19-05-2025
The lock of white hair 'cut from Marie Antoinette' hours before the French queen's execution
At its most extravagant, Marie Antoinette's hair-do was four feet high and boasted a replica of the French warship La Bella Poule, complete with masts and sails.
And, according to legend, the French queen's luscious locks turned white from stress the night before her execution in 1793.
Now, a piece of jewellery containing what is said to be some of the tragic royal's hair that was cut off before she was put to death has sold at auction for €7,500 (£6,313) in Paris - and the strands are white.
The lock is tied with a ribbon and black thread and is curled under glass inside a decorated brass medallion.
On the back, a handwritten note by a mystery author reads: 'The hair of Marie-Antoinette, Queen of France, was given to me by a Commune [revolutionary government] prosecutor in charge of inspections of the Temple prison at the time when this unfortunate woman was detained there.'
The object sold to an anonymous buyer via Osenat auction house at Versailles outside the French capital.
Auctioneer Jean-Pierre Osenat, told The Times: 'At the time, it was a tradition to give a lock of hair when you wanted to present a gift.
'It was considered to be a proof of love or friendship.'
Marie Antoinette's prayer book went unsold at the same auction after its reserve price of €80,000 (£67,389) was not achieved.
Marie Antoinette, the daughter of Holy Roman Emperor Francis I, married Louis XVI in 1774, when she was 14 and the royal just 15.
It was said that her smile had an 'enchantment' that could win over 'the most brutal of her enemies'.
Her jewellery collection was by far the biggest of any French queen and rivalled only by Empress Josephine, the wife of Napoleon Bonaparte.
By the end of 1776, Marie Antoinette had a dress allowance of 150,000 livres, at a time when the price of an an average house in a French town was 200 livres.
As she gambled, partied and lavished money on whatever took her fancy, she racked up bills of nearly 500,000 livres.
Versailles was the centre of fashion at its peak of eccentricity. Wigs were packed with powder and adorned with ribbons, feathers, flowers, fruit and even stuffed birds.
Marie Antoinette's biggest passion was her jewels.
Louis raided the French crown jewels to allow his queen to indulge her love of rubies, and she was also a particular fan of pearls.
But Marie Antoinette never said the words that are most famously associated with her: 'Let them eat cake'.
The words were allegedly a dismissal of the suffering of the French people.
Her popularity took a further hit in the saga that became known as the Affair of the Diamond Necklace.
In 1791, two years after the French Revolution had begun, Marie Antoinette and her husband were captured as they tried to flee Paris.
Nine months after her husband's execution, Marie Antoinette was tried and found guilty on exaggerated charges that included high treason, promiscuity and incest with her son.
On October 16, 1793, her head was cut off and presented to the cheering crowd.
