Circa 1930
White and yellow gold cufflinks with 13mm square panels and chamfered corners, and chain links. One panel of each engraved with the monogram of Prince Pierre of Monaco, Duke of Valentinois, surmounted by the Monegasque crown. Cased.
Prince Pierre of Monaco (1895-1964) was the father of Prince Rainier III of Monaco (1923-2005) and thus father-in-law of Grace Kelly. He was a member of one of France’s oldest ducal families the de Polignacs, and in 1920 married the dynastic heiress to the principality of Monaco, Princess Charlotte, and adopted the name and arms of the House of Grimaldi. Prince Pierre's unhappy arranged marriage was further complicated by Princess Charlotte's affairs. In the mid 1920s, the couple unofficially separated, with Prince Pierre living in his Paris apartment and on an estate near the city. Prince Pierre and Princess Charlotte were judicially separated in March 1930, with the union ending under circumstances which prompted his ‘temperamental father-in-law to vow he would call out the Monégasque army if the prince ever set foot in the principality again.’ The banishment from Monaco was lifted in April 1933, and Prince Pierre thereafter received an annuity of half a million francs a year.