In February 1794, in Brussels, Count Claude Florimond de Mercy, former Austrian ambassador to the court of Versailles, received the imperial order from Vienna to open a chest that France's last queen had entrusted to him three years earlier. Emperor Franz II wanted to know what his aunt Marie Antoinette, who had meanwhile been executed, had left behind in it.
Among the items in the chest was “a pair of bracelets with three diamonds, the largest in the centre, forming two clasps; the two clasps, each with four diamonds and 96 diamonds in a collet setting, serve as a clasp”. The jewelry set, like the rest of Marie Antoinette’s jewelry, which she entrusted to friends during the French Revolution and had them sent abroad, passed into the possession of her only surviving child, the eldest daughter Marie-Thérèse, known as Madame Royale. Now owned by a royal European family, the bracelets will be the top lot of the Magnificent Jewels Auction that Christie's will be holding in Geneva on November 9 – seven days after Marie Antoinette's 266th birthday.
The bracelets are emblematic of Marie Antoinette’s love for jewelry, especially diamond jewelry. She couldn't resist when, in 1776, court jeweler Boehmer offered her the sparkling gems for the proud sum of 250,000 livres (today approx. $1.5-4.5 mil). The twenty-year-old, who had been at the side of her husband, King of France Louis XVI, for two years, wanted the bracelets badly. But since she was already spending sums on jewelry, clothing and gambling, she was short of cash. So she agreed to pay in installments and trade in other jewelry. Eventually, the king himself helped out.
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As so often, Marie Antoinette was reprimanded for her careless behavior by her mother, Empress Maria Theresa, in distant Vienna. The empress was briefed by her ambassador, Comte de Mercy-Argenteau, who had represented the imperial court at Versailles since 1766, about everything that her youngest daughter was up to in France – and which rarely received her approval.
The purchase of the diamond bracelets, an inappropriate sequence of events from a Queen of France, formed part of Marie Antoinette's undoing almost ten years later with the Affair of the Diamond Necklace – a falsely accused fraud that came about primarily because Marie Antoinette's love for jewelry and sometimes unusual payment practices were widely known.
Although Comte de Mercy-Argenteau constantly spied on Marie Antoinette for her home in Vienna, which she never really realized, the diplomat remained a close confidante of Marie Antoinette until the revolution. And thus he became one of those friends to whom the disempowered queen entrusted her last possessions. Others were her chambermaid Madame Campan and her hairdresser Léonard Autié. In 1790, Mercy-Argenteau returned to his Belgian homeland, which was then part of the Habsburg Empire, where Marie Antoinette's chest reached him.
Memorabilia from Marie Antoinette and jewelry from her former possession that appear on the auction market fetch high prices. It was only in November 2018 that an auction by Sotheby's caused a sensation, which included several treasures from the queen. With the auction of the bracelets, which are offered for $2-4 million, Christie's is impressively following this up.
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“Over the past 255 years Christie’s have offered many Historic Jewels from Royal Houses around the world. It is a privilege to be able to offer these exceptional and unique bracelets for sale at Christie’s where they will attract bidding from collectors globally. As seen in recent Geneva sales, the market for jewels of noble provenance continues to perform extremely well,” commented François Curiel, Chairman Christie’s Luxury.
The jewelry auction, which Christie's will hold on November 9 at the Four Season Hotel des Bergues in Geneva, will also include jewelry from the former property of the Duchess of Windsor and treasures from Cartier, Boucheron, Van Cleef & Arpels and other coveted jewelry brands.
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