Before being sent to the guillotine during the French Revolution, Marie Antoinette put two diamond bracelets in a wooden box for safekeeping at an auction in Geneva for 7.46 million Swiss francs (7.04 million). Pound).
Due to the growing interest in jewelry and clothing belonging to the former queen of France, the amount is several times higher than the pre-sale estimate. The buyer bid by phone and is unidentified.
Austrian-born monarch arrives France At the age of 14, married to the future Louis XVI in 1776, two years after she became a queen, she customized a diamond bracelet. Each bracelet consists of three strings of diamonds and a large hairpin, totaling 112 diamonds, including “old cut” diamonds and gold and silver.
As we all know, Marie Antoinette carefully wrapped her jewelry in cotton, hoping to keep them outside of revolutionary France. She sent two diamond bracelets in a wooden box to a former Austrian ambassador in Brussels, with a letter instructing him to keep them safe.
Max Fawcett, head of Christie’s jewelry department, stated before the auction: “Although Marie Antoinette was arrested during the French Revolution and died in 1793, these bracelets survived and passed on to her daughter. The Royal Lady and Duchess of Parma.”
The auction house added that Marie Thérèse, the surviving daughter of Marie Antoinette, received the jewels when she arrived in Austria.
Christie’s said these bracelets have been kept in the royal blood for more than 200 years.
“Finding jewellery with more than 200 years of French royal history is indeed something that collectors and passionate jewellery lovers from all over the world will pay close attention to,” Fawcett added. “We have seen the results of things sold by Marie Antoinette before. There is really no limit to the height of these things. I look forward to the fireworks. [at the auction]. “
