Royal & Noble Including Jewels from an Important Noble Collection

Royal & Noble Including Jewels from an Important Noble Collection

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 139. A minature portrait ivory and diamond bracelet, late 19th century .

Property of a Lady

A minature portrait ivory and diamond bracelet, late 19th century

Restricted Species

Lot Closed

January 17, 04:05 PM GMT

Estimate

7,000 - 10,000 GBP

Lot Details

Description

Centering a miniature hand-painted portrait of Empress Elisabeth of Austria (1837 - 1898), on ivory, within a frame of circular-cut and rose-cut diamonds, inner circumference approximately 185mm.

This lot contains ivory. Commercial trade in ivory is regulated by multiple governments and international organisations around the world, including through prohibitions, restrictions and licensing and / or registration requirements. Different regulations apply to buyers, depending on their individual circumstances and the relevant auction / sale. Sotheby's therefore recommends that, before taking any action in relation to a potential purchase or handling of an ivory item, buyers obtain advice on the regimes and requirements applicable to them. Sotheby's will also not conduct any applications for buyers for exemption certificates, CITES licenses, registrations or similar that may be required, including the renewal or update of the same, or arrange for import or export permits needed for international shipping. A buyer's inability or delay to obtain necessary documentation, or lawfully arrange the export or import of the lot will not justify sale cancellation or a delay in payment.

By family repute this bracelet was a gift given by the Empress to a Captain on a ship she traveled on.

Thence by descent.

Duchess Elisabeth in Bavaria was born in 1837 into the royal Bavarian House of Wittelsbach. She married Emperor Franz Joseph I in 1854, becoming Empress of Austria. Although she was known as a 19th century beauty, she was a talented horse rider and had particular intellectual interests such as in the German poet Heinrich Heine whose letters she collected. She was assassinated in 1898 by an Italian artist while walking along the promenade of Lake Geneva, who stabbed her using a nail file. The Order of Elisabeth was founded in her honor by her husband which existed until the collapse of the monarchy in 1918.