The collection of jewels acquired by Princess Mathilde was the most significant in France after that belonging to the Crown. Princess Mathilde Bonaparte (1820-1904) was the cousin of Napoleon III and the daughter of Jérome Bonaparte (brother of Napoleon I and King of Westphalia) and Princess Catherine of Württemberg. She was to play the leading female role at court until the Emperor's marriage and lit up the imperial court with her jewels during the Second Empire. In June 1904, shortly after her death, the collection was dispersed at a sale in Paris. The sale realised 3,500,000 francs, and the pearls alone produced 1,600,000 francs. Amongst the highlights of the sale, recorded in photographs throughout the catalogue, are a collar composed of seven strands of white pearls given by Napoleon I to the Queen of Westphalia, the Princess's mother which sold for 445,000 francs, a black pearl necklace composed of thirty-three pearls also formerly the property of the Queen of Westphalia, a large pear shaped pink diamond drop mounted as a pendant, a large diamond rivière, a Russian style Kokoshnik necklace/diadem, an unusual sautoir formed from thirty-three diamond-set acanthus leaves and a diamond-set corsage brooch modelled as a rose.