✨ Adornments, diamond and natural pearl jewelry (highly prized at the time), brooches… As Louis XVI's wife, Marie-Antoinette was known for her taste in jewelry.

She amassed an impressive collection of jewels, among the most famous of which are:
- a pendant with an exceptionally sized natural pear-shaped stone (26mm x 18mm),
- a necklace with 300 natural pearls,
- a brooch with a central diamond weighing approximately 12 carats 😱,
- a ring with her diamond-encrusted initials, also containing a lock of her hair.

✨ A lucky few became the proud owners of these royal jewels at an auction in Geneva in 2018.
For example, the pendant with the natural pear-shaped pearl sold for... $36 million, against an initial estimate of $2 million: the Marie-Antoinette effect 👸🏼!

✨ An anecdote! In July 1785, the "Affair of the Diamond Necklace" broke out:

Louis XV commissioned jeweler Boehmer to create an exceptional necklace of 674 diamonds and 2840 carats, but... Louis XV died before its reception.
The jeweler, indebted by the creation of such a piece, wished to sell it to Marie-Antoinette, but she refused.
Scammers managed to convince Prince-Cardinal de Rohan that he could win the Queen's favor by secretly offering her this necklace.

Convinced by a fake meeting arranged with a look-alike of the queen, the Prince-Cardinal acquired the necklace and entrusted it to the scammers to deliver to the queen, but they promptly unset the stones and resold them!

This affair became public and tarnished Marie-Antoinette's reputation. She lost all credibility and the sympathy of the people. She would then meet a tragic end, guillotined in 1793, after taking care to put her jewels in a safe place to preserve them.

Did you know?