"La Regente"- "La Perle Napoléon

'A very large pear-shaped pearl, in the form of an egg, flat at the back, very beautiful Orient at the front'

'On 2 April 1810, Emperor Napoléon I (1769-1821) married Marie-Louise, daughter of Franz I of Austria and niece to Marie-Antoinette. For the occasion, he bought his wife numerous parures with the intention to dazzle all of Europe, thereby considerably adding to the French crown jewels. These parures were all created by the French crownJeweler François-Regnault Nitot and sold to Napoléon prior to 1813 for the total amount of 6,600,000 gold francs.

Amongst the collection was a magnificent pearl parure worth 123,429 francs; its tiara was set with 297 pearls weighing 4,097 metric grains, worth 219,547 francs.

The extraordinary central pearl atop the tiara had the shape and dimension of a pigeon egg. It weighed 337 old grains, that is to say 346.27 grains, which made it the biggest natural, regularly shaped pearl on earth. It was bought for only 40,000 gold francs since Nitot had a low-pricing policy for royalty, which assured him great prestige among the richest of Europe. Its purchasing power, however, was the same as about 500,000 euros nowadays. By comparison, 40,000 gold francs was the value of 10kg of pure gold, but the average monthly salary of a worker was 100 gold francs.

Nothing is known about the pearl prior to 28 September 1811, the day Nitot sold it to Napoléon, and it seems likely that it was a recent discovery offered to Nitot on his request to satisfy the needs of his Emperor.

After years of discussions, the parliament of the Third Republic decided that a major part of the crown jewels were to be sold by public auction between 12 and 23 May 1887 - a disaster for the national collection. Prior to the sale and on demand of the greatest jewelers worldwide, the Administration of State Properties issued a catalogue with illustrations which were far too small. At the request of the jewelers, actual-size photographs of the most important pieces were taken by the photographer Berthaud, amongst them also the famous pearl and diamond corsage, lot 42 in the sale. It was sold for 176,000 gold francs to a Mr. Jacques Rossel.

Jacques Rossel was in fact acting on behalf of Carl Fabergé, jewelers to the Russian Crown, who wanted to exercise discretion. Fabergé had shown the auction catalogue to Prince Nicolas Youssoupov, who was interested in the enormous pearl weighing 337 old grains and wanted to give it to his only daughter Princess Zénaïde.

In 1917, Prince Felix fled Russia, which was under the spell of the Russian Revolution, taking with him part of the Youssoupov treasure including the beautiful 'La Pelegrina' pearl weighing 133.6 grains (sold by Christie's Geneva, 14 May 1987.
Hoping he would one day return to Russia, Prince Felix had hidden the rest of the Youssoupov jewels including 'La Perle Napoléon' or La Régente' in a wall of his palace at St. Petersburg.
Alas, the jewels were discovered by the Bolsheviks! Everything was laid out on a table, photographed and then sold at different times in various places, which have never been disclosed. For this reason, Morel had no hope of ever finding this pearl when he was finishing my book in 1987.

Now that the pearl is being offered at auction again in 2005, he was of course contacted by Christie's Geneva. They supplied him with more information, which allows him to claim without any possible doubt that the present pearl is 'La Perle Napoléon' or 'La Regénte'.

This beautiful pearl, 'La Régente' is exceptional in many respects. Not only does it possess a combination of outstanding characteristics such as a very large size, a perfect drop shape as well as a superior luster, but this extraordinary pearl also reveals a real charm on its own and is endowed with an exceptional pedigree.
The pearl is sold in 2005 for 2,1 Milion € at Christies