This is a very unusual and rare octopus necklace, fashioned out of stitched beads to on a fabric backing.
One of the most famous necklaces in history was the “Queens Necklace”. However despite the billing it was fated never to be the property of a Queen.
A Queens Ransom ?
Commissioned by Louis XV for his mistress Madame du Barry, making the necklace placed the jewellers, Boehmer and Bassenge in considerable debt.
Before the necklace it was completed, Louis XV died from natural causes. So poor Jeanne never received her gift. (Ultimately all she got was a pain in the neck along with many other ‘aristos’.)
When complete, the Queen’s Necklace contained no less than 647 diamonds and weighed 2,840 carats. The jewellers were keen to sell the necklace that they valued at 1.7 million livres, enough “to buy 4 chateaux in the Ile de France”. Marie-Antoinette was Queen to Louis XVI of France and the daughter of Empress Maria Teresea of Austria. However, even she, with something of a reputation for profligacy, turned it down on grounds of cost.
The Con is On
Into the story then came a con artist, “Countess” de la Motte and Cardinal Rohan the Bishop of Strasbourg. (Is this the original actress and the bishop story ?). Rohan had been Ambassador to Austria and had upset Maria Therese, the Empress of Austria (also Marie Aintoinette’s mum). So when he returned to Paris, he was out of favour at court. Then he met the “Countess” who offered him the opportunity to regain influence. The “Countess”, persuading Rohan that she was the Queen’s friend, arranged a meeting .
In a night time assignation Rohan spoke to a lady whom he believed to be the Queen who agreed a price. So Rohan, believing he was acting for the Queen, brokered a deal with the Jewellers for the Necklace. With the assurance of “the Queen” the jewellers handed over the necklace to the “Countess” who promptly disappeared along with the jewels. The affair only came to light when the Jewellers had to ask the Queen for the promised payment. Rohan was arrested and jailed but was eventually cleared.
It is thought that the necklace taken to London where it was broken up and the whereabouts of the individual diamonds remains a mystery. Marie-Antoinette lost her head to the guillotine 1793. Although innocent in this instance, the perceived excesses of the French Aristocracy and Monarchy caught up with them.
In 2001, the movie “The Affair of the Necklace”, starring Hilary Swank and Jonathan Price dramatised the story. Sadly, despite being a great and true story, the film attracted a number of ‘golden raspberries’.
A Literary Theft
Is Arsène Lupin the same character as the “gentleman burglar” A J Raffles ? Lupin is the French character invented in the early 20th Century by Maurice Leblanc while Raffles was created by E W Hornung in the late 19th. Leblanc wrote a story entitled “The Queen’s Necklace” in 1905 about the theft of the ‘recovered’ necklace from the Louvre Museum in Paris. Lupin became a prolific character in French literature, comic books, film, TV and stage. More like, maybe, a French Sherlock Holmes. Indeed on several occasions Holmes and Lupin lock horns.
A contemporary theft
Rolling forward to 2021, Netflix have produced a series called Lupin, in which Omar Sy, the eponymous hero, steals the Queen’s Necklace from the Louvre. No golden raspberries here and I’d recommend this series to anyone. Omar Sy is also the star of (and won a Cesar for) Untouchable – another brilliant French film. It is a bit of a dark comedy in the way that only the French can do but quite excellent and uplifting.
As well as this octopus necklace, see the range of exclusive necklaces available from Abrahams Store, here.
See the range of horn necklaces available from Abrahams Store, here.
