Marie Antoinette’s Jewels on Display at the V&A in London
A highly anticipated run of royal jewelry exhibitions continues, and today we take a closer look at the remarkable pieces featured in Marie Antoinette Style at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London.
Patricia Treble, the Canadian journalist behind Write Royalty, recently visited the V&A to explore both the Cartier show and the newer Marie Antoinette Style installation. This exhibition delves into the stylistic choices Marie Antoinette made in her lifetime and the lasting influence she has exerted on decorative arts across centuries. On display are objects genuinely owned by Marie Antoinette, items that belonged to her contemporaries, and creations inspired by her enduring legacy.
Sarah Grant, the exhibition’s curator, notes that Marie Antoinette’s name conjures images of both opulence and beauty in interior design. The Austrian archduchess, who became Queen of France, left a profound mark on European taste and fashion in her era, crafting a distinctive style that now resonates globally. She adds that the queen’s story has been continually reinterpreted by successive generations to fit their own narratives. The unique blend of glamour, spectacle, and tragedy she embodies remains as compelling today as it was in the eighteenth century.
Patricia kindly shared photographs from her visit, and this piece highlights several jewelry items tied to Marie Antoinette’s legacy — including, famously, the necklace linked to the scandal that contributed to her downfall.
The piece on display at the V&A is not the original Böhmer et Bassange necklace from the infamous Affair of the Necklace. That necklace, commissioned by Louis XIV in 1772, was dismantled and no longer exists. Instead, the exhibition presents a replica created in 1960 by Albert Guerrin and Paulette Laubie, mirroring the design of the real jewel.
Marie Antoinette’s connection to the Affair of the Necklace remains, in popular imagination, substantial, yet she played only a minor role in the scandal. Louis XIV died before the necklace was completed, leaving the jewelers with the bill. They attempted to sell it to Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette, but she refused the offer twice. A scheming courtier later persuaded the jewelers that Marie Antoinette had secretly engaged her to procure the necklace, and the ruse unfolded from there. The necklace was ultimately smuggled out of France and dismantled, with some components likely ending up with aristocrats in London. The broader narrative of the affair bolstered perceptions of Marie Antoinette’s decadence, even though she was not directly involved in the transactions, and the scandal colored public opinion ahead of the monarchy’s fall.
Family lore suggests that some diamonds from the necklace eventually reached the Dukes of Sutherland. A collection necklace there is set with twenty diamonds, some of which are thought to originate from the original Böhmer et Bassange piece.
This jewelry was worn by Harriet, Duchess of Sutherland, as a bandeau-style tiara at Queen Victoria’s coronation, a role she filled as Mistress of the Robes. The diamonds were worn at later coronations and celebrations, and in 2022 the government accepted them in lieu of inheritance tax, allocating the jewels to the V&A.
Another gem said to contain diamonds from the Böhmer et Bassange is a diamond négligé, bearing a similar rows-and-tassels design shared with the original necklace. Draped around the neck, it resembles a ceremonial diamond scarf. For many years this piece belonged to the Marquesses of Anglesey, and it has appeared at several British royal coronations.
In 2024, the Anglesey necklace sold at Sotheby’s in Geneva for about $4.8 million. It was loaned to the V&A for this exhibition by its new owner, who has built a notable private collection under the label “The ILLUMINATA Collection.”
While Marie Antoinette did not participate directly in the Affair of the Necklace, she did own exquisite items, two of which are included in the V&A show: a diamond and pearl drop pendant and a diamond bow brooch, both of which passed from Marie Antoinette to her surviving daughter and then to the Bourbon-Parma relatives.
The classic diamond ribbon brooch dates from the period after Marie Antoinette’s marriage to the future Louis XVI. It was among the jewels spirited out of France before the Revolution and later presented to Madame Royale after her release from imprisonment. After her death in 1851, most of the jewels went to her niece, the Duchess of Parma, and her nephew, the Count of Chambord, members of the extended Bourbon-Parma family. The family held onto the piece for more than a century, and during that time a yellow diamond pendant was added. They sold the brooch in 2018 at Sotheby’s, fetching over $2 million. Today, it resides in a private collection.
The diamond and pearl pendant, another piece worn by Marie Antoinette, also followed a journey: hidden in Belgium during the Revolution, presented to Madame Royale in Vienna, and ultimately bequeathed to the Bourbon-Parmas. Sotheby’s sold the pendant in 2018, and Heidi Horten, a jewelry-collecting billionaire, purchased it for more than $36 million for her museum foundation in Austria. That institution has loaned the pendant to the V&A for this exhibition.
Gratitude goes to Patricia for sharing this intimate glimpse into Marie Antoinette Style. The author has even booked a flight to attend next year’s Elizabeth II fashion exhibition in London, though Marie Antoinette will be missed. For those unfamiliar with Patricia’s work, her Write Royalty Substack newsletter is well worth a read.
For those lucky enough to see the exhibition in person, it runs through March 2026 at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, and tickets are currently available. To explore more behind-the-scenes details about additional pieces on display, don’t miss the earlier piece on the jewels at Hidden Gems.
Would you like to visit Marie Antoinette Style in person, and if so, what piece are you most excited to see — the replica necklace, the diamond and pearl pendant, or the bow brooch with its dramatic history?
