On 9 November 2021, the auction house Christies sold a remarkable pair of diamond bracelets. Christies have sold hundreds of pristine pieces of jewllery over the years but these bracelets are spectacular due to two particular factors. First, the diamonds themselves are stunning. Secondly, they belonged to Marie Antoinette.
Once imprisoned during the French Revolution, the royal family attempted to hide or smuggle out their precious jewellery collections. Marie Antoinette took it upon herself to carefully wrap her jewels in cotton to protect them. Those jewels of the ci-devant queen that did manage to survive the revolution were often broken up - and on occasion sold separately - and thus no longer represent their original shape. That is where these bracelets stand out: they have remained largely intact in more than two centuries.
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| Photo from Christies' website |
Marie Antoinette ordered the bracelets in 1776 for a staggering 250.000 livres; a sum that she would struggle to pay and would eventually turn to her husband, Louis XVI, for help. From the king's meticulous private expenditure book we find several entries of interest. On 18 February 1777, he noted:
"Paid the Queen, on account of the 162.600 livres which she owes Boehmer for diamond bracelets, 24.000 livres"
Boehmer was the man who created and sold the bracelets to the queen. He was also the man behind the infamous Diamond Necklace which brought the queen's reputation to an all-time low after she was erroneously accused of having attempted to purchase it.
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| Detail of Wertmuller's portrait showing the chatelaine |
News of the extravagant purchase was immediately spread throughout Europe. One key source were the foreign ambassadors, including the Austrian Comte de Mercy d'Argenteau. It was he who informed Maria Theresia, the queen's mother, which he did on 16 July 1776 in a private letter. In this letter, the ambassador report that the bracelets cost nearly 300.000 livres; he also mentioned that the queen had had to give several of her own diamonds in trade which the jewellers appraised unreasonably low. As so often before, the Austrian Empress had a stern opinion on the matter which she certainly did not attempt to hide in her letter of 2 September 1776. In this written reproach, the mother lecture her daughter that she has "unsettled her finances" by such a lavish purchase. To the rather frugal Empress, such an expense was nothing less but "humiliating", as she made sure to inform her daughter.
Marie Antoinette is portrayed wearing her bracelets in the portrait of 1785 by Wertmuller. Enjoying a walk with her two children near the Petit Trianon, the queen is adorned with a chatelaine made up of two large diamond bracelets - the very ones purchased in 1776.
The bracelets are made up of 56 large, round diamonds each - four of which are mounted on the clasp while the three at the very centre are larger than the rest. This amounts to a total of 112 diamonds of 140-150 carats.
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| Marie Thérèse wearing the bracelets in 1816 |
During her imprisonment, Marie Antoinette managed to successfully smuggle out the bracelets. In a twist of fate, the very man she sent these - and other - jewels to were none other than the Comte de Mercy d'Argenteau who stored them in Brussels for a few years. They were then sent to the court of Vienna where they would be handed over to her daughter, Marie Thérèse - the only surviving member of the inner royal family. She would be painted wearing one of them in 1816.
From then, they would remain in the possession of her family until they were finally sold for 7.117.308 euros or 5.974.993 pounds.
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