A Napoleon III 18k gold diamond and Colombian emerald bangle
Silver and 18k yellow gold. The moulded upper face with a central pierced quatrefoil motif set with eleven Colombian emeralds (central stone ca. 4.53 ct, the remaining emeralde in total ca. 5.00 ct) surrounded by cushion shaped old-cut diamonds (in total ca. 5.29 ct, K-M, vs-si, the 15 largest stones in the central motif each ca. 0.15 ct). The underside with a finely chased meander motif. Hallmarks: Unidentified maker's mark with the letter R and a snake in a rhombus, stamped "bigorne", later Paris hallmarks for chains and bracelets, used since 1847 (Tardy, 162). Inner diameter 5.5 x 5 cm. Weight 32.53 g.
Paris, circle of François Kramer, second half 19th C.
The bangle was created by an artist from the circle of the imperial French court goldsmith François Kramer, who was born Franz Xaver Kramer in Cologne in 1825 and came from a family of goldsmiths. After an apprenticeship in his father's workshop, he went to Paris, where he first worked as a clerk in the royal court goldsmith's shop of Jules Fossin & Fils. When Napoléon III proclaimed the second empire in 1852 and Fossin refused to continue working for the court, the young Kramer was appointed jeweller to the imperial court and his career began. He had a letterhead printed and traded under "François Kramer Joaillier Bijoutier de H.M. l'Impératrice - Ancien Gérant de la Maison Fossin". However, apart from the crown jewels he produced, which are precisely documented, almost nothing else is known about his work or workshop, so that the authorship of this Neoclassical emerald bangle cannot yet be attributed with certainty. Kramer married Johanna Leonhards in London and they had a daughter, through whose inheritance the bangle has remained in the family to this day.
Provenance
From the possession of the family of the Imperial French court jeweller Francois Kramer, Cologne.