REPLICATION OF THE FAMEUX COLLIER DIT "DE LA REINE", late 19th-early 20th CENTURY Based on the model created by the jewellers Böhmer and Bassenge for Queen Marie-Antoinette Silver alloy and metal, set with imitation stones on paillon, mounted "en esclavage", consisting of a river underlined by three festoons embellished with large pears and a long garland centred on a floral motif, ending with round and pear-shaped stone pendants held by knotted ribbons, in a Louis XV period carved and gilded wood frame. Dimensions (with frame): 70 x 54 cm (27 ½ x 21 ¼ in.) Provenance: Former collection of Lucien Baszanger (1890-1971), jeweller in Geneva ; His son, André Baszanger (1915-2004), jeweller in Geneva; Then by descent to the current owner; Swiss private collection. Bibliography: C. Pascal, La Reine du Labyrinthe ou la vérité sur l'affaire du collier, Robert Laffont, 2024. Exhibitions: Shooting of the film The Affair of the Queen's Necklace, 1946; Shooting of the film Marie-Antoinette, Reine de France, 1955; Château de Versailles, Marie-Antoinette, archduchess, dauphine and queen, 16 May-2 November 1955; Banque Lambers, Brussels, Women at the time of the French Revolution (Vrouwen in de Franse Revolutie), 31 March-15 May 1989; Fine Arts - La Biennale de Paris, Grand Palais Ephémère, 22 November-26 November 2023. A late 19th-20th century version of the famous "Queen's necklace", after the model created by jewelers Böhmer and Bassenge for Queen Marie-Antoinette, within a Louis XV carved giltwood frame. THE QUEEN'S NECKLACE, A DAZZLING AFFAIR The theft of the so-called Queen's Necklace and the resounding trial that followed marked the twilight of the Ancien Régime in France. Our copy is certainly the most spectacular reminder of this affair, in which passions and facts were so intertwined as to render it almost incomprehensible. Louis XV commissioned the crown jewellers Böhmer and Bassenge (a Frenchisation of the Saxon surname Baszanger) to make a fabulous front of dress for his favourite, the Countess du Barry. The two partners set out According to a 1960 estimate by Linz Brothers, they collected six hundred and forty-seven diamonds weighing a total of two thousand eight hundred and forty-two carats. On the death of the old king, the necklace was offered to his successor. Louis XVI thought of offering it to Marie-Antoinette, kept the jewel case for a few weeks and even had it appraised by Maillard and d'Oigny, who judged the asking price of nearly two million pounds to be too high. France's entry into the American War of Independence ruined the jewellers' last hopes. Financially strapped, they borrowed huge sums from the banker Baudard de Saint-James and tried desperately to sell the necklace to a foreign royal court before the end of their due dates in February 1785. It was at this critical moment that they crossed paths with a high-flying adventuress, Jeanne de La Motte Valois, an authentic descendant of King Henri II and occasional mistress of Cardinal de Rohan. Dazzled by her name and her supposed relationship with the Queen, the two men went to see her on rue Saint-Gilles in the Marais on Tuesday 28 December 1784, to present her with the necklace and beg her to intervene on their behalf with Marie-Antoinette. Jeanne adopted a distant attitude, but immediately hatched a Machiavellian plan. For several months, she had been extorting large sums of money from Rohan, making him believe, through false correspondence, that these requests for money came directly from the Queen. She used the same ploy to persuade him to buy the necklace on Marie-Antoinette's behalf. Convinced that he could return to favour, Rohan negotiated and even obtained a substantial discount from the two jewellers. On 30 January 1785, believing that he had met the Queen in a grove when in fact the role was played by a prostitute from the Palais Royal, he signed a formal contract and took possession of the necklace. Two days later, the Cardinal himself handed the fabulous jewel case to a man he believed to be the Queen's valet, none other than Retaut de Villette, Jeanne's lover. Throughout the night, the accomplices cut up the necklace in The diamonds were then sold in London over the following weeks. Rohan waited in vain for the Queen to wear her necklace and for the promised sums to be paid. For her part, Marie-Antoinette, informed through several channels of the role played by the Cardinal, whom she detested, kept silent for many months until the day on 12 July 1785 when the jewellers, exhausted by Rohan's procrastination, came to ask her to be paid. Marie-Antoinette finally decided to tell her husband about the affair. On 15 August 1785, Rohan was summoned by Louis XVI before being publicly arrested in the middle of the Hall of Mirrors. The scandal was resounding, a public trial was opened, Jeanne de Valois was condemned, Rohan acquitted and the Queen splashed by the judgement that was supposed to exonerate her. In Paris, the People triumphantly escorted the Cardinal home and scorned the sovereign... The Revolution completed the ruin of the Böhmer and Bassenge families, who left France. THE OLDEST AND MOST FAITHFUL REPLICA KNOWN There are three reproductions of this famous necklace in the world, and ours is the oldest and most faithful to the annotated engraving held by the Bibliothèque Nationale de France and reproduced here. The fact that the necklace has always been in the hands of the Baszanger family, descendants of the jeweller Bassange, adds to its rarity. Our necklace was used in several film shoots in the 1940s and 1950s, and lent to the Château de Versailles for the Marie-Antoinette, archduchess, dauphine and queen exhibition in 1955. The version now in the Château de Versailles collections is a later version, having been made by the jeweller Albert Guerrin of Maison Burma in Paris, under the direction of Paulette Laubie, in 1960-1963. The third model, kept at the Château de Breteuil, dates from the 1980s. The jewellery experts consulted present it as dating from the late nineteenth/early twentieth century. However, we feel it is relevant to raise the plausible and attractive hypothesis that this necklace could just as easily have been designed by the descendants of the Queen's jeweller on the basis of one or more of the demonstration models sent in 1784 by Böhmer and Bassenge to various European courts in the hope of finally selling their necklace. We would like to thank Camille Pascal for her help in writing this note. *Information for buyers: Lot from outside the EU: The hammer price is exclusive of VAT. VAT at the reduced rate of 5.5% applies to the hammer price. This VAT is recoverable for French professionals. It is reimbursable for a buyer from outside the EU on presentation of proof of export from the EU or for a professional bidder providing proof of an intra-Community VAT number and a document proving delivery in the Member State. *Information to the buyers : Lot from outside the EU : The hammer price and premium will be VAT excluded. 5.5% VAT will be added to the hammer price and premium. Upon request, this VAT can be refunded to the purchaser on presentation of written proof of exportation outside EU, or to the EU purchaser who will submit his intracommunity VAT number and a proof of shipment to an EU country.