Marie Antoinette is returning to the small screen in a new show dedicated to her life. Titled Marie Antoinette and starring German actress Emilia Schüle in the leading role, the eight-part series will tell the story of the wife of King Louis XVI. However, this is not the only return of the ill-fated queen to public consciousness: over the course of Paris Classic Week - a Christie's sale devoted to classical arts - the auction house is offering a day dedicated to possessions once owned by the monarch.
Two pieces of furniture once belonging to the Queen of France will be available to purchase, including an ornate chest of drawers and a detailed armchair. Estimated between €800,000 to €1,200,000, the chest of draws is a fine example of the ‘Chinese-style’ lacquer technique, known as Vernis Martin. The piece was delivered to Marie Antoinette at the Château de Compiègne in 1770 together with its twin, now at Versailles. Described as ‘extremely rare’ by the auction house, it is decorated with gold and vermilion lacquered detail and stands on curved feet.
The chair is also a fine example of the period, with its intricate carvings in the Etruscan style. In 1788, Marie Antonette moved to different apartments in the palaces in order to be closer to her children, asking for the space to be modernised to suit her tastes. The chair, ordered by Georges Jacob, was purchased for her restyled bedchamber. The new accommodation was enjoyed by the queen for only four short years before her execution in 1793.
During the French Revolution, royal furniture at Versailles was abandoned and later sold by the National Convention. In 1793 over 17,000 lots were auctioned off, although many of the pieces have found their way back to the palace in modern years.
The sale comes almost exactly a year after two diamond bracelets once belonging to the queen were sold by Christie's. Finally selling for several times the pre-sale estimate, the bracelets were bought for approximately £7 million. A blue velvet box bearing the label ‘bracelets of Queen Marie Antoinette’ held the jewellery, each composed of three strings of diamonds and large clasps, for a total of 112 diamonds.
Before her death by guillotine in 1793, Marie Antoinette sent a letter from prison in Paris to her daughter Marie Therese, saying that a wooden chest of jewellery would be sent for safekeeping. Therese apparently received her mother's jewels, including the bracelets on her arrival in Austria.
