Off with her diamonds! A revolutionary jewel reappears
This month's iteration of Christie's Magnificent Jewels auction is really living up to its name. One of the star lots is a 10.38-carat, kite-shaped pink diamond once owned by the daughter of Marie Antoinette (and, quite possibly by the legendary, ill-fated French queen herself). It has been reimagined by one of the most exclusive — and elusive — contemporary jewellers, JAR, into a ring made from blackened platinum, entirely studded with round diamonds and topped with a regal fleur-de-lis composed of 17 diamonds. Auctioned in Geneva in 1996 by a seller known only as a member of a European royal family, the jewel has spent the subsequent decades hidden from public view. Until now.
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Marie Antoinette, the last queen of France before the Revolution that would cost her her head, and the wife of Louis XVI, is known to posterity for her extravagance and love of the finer things in life. One such passion was jewels. The young queen had an exceptional eye and good taste, often commissioning her own, new items. As well as a personal indulgence, Marie Antoinette's jewels signposted her status and taste to the world. In 1791, as revolutionary forces closed in, Marie Antoinette, her husband the king, and their children fled Paris in disguise, hoping to reach loyalist troops. Escaping under cover of night, their elaborate carriage moved slowly, delayed by poor planning and curious townsfolk.
Recognised by a postmaster in Sainte-Menehould, their identities were confirmed in Varennes. The town mobilised to block their path, cutting down a bridge and detaining them. The royal family's failed escape shattered remaining illusions of monarchy, deepening France's revolutionary crisis. Brought back to Paris under guard, their credibility was irreparably damaged, accelerating the move toward republicanism and the king's eventual execution.
One of the three children with them on that fateful flight was Marie-Thérèse, the Madame Royale, their eldest child and the only one of the family to survive the fall of the monarchy. She was entrusted with Marie Antoinette's remaining jewels. Whether the pink diamond was among them is a matter of some debate — and there is no concrete evidence to support the theory. What is known is that Marie-Thérèse passed them down to Duchess Marie-Thérèse de Chambord. From there, they remained in the family. The pink diamond makes its first appearance in a will, noting it is owned by Queen Maria Theresa of Bavaria (1849-1919), the last queen of Bavaria, as 'a pink solitaire diamond from Aunt Chambord'.
The diamond remained in the family for generations, until that unnamed European royal sold it in 1996. The identity of the 1996 buyer is just as mysterious as the seller — but we know that they asked the ultra-exclusive, private-commission-only jeweller JAR (Joel Arthur Rosenthal), who was one of Elizabeth Taylor's favourites, to create a ring that's part rock and roll, part regal elegance.
'It has everything you could want in a piece of jewellery,' says Rahul Kadakia, the head of jewellery at Christie's International. 'The stone — likely from the prized Indian region of Golconda — has several shades of soft colours, flashing purple and pink from different angles. And it's been transformed into a masterpiece by JAR, all while carrying the splendour of royal provenance.'
If, for some reason, the pink diamond isn't your thing, the auction has several other mouthwatering lots, including the Blue Belle necklace that features one of the rarest sapphires in the world, a 392.52-carat stone, set amid a profusion of oval-shaped diamonds, or a Mughal carved emerald necklace that is associated with Nader Shah (1739), the founder of the Afsharid dynasty of Iran who acquired the Koh-i-Noor diamond in 1739.
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