A ROYAL 'FER DE BERLIN' AND PORCELAIN COMMEMORATIVE NECKLACE, PROBABLY FRENCH, CIRCA 1830 | A royal 'fer de Berlin' and porcelain commemorative necklace, probably French, circa 1830

cast in lacy 'Berlin' ironwork in style troubadour with crowned letter H monograms, fleurs-de-lis and framed medallions set with polychrome painted Paris porcelain plaques, the central panel depicting Henry as Henry V, roi de France among a parade of royal ancestors: Ste. Bathilde (630-680); Ste.Hedwig (Edwige) d’Anjou (1373-1399); Blanche de Castille (1188-1252); Marie de Medici (1575-1642); Anne d’Autriche (1601-1666): Anne de Beaujeu, Duchess of Bourbon (1461-1522); and Adèle de Champagne (1145-1206), in original elaborately-tooled case

Commissioned by Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Sicile, duchesse de Berry (1798-1870), for her son Henri d'Artois, comte de Chambord (1820-1893)

Overall very good condition. The top left loop of frame arounf the second medallion from the left damaged, resulting in the fleur-de-lis being detached at the top.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

Marie-Caroline de Bourbon-Sicile, eldest daughter of Francis, Duke of Calabria and Maria Clementina of Austria, was born at the Neapolitan royal palace of Caserta in 1798. Despite a somewhat turbulent upbringing caused by the the exile of her grandfather Ferdinand I, King of the Two Sicilies, during Napoleon’s transformation of Europe, she received a liberal education with a special leaning towards the fine arts. In 1816 she was married to Charles Ferdinand, duc de Berry, second son of the comte d’Artois, brother and heir of the childless, restored king, Louis XVIII, and future Charles X of France. As the comte d’Artois’s elder son was also childless, it was hoped that this marriage to an Italian princess some twenty years younger would produce a legitimate heir to the French throne. Following the birth of a daughter in 1819, Henri d’Artois was born in 1820, sadly posthumous as his father had been assassinated seven months before. Between 1820 and 1830, as mother of the future king, the duchesse de Berry was at the centre of the court, leading fashion and acting as patron of the arts. She is credited with reviving the flagging ivory carving trade in Dieppe, the sea resort where she loved to spend her summers. She is known to have favoured the fashionable style troubadour and is recorded as giving a magnificent costume ball in 1829 to commemorate Mary, Queen of Scots, where she took the role of Mary Stuart in a gown glittering with a large selection of the French royal diamonds.

The next year, in 1830, Charles X was obliged to abdicate in favour of his elder son, who in turn abdicated in favour of his nephew, Henri d’Artois, comte de Chambord, who ruled as Henri V for a few days before being ousted by his grandfather’s cousin, the duc de Chartres, who seized the throne as Louis Philippe, King of the French.

The Duchesse de Berry was to return from exile in 1832 to lead a short-lived rebellion in an attempt to restore her son as king. This was unsuccessful and she was briefly imprisoned before being allowed to leave France for Sicily with her second husband, Ettore Lucchesi-Palli. It would therefore seem logical that the current necklace was commissioned by her in hope but perhaps never worn.