Crown of the Kingdom of Württemberg
The crown of the Kingdom of Württemberg was made in 1806 for the newly established Kingdom of Württemberg .
description
It consists of gold , diamonds and emeralds, as well as pearls . The wide coronet bears pearls on the upper and lower edge, with six-petaled diamond rosettes in between. In the gaps there are smaller gold-framed emeralds or smaller rosettes . Above the upper row of pearls, the hoop runs undulating with eight wave crests. The top of the waves is set with a diamond garland. Golden vine leaves grow out of the wave crests, which are in three parts and jagged at the edges. The three ends of the leaves bear small diamond rosettes, a large diamond rosette sits in the middle of the leaf. From the leaves of the clasps rise volutenhaft steep outward up, dents to vertex slightly towards one and enter the globe with the cross. The clasps are very narrow and have diamond rosettes of various sizes, most of which are star-shaped and sometimes alternate with diamond-framed emeralds of different sizes. On the globe there are rows of small diamonds on the equator and on four vertical meridians . The very large Maltese cross is openwork and covered with diamonds. The irregular ornamentation of the crown is explained by the use of old jewelry, agraffes and buttons. The crown, which is 34.5 centimeters high and 19 centimeters in diameter on the hoop and 31.5 centimeters on the clasps, was not worn. It was used for laying out on the catafalk and at the opening of the state assembly .
history
The crown got its current appearance after the redesign by court jeweler August Heinrich Kuhn (1749–1827), who acted on behalf of King Wilhelm I. In the German War of 1866 the crown and its crown jewels were kept for security in St. Gallen and in the Franco-German War in 1870 in Ulm . In 1897 the crown was completely restored by court jeweler Eduard Föhr (1835–1904). At the end of the First World War , the crown jewels were packaged for shipment to Switzerland. In April 1945, French troops confiscated the crown jewels from a bank vault in Biberach an der Riss . On March 9, 1948, the French military governor Guillaume Widmer returned the crown jewels in the state parliament of Württemberg-Hohenzollern to the Bock government . The crown together with the crown jewels has been in the Landesmuseum Württemberg since 1971 after being temporarily stored by the Stuttgart State Central Bank .
literature
- Heinz Biehn : The crowns of Europe and their fate . Limes Verlag, Wiesbaden 1957.
- Werner Fleischhauer: Kunstkammer and Crown Jewels . Württembergisches Landesmuseum, Stuttgart 1977, ISBN 3-9290-5500-7 .