Opal and diamond tiara, circa 1900

This opal and diamond tiara was a wedding gift to Archduchess Maria Immaculata of Austria-Tuscany from the siblings of her husband Robert, Duke of Württemberg and their respective spouses. The groom’s older brother Albrecht and his wife Archduchess Margarete Sophie of Austria, his younger brother Ulrich and his sister Isabella and her husband Prince Johann Georg of Saxony all bundled forces to acquire this wedding present. The fitted case stamped by the Dresden court jeweller Elimeyer leads one to suspect that Isabella, who resided in the Saxon capital, selected the gift.

Archduchess Maria Immaculata of Austria-Tuscany, Duchess of Württemberg (1878-1968)

Archduchess Maria Immaculata of Austria-Tuscany married Robert, Duke of Württemberg (1873-1947) on 29 October 1900 in a glittering wedding ceremony held at the Vienna Hofburg Palace, with Emperor Franz Joseph in attendance. The celebrations lasted several days, filled with court balls and concerts, while the press reported on the magnificent wedding gifts in minute detail.

The bride was the daughter of Archduke Karl Salvator of Austria-Tuscany (1839-1892), the second son of Leopold II, Grand Duke of Tuscany (1797-1870). She belonged to a sovereign branch of the House of Habsburg which ruled over Tuscany until the Italian unification in the 1860s. The bride’s mother, Princess Maria Immaculata of Bourbon-Two Sicilies (1844-1899), was a daughter of the second to last Neapolitan King Ferdinand II (1810-1859) and his second wife Queen Maria Theresa, born an Archduchess of Austria-Teschen (1816-1867).

The groom was the second son of Philipp, Duke of Württemberg (1838-1917) and Archduchess Marie Therese of Austria-Teschen (1845-1927). Philipp was the head of the Catholic junior line of the House of Württemberg. The importance of this cadet line lied in the fact that it was slated to eventually inherit the throne of the Kingdom of Württemberg as King Wilhelm II (1848-1921) had no male heirs. Robert’s older brother Albrecht (1865-1939) was styled as Württemberg’s Crown Prince. Albrecht married Archduchess Margarete Sophie of Austria (1870-1902), the niece of Emperor Franz-Joseph and sister of Archduke Franz Ferdinand who was fatefully assassinated at Sarajevo in 1914. Albrecht and Margarete Sophie are the ancestors of the current house of Württemberg. Robert’s sister Isabella (1871-1904) married Prince Johann Georg of Saxony, but unfortunately passed away without offspring in 1904. Her jewels were divided among her siblings, nieces and nephews. Robert’s younger brother Ulrich, Duke of Württemberg (1877-1944) remained unmarried and spent his life in the service.

Robert and Maria Immaculata’s marriage unfortunately remained without offspring. The couple, however, always had the intention to spawn a cadet line or Secondogenitur of the House of Württemberg. This explains why the majority of her extensive jewellery collection was inherited by the descendants of their nephew Albrecht Eugen, Duke of Württemberg (1895-1954), the second son of Albrecht, Duke and Crown Prince of Württemberg, on whom King Wilhelm II also bestowed the traditional Württemberg Secondogenitur estate Karlsruhe in Silesia.

Around 1930, Archduchess Maria Immaculata meticulously inventorised her jewellery collection. The result is a neatly kept notebook in which she described each item on the left-hand page, while on the opposite page she recorded its provenance. Later in life, she gifted many smaller items of jewellery to relatives to mark weddings and other family occasions. She would then bar the item and record whom she gave it to.

As was typical of her generation and position, Archduchess Maria Immaculata of Austria-Tuscany lived a relatively discreet existence with an emphasis on family life and religion. Therefore, little is known about her except for her place on the family tree of Europe’s leading Catholic dynasties. This inventory gives a unique insight into her personality and the things she valued. The nucleus of her collection consisted of wedding gifts received in 1900 and of the inheritance of her mother, who passed away only one year before her marriage. Her mother had been an avid jewellery collector with a well-recorded passion for pearls. From her stemmed the impressive pearl parure which was offered in these rooms one year ago in the Single Owner Sale ‘Vienna 1900: An Imperial and Royal Collection’.

Maria Immaculata had a profound interest in the history of both her own and her husband’s families. She had several items commemorating her maternal grandmother Queen Maria Theresa of Naples and the events surrounding the abolition of the Neapolitan monarchy such as the battle of Gaeta. A touching example is Queen Maria Theresa’s bangle (lot 1014). On the Württemberg side, she collected items with a link to the Russian-born Queen Olga of Württemberg (1822-1892), such as a mother-of-pearl and diamond fan gifted by Queen Olga to Maria Immaculata’s mother-in-law Archduchess Marie Therese of Austria-Teschen and a parasol handle which Queen Olga had given to Archduke Ludwig Victor of Austria, who transformed it into a cane handle. Her most prized possession were rosary beads offered by Pope Pius IX to Queen Olga in 1868, which the Queen always kept next to her bed. Archduchess Maria Immaculata acquired the rosary beads from Baroness Mathilde of Dellingshausen, a former lady-in-waiting of Grand Duchess Vera Konstantinovna, Duchess of Württemberg (1854-1912), who inherited the rosary beads directly from the Queen.

Her faith was a pillar in her life as shown by the numerous gifts of jewellery she made to churches and abbeys. Her mother and sisters had received several cameos from Popes Pius IX and Leo XIII which she always cherished. Moreover, she had commemorative insignia recalling her presence at the 23rd International Eucharistic Congress in Vienna in 1912 and the 64th Katholikentag in Stuttgart in 1925.

Maria Immaculata’s collection of orders reveals that she was actively involved in nursing during World War I, working as an auxiliary nurse for the Württemberg army between August 1914 and January 1919. She owned a black enamel brooch commemorating her service. Furthermore, she was awarded the Royal Bavarian Verdienstkreuz for her voluntary service in October 1916. That same year she also received the Royal Württemberg Charlotten-Kreuz, the Baden Kriegshilfe-Kreuz for volunteering and the Prussian Louise and Red Cross Orders. In 1917, her cousin Emperor Charles I of Austria awarded her the Imperial and Royal Austrian First Class Red Cross Order with War Decoration. She was also a recipient of the Royal Sachsen Ehrenkreuz in 1917. Though every Princess in Europe was photographed in nurse’s uniform during World War I, these numerous distinctions speak to the earnestness of her war-time endeavours. As late as June 1960, the German Red Cross awarded her with a medal composed of a white enamel cross framed by silver laurel leaves worn on a red-white ribbon. This decoration was most likely awarded for her war-time efforts almost half a century prior.

Through the inventory, a picture emerges of a lady who lived by the conventions of her time, faith and station, but whose kindness and generosity shone through in everything she did.