Georgian Portrait of Louise-Marie-Adélaïde de Bourbon
A remarkable oversized pendant with enamelled portrait miniature depicting Louise-Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon, Duchess of Orléans, dressed up as a shepherdess or peasant (although don't be fooled by her simple attire, upon the death of her brother, Louis Alexandre, Prince of Lamballe, Louise-Marie was the wealthiest heiress in France prior to the Revolution). On the eve of the French Revolution, in 1789, she was painted by Queen Marie Antoinette's favourite portrait painter, Élisabeth-Louise Vigée-Le Brun. The painting, now at the Palace of Versailles, clearly inspired this miniature. It's mounted in silver and dates from the early 19th century - likely made sometime around 1814 during the Bourbon Restorations.
Louise-Marie Adélaïde de Bourbon (1753-1821), Duchess of Orléans, was the mother of France's last king, Louis Philippe I (King of the French), and, confusingly, married Louis Philippe II (Duke of Orléans) the 'regicide' Philippe Égalité.
Marie-Adélaïde was born at the Hôtel de Toulouse in Paris in 1753. As was the custom within the French nobility of the time she was, at birth, placed in the care of Madame de Sourcy, and later raised at the Abbaye de Montmartre convent where she spent twelve years. Upon the death of her brother and only sibling, the Prince de Lamballe, on 8 May 1768, Marie-Adélaïde became heiress to what was to become the largest fortune of France.
She married Louis Philippe Joseph d'Orléans, Duke of Chartres and a French Prince of the Blood who supported the French Revolution as a strong advocate for the elimination of the absolute monarchy in favour of a constitutional one. Louis Philippe changed his name to Philippe Égalité and voted for the death of king Louis XVI, however, he was himself guillotined in 1793 during the Reign of Terror. Marie-Adélaïde, unlike her husband, did not support the revolution. She was a devout Catholic who, following the orders of Pope Pius VI, supported keeping the monarchy in France. By 1790 their marriage had all but broken down, the pair were said to communicate through letters only and, in the memoirs of the Baronne d'Oberkirch, Marie-Adélaïde is described as:
"always wearing a melancholic expression which nothing could cure. She sometimes smiled, she never laughed"
In April 1791, Marie-Adélaïde left her husband and went to live with her father in Normandy. Ultimately Philippe Égalité was arrested and killed and her eldest son, the duc de Chartres (Général Égalité) fled to Switzerland, but Marie-Adélaïde was permitted to stay in France, under guard, on account of her poor health. Her inheritance was confiscated by the revolutionary government and she was, upon the execution of her husband, incarcerated at the Luxemboug Palace then the Pension Belhomme, where she became known as the Veuve Égalité ("Widow Égalité").
Between 1797 and 1814, Marie-Adélaïde lived in exile in Spain before the fall of Napoleon in 1814 led to the first Bourbon Restoration which saw a constitutional monarchy headed by king Louis XVIII. After legal battles which lasted until her death, the bulk of her inheritance was eventually recovered. She died in her castle at Ivry-sur-Seine on 23 June 1821, after battling breast cancer. She did not live to see her son Louis Philippe become King of the French in 1830.
Era: Georgian, circa 1814
Size: 7.7cm (including bail) by 5.4cm
Weight: 40.5 grams
Marks: None, tested as silver
Condition: Great antique condition
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[Last updated: August 29th, 2025]
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