of 1823.

Artist

Unknown

Date

ca. 1810

Medium

Cut steel; red moroccan leather, gilt stamped

Culture

French

Department

European Sculpture and Decorative Arts

Credit line

Gift of Albion Art Co., Ltd., 2020