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Marie Antoinette, Queen of France, as portrayed by artist Jean-Baptiste-André Gautier-Dagoty in a 1775 portrait.

AUCTION OF THREE-STRAND DIAMOND BRACELETS REVIVES THE MEMORY OF QUEEN MARIE-ANTOINETTE

 

Marie-Antoinette, the Austrian archduchess who became a dauphine of France in May 1770 when she married Louis-Auguste, heir apparent to the French throne, and later the French Queen, until the French Revolution, and ultimately her execution at age 37 by guillotine on October 16, 1793, continues to enjoy celebrity status akin to the late Princess Diana and the current Duchess of Sussex, Meghan Markle. A Magnificent Jewels sale sale at Christie’s in Geneva I,on November 9, 2021,s depending on her notoriety to ensure its success.

On the block will be a pair of three-strand diamond bracelets, which also can be connected together and worn as a bracelet. Set with 112 diamonds, their pre-sale value is currently between $2 million and $4 million. But the auction house clearly is hoping for better.

The Marie-Antoinette legacy provides Christie’s with a good chance of fetching considerably more. In 2018, a natural pearl and diamond pendant that had once belonged to the queen was estimated by the Sotheby’s to be worth between $1 million and $2 million. It eventually was sold by that auction house for $36 million.

“They revive and transport a part of French history into today’s world,” says Marie-Cécile Cisamolo, an associate specialist at Christie’s Geneva, as quoted by Town and Country. “What makes these diamond jewels even more exceptional is that they weren’t transformed over time—they seem to have been left just as the Queen purchased them.”

“We can assume that the simple design spoke to its different owners over the past 226 years,” she added.

THE MURKY LEGACY OF THE FRENCH CROWN JEWELS

Queen Marie-Antoinette was a renowned jewelry maven. The Royal Crown jewels of France, which she wore with her husband, King Louis XVI, disappeared during the revolution.

According to popular legend, they were taken from the Palace of Versailles during the uprising of the fish market women and men on October 1789, who marched in a rain storm to to the palace gates, and then slashed the throats of the guards and stormed building. They are said to have looted the royal treasures, leaving a path of bloodshed in their wake.

But jewels of from the French royal family later reappeared in England in the possession of King George IV. Rumor had it that Marie-Antoinette secretly gave them to her personal stylist Léonard Autié, who is best known for his creation of the infamous French pouf hairstyle.

As the story goes, Autié smuggled the jewels from the palace in the hopes that they eventually would be able to pay for royal family’s personal expenses when they escaped to another country, or possibly fund a royalist army to counter the revolution.

 

The two three-strand diamond bracelets that will go on sale at a Christie’s auction on November 9, 2021. (Photo courtesy of Christie’s)

But another story tells of the deposed Queen Marie-Antoinette, imprisoned in the Tuileries Palace in Paris, secretly packing her jewels in a wooden crate and send them to Austrian ambassador Count Mercy-Argenteau for safekeeping. It is said that she was confident that she would be exonerated and set free that she even ordered a Breguet watch while awaiting trial.

Marie Antoinette’s surviving daughter, the Madame Royale, Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte of France, Duchess of Angoulême, in an 1816 portrait by Antoine-Jean Gros, in which she is seen wearing the three-strand bracelets.

THE STORY OF THREE-STRAND BRACELET

The two three-strand bracelets that will go on sale in November have an interesting provenance. They were purchased at the queen’s request in 1777 from the Parisian jeweler Charles August Boehmer for 250,000 livres, a sizeable amount at the time.

It is said that Marie Antoinette delivered a down payment and traded in some other gems. The memoire of Count Mercy-Argenteau notes that they were partly paid for in gemstones from the French queen’s collection.

After the death of Marie Antoinette, Count Mercy-Argenteau kept the wooden crate unopened for more than a year. He was eventually ordered by the Austrian court to make an inventory of its contents. The bracelets were listed as item number 6.

When Queen’s surviving daughter, Madame Royale, arrived in Austria at age 18, she was given the jewels, and indeed an 1816 portrait of Madame Royal by Antoine-Jean Gros shows her wearing the bracelets.

Madame Royale died childless in 1851 and left her jewels to be divided among her nieces and nephews, the Count of Chambord, the Countess of Chambord and the Duchess of Parma.

What happened in the interim to the bracelet is not clear. According to Christie’s, the bracelets were offered to it for sale by an unnamed royal family, who has enjoyed wearing them for several decades.

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