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A blue velvet box bearing a label "bracelets of
Queen Marie Antoinette" holds the double bracelets, each
composed of three strings of diamonds and a large barrette
clasp, for a total of 112 diamonds.
The bracelets, now the property of a European royal family, are
expected to fetch $2-4 million at the Nov. 9 auction, Christie's
said.
"To find jewels with over 200 years of French royal history is
truly something that collectors and passionate jewellery people
from all over the world will be keeping an eye on," said Max
Fawcett, head of Christie's jewellery department in Geneva.
"How much is someone willing to pay for something from the last
queen of France? We have seen the results before of things sold
by Marie Antoinette, that there really is no limit to how high
these can go and I'm expecting fireworks on Tuesday."
Marie Antoinette, who sent a letter from prison in the Tuileries
in Paris saying that a wooden chest with jewels would be sent
for safekeeping, was guillotined in 1793. Her surviving daughter
Marie Therese, Madame Royale, received the jewels on her arrival
in Austria, the auction house said.
An Art Deco ruby and diamond bangle, ordered by the Duke of
Windsor from Cartier, was offered to his American wife on their
first anniversary in the south of France by the man who gave up
the throne to marry the duchess, Christie's said.
The pre-sale estimate is 1 million to 2 million Swiss francs
($1.10 million to $2.19 million), it said.
The Duchess's collection of designer jewels was first offered at
auction at a sale held along Lake Geneva in 1987, where bids
soared, far exceeding pre-sale estimates.
Rival Sotheby's will offer Russian royal jewels smuggled out of
the country during the 1917 revolution, alongside rare coloured
diamonds, on Nov. 10 in Geneva.
Sotheby's told Reuters it was looking for deep-pocketed
collectors emerging from the coronavirus pandemic.
($1 = 0.9122 Swiss francs)
(Reporting by Cecile Mantovani; Writing by Stephanie Nebehay;
Editing by Mark Heinrich)
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