They feared the power of the treasures

Colourised Photographs of the French Royal Jewels, featuring diamonds, rubies, sapphires, pearls, tiaras, crowns, necklaces, bracelets and brooches belonging to the French Royal Family.

Above is the emerald and diamond tiara of Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte, the Duchess of Angoulême. Through several peculiar quirks of fate it is one of the few crown jewels of France to remain unaltered…

Two tiaras belonging to French Empress Eugenie. The top one, the Meander tiara was made by Bapst in 1867 and was the third in a series of meander tiaras made by Bapst for the Empress. The first two tiaras were made in 1856 and 1864 and had the Regent Diamond placed in the center and then on top of the tiara, before being completely removed in the 1867 version. The tiara was sold at auction with the rest of the crown jewels in May 1887 by the French Third Republic via : fd_gallery

The Angouleme Emerald Tiara worn by Marie Antoinette and made by Evrard and Frederic Bapst for the French crown jewels in 1820. There are 1031 diamonds and 40 emeralds in the setting. When sold in 1887, an observer remarked that anyone who had not seen it 'does not know what an emerald is, the green stones alternate with the brilliants in such a manner that there is an interplay of coloured light, the effect of which is magical.'

France/Paris/Louvre Palace Museum Crown of Louis XV 1722 This is the last royal crown of France. Made for the coronation of King Louis XV. It once was set with the Regent diamond in the front Fleur’de’lis above the circular band and with the Sancy diamond in the extreme top of the Fleur’de’lis on the apex of the arches. The crown was emptied of its valuable stones during the revolution and the Regent was set in Napoleon’s sword hilt.