.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
.jpg?w=1)
Lot Essay
Sold to benefit the Magdi Yacoub Foundation for Heart Research
By family tradition, these earrings were a gift from Empress Eugénie of France on the occasion of her visit to Egypt for the inauguration of the Suez Canal on 17th November 1869.
The construction of the Suez Canal, linking the Red and the Mediterranean Seas, started on the shore of the future Port Said on 25th April 1859 and took some 10 years to complete.
In what was to be an international event of huge significance, Khedive Isma’il Pasha of Egypt invited Empress Eugénie to preside over the inauguration. After the religious ceremonies were complete and to the sound of a canon salute, the imperial yacht L’Aigle, with Eugénie aboard, undertook the first voyage down the canal followed by a flotilla of ships bearing the Viceroy, the Emperor of Austria, the Crown Prince of Prussia and the ambassadors of Great Britain and Russia.
By family tradition, these earrings were a gift from Empress Eugénie of France on the occasion of her visit to Egypt for the inauguration of the Suez Canal on 17th November 1869.
The construction of the Suez Canal, linking the Red and the Mediterranean Seas, started on the shore of the future Port Said on 25th April 1859 and took some 10 years to complete.
In what was to be an international event of huge significance, Khedive Isma’il Pasha of Egypt invited Empress Eugénie to preside over the inauguration. After the religious ceremonies were complete and to the sound of a canon salute, the imperial yacht L’Aigle, with Eugénie aboard, undertook the first voyage down the canal followed by a flotilla of ships bearing the Viceroy, the Emperor of Austria, the Crown Prince of Prussia and the ambassadors of Great Britain and Russia.