![Marie Antoinette’s diamond bracelets anticipated to fetch as much as $4 million at public sale Marie Antoinette’s diamond bracelets anticipated to fetch as much as $4 million at public sale](https://clpnewsblog.com/wp-content/uploads/https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/211104095612-02-marie-antoinette-jewels-auction-super-tease.jpg)
A blue velvet box bearing a label “bracelets of Queen Marie Antoinette” holds the double bracelets, each composed of three strings of diamonds and a large barrette clasp, for a total of 112 diamonds.
The bracelets, now the property of a European royal family, are expected to fetch $2-4 million at the November 9 auction, Christie’s said.
“To find jewels with over 200 years of French royal history is truly something that collectors and passionate jewelry people from all over the world will be keeping an eye on,” said Max Fawcett, head of Christie’s jewelry department in Geneva.
“How much is someone willing to pay for something from the last queen of France? We have seen the results before of things sold by Marie Antoinette, that there really is no limit to how high these can go and I’m expecting fireworks on Tuesday.”
![The bracelets feature three rows of 112 old cut diamonds.](https://dynaimage.cdn.cnn.com/cnn/e_blur:500,q_auto:low,w_50,c_fit/http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.cnn.com%2Fcnnnext%2Fdam%2Fassets%2F211104095610-01-marie-antoinette-jewels-auction.jpg)
The bracelets feature three rows of 112 old cut diamonds. Credit: Fabrice Coffrini/AFP/Getty Images
Marie Antoinette, who sent a letter from prison in the Tuileries in Paris saying that a wooden chest with jewels would be sent for safekeeping, was guillotined in 1793. Her surviving daughter Marie Therese, Madame Royale, received the jewels on her arrival in Austria, the auction house said.
An Art Deco ruby and diamond bangle, ordered by the Duke of Windsor from Cartier, was offered to his American wife on their first anniversary in the south of France by the man who gave up the throne to marry the duchess, Christie’s said.
The pre-sale estimate is 1 million to 2 million Swiss francs ($1.10 million to $2.19 million), it said.
The duchess’s collection of designer jewels was first offered at auction at a sale held along Lake Geneva in 1987, where bids soared, far exceeding pre-sale estimates.
Sotheby’s told Reuters it was looking for deep-pocketed collectors emerging from the coronavirus pandemic.