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Marie Antoinette's Pearls To Hit Auction Block
The royal jewels are expected to go for more than $700,000. The necklace is made of rubies, diamonds and 21 natural gray pearls that date to the 1780s
The pearls are suspended from a diamond collet along a ruby collar.
The Queen of France was executed for treason during the French Revolution in 1793.
The pearls passed to Lady Elizabeth Sutherland, Duchess of Sutherland, and the necklace was made in 1849, according to Christie's Web site.
The pearls, now part of a necklace that also contains rubies and diamonds, are expected to fetch up to $800,000 when they are sold in December.
The pearls were reportedly given to Elizabeth Leveson-Gower, wife of the British ambassador to France during the French Revolution, and were intended to help the queen if she managed to flee the country, said Raymond Sancroft-Baker, senior director of Christie's Jewellery in London.
''She thought, as one would, that she was going to get out of it,'' he said. Instead, Marie Antoinette died by the guillotine in 1793.
There is nothing in writing to verify the pearls owned by the Countess of Sutherland had belonged to the French queen, but circumstantial evidence indicates the story is true, Sancroft-Baker said.
''They were friends, they had children of the same age, and Lady Sutherland supplied various things to her when she was imprisoned,'' Sancroft-Baker said. ''Logically she couldn't give them to just anybody. A foreign diplomat with diplomatic immunity was the one person who wouldn't be searched.''
Lady Sutherland is also believed to have aided the Austrian-born queen, her husband King Louis XVI, and their family in a failed attempt to flee France in 1791.
Jewels of the sea are back in fashion
After a difficult period , the pearl industry has been back on the road to recovery for the last two years.
THIS IMPROVEMENT in the pearl market has continued throughout this year.
This was the conclusion reached by the latest market report Pearl Update
2007 from the Swiss pearl specialists Golay. Fashion is placing pearl
jewellery back at the heart of things. These jewels of the sea are once
again in demand. Most pearl dealers reported good sales both this year
and last year. Sales at the large industry trade fairs have also
indicated a positive trend. After several years of running down stocks,
most large-scale dealers are now increasing their stocks again thanks to
stable prices and increasing turnover.
The rising price of pearls
Following the low of 2004, prices began to increase again in the last
quarter of that year, a trend which continued during 2005 and was
reinforced further last year. During the first quarter of 2007, prices
were at the same level as 2006 with no sign of a slump. The most
important auctions of South Sea and Tahitian cultured pearls revealed a
price increase of 10 to 40 percent from 2005 to 2006. This upswing
affected commercial quality pearls in particular.
In 2006, the price of Akoya cultured pearls – especially choice quality
pearls – increased by 5 to 10 percent at auctions for hamaage (raw
pearls) in Japan.Akoya pearls of medium to good quality and of 9 mm size
and above sold for higher prices than in previous years. Chinese
freshwater cultured pearls also revealed a more positive picture after
years of drastic price decreases and fluctuations. In the case of the
lower qualities, the lowest point was overcome, whereas the higher
qualities revealed a stable upwards trend. Certain freshwater pearls in
particular recorded a significant increase in price, such as top-quality
round and almost completely round pearls of all sizes, beautiful baroque
pearls of 8 mm diameter and above and beautiful quality pearls of more
than 10 mm, in all shapes. Overall, Golay predicts that prices will
continue to be stable. While the wide selection of low quality Chinese
freshwater cultured pearls and small South Sea cultured pearls continues
to put pressure on prices, the cost of high-quality and large pearls go
up… full
article PDF
Axel Henselder
http://www.gz-journal.de/welcome.cfm?template=woworldonee.cfm
Snorkeler finds rare Whelk Pearl
A Warren man snorkeling for whelk at the Bristol Narrows recently came back with more than he bargained for -- a pearl that could net him thousands of dollars.
Charles Flowers, 44, a flooring contractor by trade, was at the Narrows with a friend in late September when he decided to put on his snorkel, mask and fins and search for whelk near the channel. Whelk, often called conch, are common in area waters but are harvested not for pearls, but for their meat.
"I just wanted some dinner," he said. "I figured I would have a little conch salad."