Sotheby's Presents Jewels from the Royal Bourbon Parma Family

  On November 12th, Sotheby’s Geneva proudly presents one of the most important royal jewelry collections ever to come to auction, the Royal Jewels from the Bourbon Parma Family.  

The Bourbon Parma Family

Descendants of King Louis XIV of France, the Holy Roman Emperors, as well as Pope Paul III, the Bourbon Parma family extends back to nearly every important ruling family in Europe. The illustrious lineage includes Kings and Queens of France and Spain, Emperors of Austria, and of course the Dukes of Parma (Italy). In particular, this collection hails from notables such as Queen Marie Antoinette and King Charles X of France.

Queen Marie Antoinette’s Pendant

Pictured above is Lot 100 from the Royal Jewels from the Bourbon Parma Family. The exquisite royal pendant features a slightly baroque natural pearl which measures an astonishing 15.90 x 18.35 x 25.85mm. To put this into perspective, the pearl is nearly the size of the tip of an adult’s thumb. The pearl hangs suspended from a single oval diamond by a diamond-studded bow motif. At one time, Marie Antoinette wore this pendant suspended from her three-string pearl necklace. At that time, the pearl and bow formed the pendant, while the single oval diamond served as the clasp for that same necklace.  

A Royal Provenance

According to Sotheby’s, an account written by Marie Antoinette’s lady-in-waiting describes a night at Tuileries Castle in March 1791. Preparing to flee the country, Marie Antoinette packed her collection of jewels, including all her pearls, in cotton and tucked them safely in a wooden chest. She arranged for the chest to depart for Brussels. A trusted advisor, Count Mercy Argentou, received the chest and sent it on to Vienna to Marie Antoinette’s nephew, the Austrian emperor. As we already know, Marie Antoinette did not make it safely out of France. She, her husband, and her children were taken prisoner instead. The following year, in 1793, Marie Antoinette and her husband, King Louis XVI, were executed by guillotine. Their son died while imprisoned. Their daughter, Marie-Therese remained in captivity in the Temple Tower. The Tower, once a medieval fortress built by the Knights Templar in the 12th century, held Marie-Therese captive for three years. During her captivity, the princess knew about her father's execution, but remained unaware of the fate of the rest of her family. She lived alone in the tower, asking over and over to see her mother. On the wall of her room, she supposedly wrote: “Marie-Thérèse Charlotte is the most unhappy person in the world. She can obtain no news of her mother; nor be reunited to her, though she has asked it a thousand times. Live, my good mother! whom I love well, but of whom I can hear no tidings. O my father! watch over me from Heaven above. O my God! forgive those who have made my parents suffer.”  

Marie-Therese's Liberation

On the eve of her 17th birthday, Marie-Therese was finally liberated, exchanged for six French prisoners. She traveled t to the home of her cousin, the Holy Roman Emperor Francis II, in Vienna. After many years of moving from country to country, and after marrying her cousin Louis-Antoine, and after becoming a widow, she finally settled in Vienna. At some point, she was given the chest of jewels her mother secreted out of France. Upon her death, Marie-Therese bequeathed the jewels to her daughter, Marie Louise. Marie Louise, second wife to Napoleon Bonaparte, kept the jewels safely in her family’s treasury throughout the tumultuous reign of her husband. Finally, after 200 years, the jewels reach the public eye once again, by way of her direct ancestors, the Bourbon Parma family of Italy. The auction begins on November 12, 2018. For more information, visit Sotheby's website.