Today marks the anniversary of the death of Queen Isabel II of Spain, who passed away on this day in 1904! The eldest surviving child of King Fernando VII and his wife and niece, Maria Cristina of Bourbon-Two Sicilies, she became Queen of Spain at the early age of 3, with a reign as “queen of sad fates” marked by a great political turmoil that ended in a Parisian exile in 1868, after a Glorious Revolution, but to mark this anniversary, we are taking a look at the Queen’s Mellerio Diamond Stars.

Diamond Star Tiara | Castillos y Leones Tiara | Emerald Flower Tiara | Emerald Suite | Joyas de Pasar

Throughout her life, Queen Isabel acquired several sets of bejewelled stars. As an enormous jewel admired and connoisseuse, Doña Isabel rapidly embraced the European trend of wearing those sharp shinny pieces of jewellery, commissioning several sets containing amethysts, rubies, emeralds, sapphires, or pearls. Stars rapidly become fashionable at the Spanish Court and the Queen ensured that her three daughters, Infanta Isabel, Infanta Paz, and Infanta Eulalia had at least one parure.

Queen Isabel II went into exile in 1868. In order to face the expenses of her lavish life in Paris and to financially support her relatives, a major part of her massive jewellery collection had to be publicly auctioned and privately sold. By then, several of the Queen’s star parures left her collection.

Doña Isabel also had some trouble paying debts which were contracted both before and after the “Glorious Revolution”, namely to some jewellery Maisons, like Mellerio, who, upon verifying a lack of payment, and after several attempts for H.M. to settle her debt, ended up suing her before the French court. According to an article published on contemporary Spanish press,

“Doña Isabel de Borbon has lost the lawsuit filed against her in Paris by the jeweller Mr. Mellerio, being sentenced to pay him 146,730 Francs.”

This public dispute didn’t stop the Queen from keep buying jewels from Maison Mellerio. After having paid off her debt, Queen Isabel commissioned, among others, a magnificent parure of dozens of ten-pointed stars set in diamonds, comprising a bandeau, a necklace, a pair of earrings and twenty brooches. The set was delivered to the Queen in 1875.

Throughout the 1880s, the exiled Spanish Queen was photographed wearing her diamond stars in several ways.

After her passing, in 1904, the set, valued in 28.500 francs, was inherited by her youngest daughter, Infanta Eulalia. By then, and according to her post mortem jewellery inventory, there were only eleven stars left. Nothing is publicly known about the current whereabouts of these pieces. The Diamond Stars could have been dismantled, sold or even lost with the fall of the monarchy in 1931.

This article was written by assistant editor, David Rato, who runs the Spanish Royal Jewels account on Instagram!

Diamond Star Tiara | Castillos y Leones Tiara | Emerald Flower Tiara | Emerald Suite | Joyas de Pasar

Diamond Star Tiara

 Castillos y Leones Tiara

Emerald Flower Tiara