Mad purchase of a piece of history or a foggy legend? With nearly 500 diamonds representing a weight of 300 carats and a halo of mystery over its history, an 18th century necklace was acquired for 4.5 million euros on Wednesday November 13 at the Geneva auction. This jewel from the British Georgian era has survived the centuries remaining intact,miracle“, boasted Andres White Correal, head of the jewelry department of Sotheby’s Europethe auction house. “This spectacular antique gem is an incredible survivor of history», according to the jewelry store Sotheby’s, which suggests a link with Marie-Antoinette. If the new owner, who wished to remain anonymous and who made her offer by telephone, is “crazy with joy», According to the Sotheby’s representative, the origin of the necklace is however uncertain.
Sotheby’s reports that some of the diamonds making up the necklace come from a jewel at the heart of the “Queen’s Necklace Affair”, a resounding affair of fraud in the decade preceding the French Revolution. A cardinal wishing to be in the good graces of Marie-Antoinette had purchased a sumptuous necklace to offer it to the sovereign. To do this, he gave it to Madame de La Motte, a false friend of the queen but a real crook: the necklace disappears, as does the sum of a million and a half pounds supposed to pay for the purchase. This story had further tarnished the reputation of the wife of Louis XVI and had earned her, among other scandals, the nickname “Madame Déficit”, even though she was innocent in this story.
The jewel intended for the queen had been cut up, the diamonds undoubtedly sold in England according to historians. Little is known about the necklace sold by Sotheby’s which would have subsequently hosted some of these precious stones. Nothing about the jeweler who designed it in the 18th century or the identity of the original client. Assumption: the opulence of the room reserved it for royal families, of high nobility or immensely rich.
The auction house also suggests a possible origin for the diamonds: “The date of manufacture of this jewelry indicates (that they) probably came from India and the legendary mines of Golconda »region of India, which were “in the 18th century, the only known sources of diamonds”.
Clearer traces from the beginning of the 20th century
The traces of the necklace itself become clearer from the “early 20th century, when it was part of the collection of the Marquess of Anglesey», specified Andres White Correal, of Sotheby’s. Members of this aristocratic British family wore the jewelry twice in public: once at the coronation of King George VI in 1937 and once at that of his daughter, Queen Elizabeth II, in 1953.
«With diamonds of exceptional quality from India’s legendary, now extinct Golconda mines, the story of a possible connection to Marie Antoinette and the fact that it was worn at two coronations, it all makes this really special necklace“, commented Tobias Kormind, director of 77 Diamonds, Europe’s largest online jeweler. For Andres White Correal, the success of this piece describes “a niche in the market for historic jewelry with fabulous provenance (…) People don’t just buy the item, they also buy the whole story attached to it“. The one we sell to them, at least.
Source: www.liberation.fr
