Marie Antoinette's pearls up for auction

[Caitlin]

and another

The 21 jewels were smuggled out of France during the French Revolution by the Countess of Sutherland, wife of the British ambassador and an ally of the extravagant queen.
Marie Antoinette's necklace is expected to fetch ?400,000. See more of the lots on offer
They were to be returned when the wife of Louis XVI escaped imprisonment.
But she never did and went to the guillotine in front of a baying mob in 1793.
Half a century later in England, the drop-shaped natural pearls were mounted onto a necklace with diamonds and rubies for the wedding of the countess's grandson, George Granville William Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, to Ann Hay McKenzie.
The necklace will be sold at Christie's next Wednesday.

Raymond Sancroft-Baker, a Christie's jewellery expert, said: "It is exceptionally rare to be able to offer jewels that belonged to Marie Antoinette and which are completely fresh to the market.
"The story behind the pearls and their integral incorporation into this necklace for the Sutherland-Leveson-Gower family wedding in 1849 adds to its fascinating history."

 

[Valeria101]

Is it my illusion, or are these latest images showing some much, much more attractive pearls ?

 

[Caitlin]

If those are Pteria sternas, they change incredibly according to the light they are shown in. I think this is just an example of it. I think they mayb be better looking pearls than we first thought-

PS
The first image at the top of the thread is GONE so I am glad we captured them in later posts.

I highlighted where it says the pearls were set 50 years later. So those were her pearls, but not her setting.

 

[olivia24]

Yeah, the first picture was awful, but the necklace looks much better in closeup (the picture underneath the portrait of Marie Antoinette especially). The jewels are beautiful, but the setting is a bit too gaudy for my tastes.

 

[Caitlin]

It didn't sell. The necklace only got a 340,000 pound offer, far below the 400,000 pound reserve.

 

[knotty panda]

So no one lost their head bidding on it?

 

[Caitlin]

Tee Hee ....

 

[GemGeek]

So no one lost their head bidding on it?

Good one Knotty Panda

 

[Valeria101]

Here goes again...

LINK

 

[laurenb]

I missed this thread before... very interesting. Perhaps the pearls are more charming in person if they are lustrous in a way the camera can't completely convey. And maybe the brown overtones were a good way to downplay similar coloration of teeth?

Seems morbid that pearls belonging to one of the guillotine's most famous victims were incorporated into a necklace that looks a bit like a ruby dotted line.

"AN HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT..."

Did that give anyone else a Henry Higgins moment?

"Hear them down in Soho square,
Dropping "h's" everywhere..."

 

[Sueki]

"Hear them down in Soho square,
Dropping "h's" everywhere..."

"h's" ain't the only thing they drop in Soho square.....

 

[pearl guide]

The necklace does not date to Marie Antoinette. It was made by the caretaker of the pearls. After Marie died, the pearls became the property of the caretaker who made this piece of jewelry for a daughter's wedding or something. It is time to recycle, and reuse the components.