Marie Antoinette Pearls

by Kari
(Muscatine, Iowa)

Marie Antoinette Wearing Pearls

Well, poor Marie Antoinette never got to wear her natural pearls again...but maybe YOU can. They'll be up for auction at Christie's in London on Wednesday, December 12, 2007.

Marie's necklace containing 33 natural pearls, diamonds and rubies is expected to bring 400,000 British Pounds. That's somewhere around a million US dollars.

Apparently, Marie Antoinette gave her pearl necklace to Lady Sutherland, Elizabeth Leveson-Gower, the wife of the British Ambassador in Paris, in hopes it would be returned to her once again after her escape from France.....which, of course, never happened.

Marie Antoinette was executed by guillotine on 16 October, 1793.

I have seen Marie Antoinette's death mask at Madame Tussaud's Wax Museum in London. The museum also claims to have the guillotine used for her execution. It can be seen at Madame Tussaud's which is one of London's most famous attractions.