A Flower Bouquet of Gemstones

A Flower Bouquet of Gemstones

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Published on

04.03.2022


Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim Collections

Brooches across History

Empress Elizaveta Petrovna

Catherine the Great

The Pretender Princess

Watch Catherine the Great

En Tremblant Brooches

En tremblant brooch with flower bouquet
Gold, diamonds, emeralds
Russia, 19th century
Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim
On permanent loan from a private collection
Photography by Winfried Reinhardt


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The en tremblant style of jewelry crafting first emerged in the 18th and 19th century and the term itself in French means “trembling.” These brooches were created by affixing a trembler, or a wire-coiled spring, at the base of a bejewelled floral or flower spray piece. The slightest movement created a subtle trembling effect, catching the scintillation, fire and brilliance of the gems especially when viewed by candlelight.

 

The en tremblant brooch with flower bouquet is the newest addition to Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim’s collection. The trembling brooch is decked out with a floral bouquet of magnificent gold, diamonds and emeralds. Historians and a handful of experts from the Hermitage in St. Petersburg are divided on its trajectory, but have two assumptions about the brooch’s origins.

I am delighted to be able to show this wonderful piece here, as well as the special story of its journey to us, which was only made possible by the great commitment of the owner.

The first, though less likely possibility, is that several of these bouquets were made as a personal commission by the Russian Empress Elizaveta Petrovna, mother-in-law to Catherine the Great, to be worn as corsage on grand occasions. Most of the empress’s jewelry was made in the 1750s, and this trembling brooch just may be one of them.

 

The second, and more likely assumption, is that the ancestors of the present owners likely saw the brooch in the Winter Palace of the Treasury of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg, where the jewels of the earliest empresses were housed and exhibited until the revolution of 1917.

The slightest movement created a subtle trembling effect, catching the scintillation, fire and brilliance of the gems especially when viewed by candlelight.

Very few people had access to this treasury. Carl Fabergé worked there voluntarily as a young man and was very familiar with the objects. The ancestors of the present owners, fascinated by the brooch in question, commissioned him to rework a similar one.

“I am delighted to be able to show this wonderful piece here,” says Schmuckmuseum director Cornelie Holzach. “As well as the special story of its journey to us, which was only made possible by the great commitment of the owner.”

 

The owner of the en tremblant brooch was long in search of a suitable home for the precious heirloom jewel and travelled thousands of miles away from her home country to deliver it in person to Schmuckmuseum Pforzheim.

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