The Jeweled Bouquet

[gingerkid]

while admiring some of the photographs of famous jewels and reading of their histories in dr. gubelin's book, "Gemstones: Symbols of Beauty and Power," i discovered this fascinating bouquet of gems that princess maria theresa, which later became empress, presented to her bridegroom, franz stephan of lorraine, as a bethrothal gift. franz collected gemstones and minerals and some of his collection can be seen today.

the vase is made of rock crystal, composed of 761 variegated gemstones and 2,102 diamonds. the gemstone flowers are made of sapphire, ruby, garnet, turquoise, zircon, moonstone, peridot, amethyst, topaz, etc... it is 49 cm in height and has leaves of parchment (silk) with insects (bee, wasp, dragonflies, etc...) made of pearls and gemstones. there is some disagreement of who made the jeweled bouquet. dr. gubelin states that the court jeweler, johann michael grosser created it. after enlarging the picture, i did find a dragonfly and a bee;)



http://www.nhm-wien.ac.at/Content.Node/ ... uss05.html

[Crystal Star]

Wow! Now that's my kind of bouquet!!

[gingerkid]

hi crystal star!! i thought it was a beautiful bouquet, too, and would love to have one also!! what really impressed me is that maria theresa gave it to franz I as a betrothal gift-now that's really !! i also read she placed it in one of his many display cabinets for him to discover.