JEWELRY BLOG

Marie Antoinette (1755-1793, reigned 1774-1792), the most fashionable and luxurious woman in France, still has amazing taste in today's eyes. There are also all kinds of inconsistencies around her. Her dramatic life has been responsible for the exploration and interpretation of various aspects of later generations, telling endless stories and inspirations.

Marie Antoinette came from the Austrian Habsburg family. Her mother was the much-loved empress of the Habsburg dynasty at that time, and her father was the king of the Holy Roman Emperor. Born to the fore, her engagement with Louis XVI (reigned 1774-1792) was a standard political marriage. At that time, France and Austria had just ended their long-term hostile relations. As a guarantee of friendship and cooperation between two countries. In 1770, the 14-year-old Marie Antoinette left Vienna for Paris, and went from being a much-loved little princess to a much-anticipated crown princess. However, the attitude towards a foreigner in another country wasn't necessarily friendly. Four years later, she was enthroned with her husband as the new Queen of France.The use of "fashion" as a means of showing one's status and establishing prestige was actually not uncommon in history. Louis XIV's grandfather, the Sun King Louis XIV (reigned 1643-1715), was a good example. He not only consolidated the regime, but also made French fashion famous in Europe, driving the development of related industries in France. Unlike the kings, however, the queens of France before Marie Antoinette, although they also dressed gorgeously, still obeyed the court etiquette. Their fashion had to be fashionable in an appropriate way, and they were not expected to lead the trend. It was the mistresses of the kings that might have led trends occasionally.

Although Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette could not be called an affectionate couple, it was fortunate or unfortunate that Louis XVI had no interest in either having mistresses or interfering with the Queen's passion for fashion. The queen was not used to the red tape of the French court, so she was given Petit Trianon (in the courtyard of the Palace of Versailles) to allow her to enjoy private space. On the one hand, the young and beautiful Marie Antoinette had her own wild ambition for fashion. She embraced the Rococo style at that time, but she did not accept everything. On the other hand, she never had children after marriage and was in urgent need of capital to acquire some rights. As a result, the increasingly exaggerated and complicated ballgowns, the towering and amazingly creative wigs (Pouf), and the luxurious jewels that were extremely glamorous, she seemed to have no limits. She created a Marie-Antoinette Versailles look that is still deeply rooted in people's hearts today. In the well-decorated Petit Trianon, she wore another light dress called chemise a la reine, which was ridiculed for whether she was only wearing a petticoat/underwear, paired with relatively simple hair and jewelry, playing freely with friends, and enjoying the fun of an imaginary garden. What these two disparate images have in common is that, apart from being expensive, they both caused countless infamy for the queen. After the Affair of the Diamond Necklace¹  in 1785, she lived up to the notoriety of Madame Déficit who spent money like water, and a frivolous woman who could do whatever she wanted. Both of these looks were still generating a huge wave of imitators. Marie Antoinette was like fashion itself, attracting a large number of followers.
The extreme fashion also ended quite drastically. There were many complex factors in the outbreak of the French Revolution. The extravagance of Marie Antoine and her costume jewelry is indeed worthy of criticism, but it was by no means the root cause. At the beginning of the revolution, the abolition of the royal family was totally possible to avoid.  Unfortunately, a series of wrong operations by this politically insensitive couple finally allowed everything to spiral out of control. An agitated crowd of haters for the rich stormed the palace and many royal collections were destroyed. The king and queen who failed to escape became prisoners and were sent to the execution platform one after the other. Marie Antoinette's life ended like this. However, during her captivity, she secretly commissioned someone to smuggle a small batch of important jewelry to Austria. Today, we are lucky enough to have a glimpse of Marie Antoinette's excellent jewelry taste through her related portraits and written records. The volume of diamonds is a feature of jewelry in the Marie Antoinette era. Most of them came from Brazil, the largest exporter of diamonds at that time. The abundant supply and the advancement of cutting technology made the diamonds shine even more brilliantly. At that time, people believed that the color of gold would interfere with the purity of the diamond, so they preferred to use silver as its setting. In the 18th century, European aristocrats commonly used beeswax candles for lighting, and these high-quality candles enlivened social activities after the sun went down. Marie Antoinette was also a lover of balls. You can imagine the sparkling bows, flowers, aigrette, and other diamond jewelry on the low-cut off-shoulder dress under the candlelight, the extravagance of dancing with light.

Pearls symbolize purity, love and romance. It may be difficult to imagine in today's developed cultured pearl industry. Natural and wild pearls of precious grade are scarce and difficult to mine due to their scarcity. Since ancient times, it has been a symbol of the noble status of the topmost people in the upper class. Marie Antoinette often wore large drop pearl earrings, brooches, or as part of her hairstyle. It was rare for the shape and luster of these lovely round pearl necklaces to match each other. Nevertheless, it certainly wasn't a problem for Marie Antoinette and her followers. They often wore various styles of pearl necklaces, and also wove them with hair.

There is a saying that the emergence of the bague au firmament was made by jewelers to celebrate the birth of an heir to the French royal family in 1781, 11 years after the marriage between Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette. Whether the rumor was true or not, Mary Anthony often wore bague au firmament after she became a mother, making this beautiful ring popular. The bague au firmament can be described as the most poetic interpretation of the starry sky. The typical bague au firmament has a long geometric shape with rounded corners. The sapphire blue enamel at the bottom is as rich and deep as the midnight sky. The diamonds on top are arranged like stars. The design of the ring symbolizes the wearer's ability to grasp the stars in the sky, possessing power and status.

Marie Antoinette's charm existed not only in the jewelry she once owned, but also in the jewelry she inspired. About half a century after her death, Eugénie de Montijo (reigned 1853-1870), the empress of Napoléon III (1852-1870), revived the Versailles court style of the late 18th century. The taste of Marie Antoinette was once again the model and had a profound effect on La Belle Époque. Today, Marie Antoinette seems to be an eternal muse. Her legend has been rewritten in diverse ways, continuously tugging at the heartstrings of generations of jewelry lovers.