#marie-antoinette

#marie-antoinette

One of her most famous portraits allegedly shows the queen as a young girl, holding a shuttle used for weaving in one hand and a red thread in the other. Assumed to have been about seven years old, she wears a steely gaze directed at the observer, typical of a powerful queen-to-be. The acclaimed watercolour, painted in 1762 by Genevan painter Jean-Étienne Liotard, appears in biographies of Marie Antoinette all around the world.

Marie Antoinette: the Fragonard cupcake who bankrupted France with her lust for fashion and diamonds, who bottle-fed pet lambs while her people starved. No matter that, in truth, her frocks and jewels were small fry in her country's financial ruin; the optics, as we would say now, were terrible. So what if she never actually said let them eat cake history is no match for a great soundbite. But while opulence hastened Marie Antoinette's downfall, it has also brought her immortality.

The 10.38-carat kite-shaped gemstone, linked to Marie Antoinette's daughter, recently showcased in a JAR-designed ring, is set to attract bids nearing €4.6 million.