Jewels of the Habsburgs

[ashdean]

Apart from the diamond stars (20 I think) which she wore in the famous portrait by Winterhater( the  great diamond diadem given her on her marriage by her husband) & the Crown jewels...Elisabeth owned amongst other things a diamond & opal tiara,necklace & earrings..which she wore before her wedding on her state  entry into Vienna..I would love to know if they still exist...

[britt.25]

Yes, it would be interesting to know what happened with it.

Do you know, who (of her children) inheritated her jewelery and other things? Was it Marie Valerie?

[crazy_wing]

She gave a lot of her jewels away after Rudolf died.

As for the diamond stars, two are now lying in the display case inside the Sisi Musem in Hofburg.  The rest are probably in private hands.  If I remembered correctly, I think she gave the stars to her ladies in waiting. 

[britt.25]

Did noone of her daughters inheritate something?

[MarieCharlotte]

That's right, Elisabeth didn't want to wear her jewels after Rudolf's dead anymore. She gave a lot of them to her relatives (also to her sister-in-law Marie José in Bavaria), but her daughters Gisela and Marie Valérie as well as her favourite granddaughter Elisabeth Marie got most of them.

As for the little stars: I think I read at the Sisi Museum four weeks ago, that the stars there aren't the original ones, but done by Swarovsky. Once I heard Brigitte Hamann say that the stars are owned by family members. She said something like: "And from time to time I meet young descendants of Elisabeth and they show me one of these famous stars."

[MarieCharlotte]

I just read that Elisabeth had two sets of stars each consisting of 27 items. She gave the stars of the first set to her ladies-in-waiting. The second set is still in possession of the families of Habsburg and Wittelsbach.

[crazy_wing]

That's right, Elisabeth didn't want to wear her jewels after Rudolf's dead anymore. She gave a lot of them to her relatives (also to her sister-in-law Marie José in Bavaria), but her daughters Gisela and Marie Valérie as well as her favourite granddaughter Elisabeth Marie got most of them.

As for the little stars: I think I read at the Sisi Museum four weeks ago, that the stars there aren't the original ones, but done by Swarovsky. Once I heard Brigitte Hamann say that the stars are owned by family members. She said something like: "And from time to time I meet young descendants of Elisabeth and they show me one of these famous stars."

Yeah, when I went two weeks ago to the Sisi Museum, they said that the set displayed in the big room with her portraits and other jewels weren't real.  But then I believe there were two located in the following room and those were real. 

[Zanthia]

You can buy some replicas of her stars on ebay. They are made by swarovski. I'd love to have them, but they're so expensive . I'm glad to hear that the whereabouts of some the stars are known. I once read that they were all lost.

Here's a picture of the ebay stars.

[Eric_Lowe]

How much do you get them in Austria ? 

[ashdean]

Does anyone have any idea of the location/fate of the diamond diadem which was Franz Josefs wedding present to his bride?

[Eric_Lowe]

I think it disappeared...like so much of the Hapsburg jewelry...

[Maria_Pavlovna]

I have seen a photo of Princess Elisabeth of Greece and Denmark, the Countess of Toerring-Jettenbach wearing one of Empress Elisabeth's stars (a tiny one). it  also is a photo of her and her tiny son Hans Viet in 1936.
I had the photo in my collection, but i can't find it! bah! but when i do, I'll post it, but before that i have to ask of friend of mine's permission first.

[Eric_Lowe]

I think that came from her grandmother Queen Olga of Greece's collection. She had a nice collection of diamond stars and some she gave to her daughter Alexandra (Grand Duchess Paul of Russia). 

[grandduchessella]

Here are some links to check out:

http://www.royal-magazin.de/austria/sissi-diamant-sterne.htm
http://www.royal-magazin.de/austria/sisi-diamond-stars.htm

[Eric_Lowe]

I love both of them and bought copies from the Vienese museum collection during the Sisi festival years ago.