A travel trunk from the suite of Queen Marie-Antoinette and a large towel that served her during the coronation of 1775 were auctioned off on Sunday for high amounts and well above their estimate, during a sale organized by the house. Osenat in Versailles.
During this sale which bore the name of "Royauté à Versailles", "we witnessed great auction battles in the room, on the phone and on the internet" between international collectors, the house said in a press release.
Read also: Memories of Marie-Antoinette at all costs
The Austrian beheaded under the Terror with her husband Louis XVI continues to arouse interest and fascination as shown by books, broadcasts, exhibitions ... and auctions.
The trunk of the suite of the Queen of France, with inscriptions on the cover in small brass nails "Queen's bedroom n ° 10", left for 43,750 euros on an estimate of 8 to 10,000 euros. It is lined with leather, with a rounded cover, reinforced and clad with studded wrought iron bands.
Precious testimony of the coronation of Louis XVI, a large rectangular napkin by Marie-Antoinette, damask, decorated with fleur-de-lis in leafy crowns around the edge and a bouquet of roses in the center, was sold for 14,500 euros (against a estimate of 2,000 to 3,000 euros).
4,000 euros is the price at which a rock crystal medallion in the shape of a heart encircled in gold and containing the king's hair was also awarded.
Read also: The last days of a queen
The royal couple will keep very good memories of the coronation ceremony and the consecutive festivities. Marie-Antoinette wrote to her mother in Vienna: "It is an amazing thing and very happy at the same time to be so well received two months after the revolt, and despite the high cost of bread, which unfortunately continues" ...
/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/prisa/KMEYMJKESBAZBE4MRBAM4TGHIQ.jpg)
