What Chaumet is known for
Napoleon’s jeweler on Place Vendôme — Joséphine tiaras, Bee My Love honeycombs and imperial heritage. after making Napoleon's coronation sword and Pius VII's tiara, Nitot became jeweller to the imperial court and appointed supplier to Empress Joséphine (block dated 1804–1815). Son François-Regnault moved workshops to Place Vendôme no. 15 in 1812 (now the Ritz).
Chaumet's founding client list needs only one name: Napoleon. Marie-Étienne Nitot, who established the house in 1780, became the Emperor's official jeweler — the coronation crown, the consular sword bearing the Regent diamond, and tiaras for both empresses, Joséphine and Marie-Louise. The maison has traded on that imperial intimacy ever since; Joséphine is not a muse here but a product line.
The tiara remains the house signature — Chaumet has made more than 3,500 of them, and its Place Vendôme salons keep a museum of nickel-silver tiara maquettes that reads like a crown registry of Europe. The Bee My Love collection turns Napoleon's imperial bee into honeycomb pavé; Liens ties its knots through wedding registers.
The maison has occupied 12 Place Vendôme since 1812 — Chopin died upstairs — and its grand salon still looks onto the column cast from Austerlitz cannon. Two centuries after the coronation, Chaumet remains what it was hired to be: the jeweler of French sovereignty, now sold by the carat.
In the press
- El País 2026
How ORBIS reads this city
Best for — Joséphine tiaras and Bee My Love honeycomb jewelry from Napoleon's Place Vendôme
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In the Journal
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