As François-Regnault Nitot, son of the jeweller Marie-Etienne Nitot (who founded the house that later became Chaumet), accompanied a piece of precious cargo from France to Rome in May 1805, he may well have sensed that the journey would change his fortune, and that of his family business, forever.
In his charge was an enormous, gem-studded tiara commissioned by the newly-crowned Emperor Napoleon I as a thank you gift for the Pope Pius VII for attending his lavish coronation ceremony. A ceremony for which Marie-Etienne Nitot (previously a collaborator of Marie-Antoinette’s jeweller at the court of Versailles) had supplied the regalia, including the elaborate diamond-studded Coronation Sword.
On his way to Rome, François-Regnault paused in Milan, where he met Napoleon and his new Empress and showed them the fabulous gift they had ordered for the Pope. A famous sybarite and collector of luxurious jewels, Joséphine was immediately drawn to the incredible craftsmanship of Nitot’s workshop. According to her first chambermaid, Mademoiselle Avrillon, it was “at that moment, Monsieur Nitot became jeweller to the Empress.”
The naturalistic design of Nitot’s jewellery appealed to the Empress’ keen interests. At the Château de Malmaison, the grand house near the left bank of the Seine that she had purchased as a retreat in 1799, Joséphine’s greenhouse held the largest collection of plant species in Paris. Around 1811, she commissioned Nitot to fashion her a glittering tiara adorned in steams of diamond wheat – a historic symbol of prosperity. Along with the laurel and the oak, it became one of the traditional natural emblems appropriated by Napoleon in order to align himself and his court with the great rulers of the classical world.
The bee, too, became a personal emblem for the emperor, due its similarity in shape to France’s floral symbol, the fleur-de-lys. It also cleverly associated him with the mysterious fifth-century king, Childeric I, a key figure in the founding myths of France, whose burial horde had included hundreds of gem-encrusted bee jewels.
Napoleon and his Empress took their role as wealthy patrons extremely seriously, using their status to restore the profile of the French luxury industry (which had been tainted by its associations with the former Queen, Marie-Antoinette) and to install their country as the epicentre of fashion and design. After choosing to wear a tiara for her coronation, Joséphine made tiaras desirable again. And in addition to the eye-catching ceremonial gems commissioned for official appearances, she requested Nitot to create pieces for less formal occasions, often made with coloured gemstones like malachite. She also adored pearls and appears in many portraits wearing a pair of Nitot’s luminous drop-shaped pearl earrings. And her acrostic bracelets, commissioned from the house by Napoleon, spelled out the name of her children, Hortense and Eugène, in sparkling gemstones.
Over two centuries later, the influence of Napoleon and Joséphine can still be felt at the house of Chaumet (which changed its name in 1889). Napoleon’s heraldic bee (and its honeycomb) is still an iconic symbol at the house, as is the ear of wheat, which recently made an appearance this summer in a dramatic high jewellery set. The tiara, too, is still a perennial design at Chaumet, with over two thousand crafted since 1780. And, in 2010, to celebrate its 230th anniversary, Chaumet launched its Josephine collection as an homage to the jewellery-loving empress, one of its greatest ever clients and an enduring source of inspiration for the French jewellery maison.
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